Pep Guardiola has said he will select 10 new players to face Al Ain in Manchester City’s second Club World Cup group game on Sunday night, though Rodri and John Stones are not yet ready to start because of respective injury problems.
City face Al Ain at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium at 9pm local time (2am BST) having beaten Wydad 2-0 in their opening Group G match. While goals from Phil Foden and Jérémy Doku beat the Moroccan team, Guardiola revealed only one player from the victory will be in Sunday’s XI.
“In the next match 10 new players will be lined up to try and win,” said Guardiola, who confirmed that neither Rodri nor Stones will be in the lineup. Rodri suffered a serious knee injury against Arsenal in September that has meant only 37 minutes’ game-time since, with the No 6 playing half an hour of this against Wydad.
Guardiola said Rodri could not start, adding: “He’s getting better. We’re not going to forget that it’s almost nine months since the sad day it happened. He has been out for a long time. He’s getting better. He can play 20 minutes, 30 minutes at a time. He wants to play to help but we want to protect his knee. He wants to help. Hopefully one day soon, he can play from the beginning.”
Stones is fit again after a latest injury-plagued season that limited the defender to only 13 starts in all competitions, in a total of 1,134 minutes. Guardiola said: “The only thing we want from John is to be fit – to do his lovely job, playing football, consistently, and in a different way to especially last season. It’s the only thing we want. The rest, his talent and ability will do it and we’re going to help him and I’m pretty sure he’s going to do the rest.
“There is no [player] who wants it more – for the fact that it makes him happy. Because with John, we have been together for almost one decade – since I arrived, he arrived. The many good things and the sad things we lived together, we share. He’s a sensitive person. He’s an incredible human being. And I see him suffer because he cannot be working for ages and ages and ages. But the important thing now is at training he feels better. But again with the game, it’s another issue, another rhythm.”
Guardiola also hinted that Ilkay Gündogan, who is a target for Galatasaray, could leave. “I don’t know anything, I didn’t speak with him, and if he will not be part of our squad he would not be here,” said the 54-year-old. “But at the same time, we have a long squad, too many players, so we cannot go with 26, 27 players this season because there would be more without playing. But right now, Ilkay is absolutely part of my mind and the team.”
