Pep Guardiola confirms early Manchester City team news ahead of Champions League showdown with Club Brugge | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has insisted that despite recent injury and fitness problems concerning the player, John Stones must start for the club this week.

The Premier League champions are embarking on a mammoth contest in European action this week that will decide their fate in the competition after a string of hugely disappointing performances and results in previous outings this season.

Defeats away to Sporting Lisbon, Juventus, and Paris Saint-Germain, coupled with a calamitous 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord, have meant that Manchester City simply must win in order to book themselves a place in the play-offs for a last-16 spot this season.

But with injury and fitness problems continuing to hamper Pep Guardiola’s squad, in addition to all of their new signings being ineligible for this stage of the competition, the Manchester City manager may once again have to rush players back from their recovery processes.

One of those players is John Stones, who has faced arguably the most difficult season of his City career in terms of injury frequency and frustration, struggling to build upon a meteoric rise and development within the squad en route to a Champions League triumph in 2023.

Speaking during a recent press conference, Guardiola discussed the recent struggles endured by Stones on a fitness and injury front, insisting that his issues were the reason behind the sudden investment at centre-back in the transfer market.

“John (Stones) always had these kind of situations. Except the year of the Treble when he was incredibly reliable, always he struggled. That’s why we went to the market! We have a lot of examples that they cannot sustain every three days playing – this is the problem.”

Stones shone in the Treble success by transforming into a dependable solution in defensive midfield, largely alongside Rodri, however with the injury sustained by the Spaniard, Guardiola believes it rules out the idea of the England centre-back returning to the role this season.

“John I struggle to see there (in defensive midfield) due to the injuries. I prefer to see him at the back, because as a defender, especially reading situations, he’s so, so good,” Guardiola explained.

“He played really good in 35, 40 minutes (against Chelsea) and had to make an effort for Wednesday. And we’ll give time for Nathan (Ake), and Ruben (Dias) coming back as quick as possible. So the situation is tough, continues being tough.”

But while Manchester City would no doubt prefer to continue easing Stones back into first-team action, the ineligibility of Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis coupled with injuries means that the 30-year-old will almost certainly have to start against Club Brugge.

“Listen, he has to play except if he said to me, ‘Ah problems, I cannot play’. After that, Josko (Gvardiol) will be the central defender and I will invent and think about what to play at the full-back,” Guardiola insisted.

“So he’s massively important in our game on Wednesday, so that’s why hopefully he can help us. But we’ll see in the next games. We are lucky we’ve had four days (rest) because after Ipswich, three days Paris, three days Chelsea, it has been really, really tough emotionally.”