Pep Guardiola revealed he has earmarked two more players to tale on the centre back role for Manchester City .
The Blues boss praised Fernandinho for his performance as he helped them to a 3-0 Champions League win at Shakhtar Donetsk.
And he said that Nicolas Otamendi had shown great character to bounce back from his nightmarish error at Norwich which cost the three Premier League points on Saturday.
Fernandinho was asked to step in after John Stones suffered a thigh injury in training at the Metalist Stadium on Tuesday morning.
With Aymeric Laporte recovering from surgery, that blow left City with just one fit centre back, Otamendi.
Guardiola had talked about Brazil midfielder Fernandinho in the same breath as Barcelona star Javier Mascherano, who made a successful transition to central defence.
And he gave a positive verdict to Fernandinho’s display: “I didn’t have doubts he could do it. He’s going to do it - Nico is 31, Ferna is 34, and next alternative is 18, and for three or four months I don’t know what will happen. Both were incredible tonight.
“Nico showed incredible personality after what happened in the previous game.”
But the age of the two centre backs is a problem – and Guardiola came up with two new names to help solve it.
“We need another solution,” he said. “Rodri or Kyle Walker maybe because they cannot play every game at their age. Ferna can play in any position and that’s why he’s so important for us.”
