Pep Guardiola reveals refusal to “waste energy” on the Carabao Cup this season | OneFootball

Manchester City will continue with their heavy rotation strategy in the Carabao Cup this season, manager Pep Guardiola has confirmed.

The Catalan coach made nine changes to his starting line-up from the side that were held to a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on Sunday when they hosted Watford at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.

Making his senior professional debut for the club, and becoming their third-youngest player as a result, impressive Academy talent Kaden Braithwaite started at left-back as Guardiola handed much-needed rest to Josko Gvardiol in the role.

There were also starts and first-team minutes issued to Nico O’Reilly, James McAtee, and Jacob Wright, on a night where Manchester City largely commanded proceedings despite a late strike from Tom Ince.

While Manchester City progress in the competition, there will be no change to the selection strategy adopted by Pep Guardiola this week, who will continue to hand minutes out to players who do not receive too much game time in the Premier League, for example.

Speaking during his post-match press conference, Guardiola admitted that he will not “waste energy” on the Carabao Cup this season and as such continue with significant rotation through the rounds.

“In the next round, we’re going to play the players that play less minutes or the second team. We are not going to waste energy for this competition, for sure,” Guardiola revealed ahead of the fourth round of the competition next month.

“So I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if I have a lot, a lot of injuries we’re going to play the second team,” he continued. “And if we have players and the whole squad ready, it’s a good competition to take the rhythm. That’s for sure.”

Quizzed on whether it is frustrating that he has to take that stance as a result of the intense schedule, Pep Guardiola responded, “The schedule is the schedule. We cannot handle it any way or differently.

“Today from (James) McAtee, from Matheus (Nunes), from Jack (Grealish) who didn’t play, from Phil (Foden) who didn’t play for two or three months, from of course Nico (O’Reilly), from Rico (Lewis) who of course has played a lot of minutes but didn’t play against Arsenal, and from John (Stones) for example, from Kyle (Walker), for the young lad (Kaden Braithwaite) at 16-years-old, from Stefan Ortega) – it’s perfect.”

Guardiola continued, “And I saw players that didn’t play lately how they feel, how is their physical condition, the rhythm and the pace, and everything. That’s why it’s good this competition, otherwise we would not win it four-in-a-row if we take it not seriously.

“We lost last season against Newcastle away in the first round, and we played really, really good with a lot, a lot of young players. Jacob (Wright) played a fantastic 25, 30 minutes, so it’s good. And we played, everybody saw it, to win the game, to go through.

“We never, never throw or get out of a competition, never, ever. But of course, we played 50 hours ago and players have played a lot of minutes so absolutely I’m not going to take a risk in this competition, for the Premier League and Champions League.”

Manchester City return to action on Saturday afternoon as Newcastle United host the Premier League champions at St James’ Park, with the visitors hoping to maintain their unbeaten start across all competitions this season.