Pep Guardiola insists he is not thinking about Manchester City's upcoming Champions League last-16 first leg against Borussia Monchengladbach, but will rotate his players regardless in the fixtures before it.
City face Everton tomorrow before a weekend trip to Arsenal. After that is the trip to Hungary for the Monchengladbach away leg which has been moved from Germany due to Covid travel restrictions.
With City possessing a seven point lead at the top of the Premier League, it was put to Guardiola that he might rest key players in the next week in order to name the strongest team against Monchengladbach.
However, the manager said he is yet to even think about the Champions League fixture and will continue the one-game-at-a-time mantra that has seen the Blues go 23 games unbeaten.
Nevertheless, Guardiola said he will try and give as many of his players some game time against Everton and Arsenal to keep competition high within the squad.
"No-one has thought about Borussia Monchengladbach," he said.
"I know we are going to face them, but what we have done so far is about thinking the next one. That's Everton. We are not able to think about Arsenal then after Arsenal, in London we have three days we are going to think about Monchengladbach. Not one thought, honestly. Everton is the important one.
"You know I try to involve all the players, I rotate a lot of the players to keep everyone involved and fit for all the competitions and all the games. For a long time we've had every three or four days, so we need everyone.
"In the next two games I'll try to play as many players as possible, not because of Monchengladbach, just for the fact because I love to let them play as much as possible and it will not be an exception the next two games."
Guardiola was also asked about his defensive positions, with seven players competing for three or four players in any given fixture. City have conceded just five goals in their last 16 games, and the manager made a point of praising each of his defenders for their role in that streak.
He explained: "Always I have headaches to choose the best XI. At the end it's not just about the back four, everybody's involved but we can't deny the back four.
"Last two games Aymer [Laporte] was brilliant, especially John [Stones] and Ruben [Dias] were outstanding. Joao [Cancelo] and [Benjamin] Mendy in the cup and Aleks [Zinchenko] and Kyle [Walker]. Everybody's doing well, hopefully we can continue this way. Our secret is to be consistent in behind, good game plans, attack as much as possible to win the games."
