Manchester City travel to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup, with Pep Guardiola set to rest a number of players at St James’ Park.
Kalvin Phillips will start for Manchester City against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup, while Mateo Kovacic is back from injury and will play some part.
City have a number of ongoing injury concerns, and Guardiola said he would have to rest some regulars for the Carabao Cup third-round tie in order to help them recover.
Previewing the game, Guardiola confirmed that Phillips would start at St James’ Park with Rodri suspended, while Ederson is likely to sit out as he usually does in the domestic cup competitions in place of Stefan Ortega.
Guardiola also confirmed that Mateo Kovacic is back from injury, while Jack Grealish is also set to feature after returning from the bench against Nottingham Forest at the weekend.
“He [Kalvin] will start,” remarked Guardiola. “Jack is much better, Mateo as well; I’m not sure how many minutes they’ll play, maybe the second half, but they’ll play.”
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“We don’t think about much; we only think about what’s next, which is Newcastle.” Now is an uncommon circumstance; several players are injured, and many have played a large number of minutes and must rest.
“Tomorrow is important, but so are Arsenal and Leipzig.” I have to consider the effort in this period as well as the injuries, or we’ll be in big danger.”
Guardiola expressed satisfaction with Phillips’ performances for City thus far, despite the fact that minutes have been harder to come by in the last year.
“Not just this week for many, many times since he arrived, he’s been really important,” he stated.
“His consistency, he does everything in the game against Nottingham, it was more defensive, resilient, defend, and he helped us breathe.” The main thing is that when you act in smaller settings, we strive to assist him. The game tomorrow is crucial, and I’ll make the greatest decision for the team in every game.”