There is also a development with the return of Rodri, who missed the recent matches due to the red card he received against Nottingham Forest.
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Manchester City supporters will be keen to see a response from their side following their recent losses in domestic football. First, they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Newcastle United before losing the Premier League contest to Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend. Hence, City will be looking for a positive result from RB Leipzig in the Champions League away fixture. However, it will not be easy against the German side.
RB Leipzig are capable of providing a tough fight for any side on a given day. Not to mention that Manchester City have injury concerns to deal with ahead of this Champions League encounter. However, Pep Guardiola has given positive updates on two of their key players, Bernardo Silva and John Stones. “They feel better, Bernardo better than John,” Pep Guardiola, quoted by the club’s website, said ahead of the match.
He added: “Both travel and we are going to decide tomorrow. Really happy that they’re back. John couldn’t play one minute this season and Bernardo had a pre-season with the birth of his beautiful daughter and also was injured a little bit, with disruptions, which made it a little bit longer. But they’re back which is good news for us.”
There is also another positive development with the return of Rodri, who missed the recent matches due to the red card he received against Nottingham Forest. “Always with negative things you have to take the positives. Tomorrow Rodri is going to play the game and then I give him a rest, he will go to Madrid for four or five days before the national team in the international break,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Guardiola is happy with how the team has performed this season despite their recent losses. “I don’t know what will happen this season. It’s too early to know exactly but I have more than admiration about these players and what they’ve done in the past and so far. It’s unbelievable. (At Wolves) We concede two shots on target, we concede one goal and after that, we have 23 shots, they have ten in the box and we lost. That part of football. Of course, we have to improve,” he stated.
Speaking about the new additions, Guardiola said, “Sometimes you have to adjust something, it’s normal but Mateo (Kovacic) for example, and Julian (Alvarez) have both been amazing. I couldn’t expect Mateo to adapt so fast, Jeremy (Doku) too… There are moments and things where they know exactly what we have to do, for one simple reason – we have had eight years together. They know it. When I breathe, they know what to do but the others don’t yet. They are playing really well but they don’t know it. They have to play games and be in that position. It’s completely normal. Still, we’re in the process of getting better and getting results.”
Guardiola also feels that the Premier League will not be won or lost at this moment. “The Newcastle game we lost it hurt yeah, Wolves yeah it hurt, the Premier League is so tough, but we have to move forward prepare the game like RB Leipzig then go away in London against Arsenal. We won’t win or lose the Premier League against Wolves we’ve been in the position to be behind the lead many times,” he said.
“Maybe the 100 points season we lead from the start but the others always we were behind – six, seven, eight points. And not in October, it was February or March. Come back our players, come back our principles try to do better, learn from the game. I’m more than pleased with what we have done so far but we have to move on.”
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