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Pep Guardiola: I prefer fixture congestion of four competitions to being out of the cups like Liverpool
Pep Guardiola has insisted he would rather be challenging for silverware on all fronts than out of both domestic cup competitions like Liverpool, even if that means Manchester City’s title bid is complicated by fixture congestion.
City play Burton Albion in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night and will end the season having played a minimum of five more domestic games than Liverpool this season.
But if City overcome League One Burton Albion to reach the League Cup final at Wembley on February 24 and also progress to the FA Cup final in May, there is the prospect of a further five games more than their Merseyside title rivals - or even six should their FA Cup fourth round tie against Burnley go to a replay.
Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Wolves in the FA Cup third round on Monday night followed their Carabao Cup exit at the first hurdle to Chelsea in September and means City will play eight matches to Liverpool’s five this month alone. They have already played two extra League Cup fixtures. The situation could be further complicated depending on how City and Liverpool fare in the Champions League knockout stages.
Nonetheless, Guardiola says he would much prefer the headache that comes with trying to win a plethora of trophies and believe he has the squad to tackle the challenge, providing they are not beset by injuries.
“I don’t know [if fewer games gives Liverpool an advantage] - I don’t have a theory from my experience about that,” said the City manager. “If everyone is fit and not injured we can cope with it. The problem is if you have 10 injured players, then it’s almost impossible.
“I prefer it [being involved in four competitions], definitely. I like to be in the four competitions as far as possible. When Wigan put us out of the FA Cup last season I was sad. I take the Cups seriously.
“I’m not involved in what my opponents do. The reality for Jurgen [Klopp, the Liverpool manager] is he knows exactly what happened.
“Of course you need a big squad - without quality you can’t even win one trophy. With the quality and amount of players we have, you can do it, because the team is always stable.”
Guardiola is expected to field a similar team against Burton to the one that thrashed Rotherham 7-0 in the FA Cup on Sunday, when he made eight changes to the side that beat Liverpool 2-1 last week to reignite the title race.
The win reduced the gap at the top to four points but Guardiola has laughed off claims he instructed Lee Jackson, City’s groundsman, to keep the grass at the Etihad longer than normal for that game in a bid to disrupt Liverpool’s threat on the counter-attack.
“I never did, if Liverpool want to play quick, we want to play quicker, so never we manipulated,” he said. “Normally when this kind of thing happens, always at the end, karma or something like that, punishes you.
“I trust the greenkeepers, but we put the grass in the best conditions for both teams. Never I made a phone call to one to say, ‘Do this kind of thing to damage our opponents’.”
Meanwhile, Guardiola has said City are in talks with Vincent Kompany over a new contract with the manager hopeful his captain will sign a 12-month extension to his existing deal, which expires at the end of the season. Guardiola also said left-back Benjamin Mendy is two or three weeks away from returning to full training with the squad following knee surgery.