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pep guardiola He admitted making a mistake when a massive overhaul of his Manchester City team backfired bayer leverkusen last month, but because he was looking forward to January’s “weird” schedule, he found a better balance for Wednesday’s 2-0. Carabao Cup Win over Brentford.
Agreed, the challenge of playing against A BEES My own side showing six changes from the weekend was very different from one Champions League match, but Guardiola was impressed by the energy shown by those who were given chances and those who came off the bench.
Nico Gonzalez, Nico O’Reilly, Tijjani Rijnders and Ryan Cherky were the only survivors of Sunday’s 3-0 win at Crystal Palace, giving the likes of Oscar Bob and Savinho the chance to push for more game time – although in Bob’s case the night ended prematurely with a hamstring injury.
City took a while to settle, but were the far more dangerous team, taking the lead through Cherky’s superb strike in the 32nd minute, before Savinho’s deflected effort doubled the lead and effectively settled it midway through the second half.
“We replaced Rico (Lewis), (Abdukodir) Khusanov, Nathan (Ake), Devine (Mukasa), these players who didn’t play much have done really well recently,” Guardiola said.
“We have a good result, we fought in the first 10-15 minutes to win the game but then two actions came from behind Savinho and Oscar. I’m really happy with the impact of the guys coming off the bench.
“In the second half, Ryan Cherky didn’t do the job he had to do defensively, he didn’t have the energy to do it, not even Savinho, that’s why we needed the influence of Josco (Guardiol), Matheus (Nunes) and Bernardo (Silva), which helped us a lot to pick up the pace.”
In the build-up to this game, Guardiola had made it clear that he would make changes to Saturday’s Premier League match against West Ham as the schedule took priority, meaning City could, at least temporarily, go top with a win and put the pressure on Arsenal.
The win over Brentford puts City through to a two-legged semi-final against Newcastle and means Guardiola’s side face nine fixtures in January alone, highlighting the importance of squad depth in a season where the Catalans have made relatively few changes to their starting XI in the league.
“We have played a lot of games and Ruben (Dias) and the others have to be ready,” Guardiola said. “After (West Ham) we have seven days before Nottingham (Forest), then five days up to Sunderland and then a crazy schedule.
“Everyone has to get involved. The guys who stay on the bench have to get involved and he has proved it. Mattheus was so involved, Bernardo is always there, when Josco (Guardiol) came he was incredibly committed.”