Pep Guardiola opens up on his concern over Man City squad

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted the size of his squad could cause him issues this season.

Both Rodri and John Stones were unavailable for selection due to injury as City faced Manchester United. The former's injury came in the final training session before the derby.

The injuries to the two City men see them join Kalvin Phillips on the sidelines, while Aymeric Laporte is only just back from his spell in the treatment room. Speaking ahead of the Manchester derby kick-off, Guardiola explained why a smaller squad can be an issue.

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"Both are injured, Rodri in the training session felt something a little bit more than a niggle in his leg and we couldn’t take a risk with this tough, tough, tough schedule," Guardiola explained to Sky Sports when asked about the Spaniard and Stones' absences. "Kalvin is injured as well but one of the successes the biggest clubs have in their history is the fact that the excuses don’t exist.

"No one is second in the locker room, we have [Ilkay] Gundogan and if Gundo doesn’t play we have another one. It’s really good [this squad] but it was in the past, when we have David [Silva], Leroy [Sane], Raheem [Sterling], Gabby [Jesus].

"We don’t have much depth, we don’t have 25, I don’t like to work with a big squad because the locker room is impossible to control. When you have five, six, seven injured you’re in trouble but try to win."

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