'He has to play' - Guardiola leans on Stones for City's crunch
EARLY BATH: Manchester City's Abduqodir Khusanov (right) is hugged by manager Pepe Guardiola after being substituted during the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium. Pic: Martin Rickett, PA Wire .
THE Abdukodir Khusanov experiment having been consigned to the history books, in more ways than one, Pep Guardiola is leaning on a far more familiar face as he prepares for Wednesday’s suddenly-crucial final Champions League group game against Club Brugge.
A match that, a few weeks ago, appeared destined to be a formality, with City, presumably, having long since qualified, now has a desperate air about it, with the 2023 Champions League winners in danger of being eliminated.
To that end, Guardiola is applying subtle pressure on John Stones to be available, with a long list of defensive injuries and new signing Khusanov not eligible for the group stages.
Whether Guardiola would, or should, have selected the 20-year-old £33.6 million signing from Lens for that vital clash is debatable, in any case, based on his tempestuous first game in English football.
Khusanov became the first player from Uzbekistan to play in the Primer League, after just one training session in Manchester, and almost created another piece of history, with an opening to his English career that looked destined to rank among the worst ever.
After two minutes, the youngster’s terrible header gifted Noni Madueke the opening goal and, two minutes further on, he was cautioned for a foul on Cole Palmer. Few would have been surprised if Guardiola had substituted him after four minutes, instead of on 54 as he eventually did.
Now Stones, who has been dogged by injury problems for the past two seasons and more, is desperately needed for the Brugge game, with Guardiola still without the injured Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias, and with Kyle Walker having left for AC Milan.
“Absolutely. The problems continue,” said Guardiola. “Khusanov shouldn’t have played, it should take time to do it. It’s not easy, Chelsea in the Premier League and he’s come from another country, not communicating much with his teammates and arrived with no training sessions on what we want to do or the process we have.
“Imagine all of us living what happened to Khusanov? It would be, ‘Oh, God.’ But the situation is that Ruben and Nathan are not there and we’re lucky that Manu (Akanji) stayed. John can help us for our ‘final’ on Wednesday.
“Listen, he has to play – unless he says to me that he promises he cannot play. And after that, Josko (Gvardiol) will be central defender and I will invent and think of who plays full back.
“It’s massively important our game on Wednesday. We’ll see the next games. It’s been really tough emotionally after Paris. The performance was not good and they were brilliant. Recovered in that way and they showed me again that I’m not wrong at all to rely on these players who gave us so much in this decade.”
That 4-2 defeat at PSG last midweek is what left City win their predicament in Europe but recent history suggests relying on Stones is risky, at least from a fitness point of view.
The England defender has been able to start just four league games, and eight in total, for City this season and, in all competitions, averaged only 32 appearances a season over his eight full season with the club.
“John always had these kind of situations - except the year of the treble when he was incredibly reliable,” said Guardiola. “It’s the same with Nathan and that’s why we went to the market.
“I wouldn’t like to go to the market in this period but we have a lot of examples of players not being able to go every three days. This is the problem.”
Manpower and squad depth is certainly not a problem for Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea but form is, after one win in the last seven league games, and so, too, the goalkeeper position where Robert Sanchez turned in the latest in a series of shaky performances.
“Robert for sure is completely aware that he has to do better,” said Maresca. “He knows perfectly. In this moment it’s like this. He’s the first to know that he has to do better.
“We trust Robert for sure, but in the same moment he is aware that he is making mistakes. We continue to trust Robert but we have an entire week, see the reaction and decide for the next games.”
Meanwhile, as Guardiola enjoyed goals from Gvardiol, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden, he could also reflect on a fine debut from winger Omar Marmoush that contrasted sharply with that of Khusanov.
“It was not easy for him; (Reece) James was there, man-marking and James when he’s fit is so strong, so fast,” said Guardiola.
“He made an incredible run and movement where we couldn’t see him. He is a calm guy, has pace, a shot, aggressive. Intelligent defensively. I’m really pleased with what I’ve seen so far.”
Ederson 6; Nunes 5, Akanji 6, Khusanov 4 (Stones 53, 6), Gvardiol 8; Kovacic 7; Foden 6, Gundogan 6, Silva 7, Marmoush 7 (De Bruyne 74, 6); Haaland 7.
Sanchez 4; James 6 (Gusto 73, 5). Chalobah 5, Colwill 6, Cucurella 5; Caicedo 7, Fernandez 6; Madueke 6, Palmer 5, Sancho 5 (Neto 73, 5); Jackson 6 (Nkunku 61, 5).
J Brooks 7
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