Pep Guardiola plays down suggestion of Manchester City missing presence of £95 million player | OneFootball

Manchester City are not ruing the summer sale of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid during the summer market, Pep Guardiola has insisted.

The Premier League champions enter into the final international break of 2024 off the back of a torrid run of form across competitions, having recorded defeats in four consecutive matches in the Carabao Cup, Premier League, and UEFA Champions League.

Much of Manchester City’s success in front of goal and across their forward line has largely come from Erling Haaland, with the Norwegian having scored 15 goals across competitions so far this campaign.

With City’s next highest top-scorers being a list of Phil Foden, Matheus Nunes, John Stones, Josko Gvardiol, and Mateo Kovacic all tied on three strikes each, a key question remains whether the Etihad Stadium squad has enough in the way of goalscoring firepower.

That debate has further been heightened in recent weeks with the club not doing enough when dominating matches to add to an opening goal, and the success of Julian Alvarez in the Spanish game this season has left some wondering whether City miss the Argentine.

Speaking during a recent media address, Pep Guardiola was quizzed on whether City may have lost a crucial figure in Alvarez during the summer, given the club’s ongoing struggles in the attacking department as part of a four-game losing streak.

“What we lost is the injuries that we have had all season. This is the problem,” Guardiola hit back firmly. “The rest, it’s happened.”

He continued, “People came in, came out, the only difference to the previous eight seasons is the amount of injuries that we’ve never had and now we have for different reasons, sometimes it’s difficult to understand. This is the only reason.”

The Manchester City manager was further questioned on whether his first-team squad at the Etihad Stadium may be one forward too short, even without their ongoing injury crisis, to which he responded sarcastically, “No, we have a terrible squad.”

Manchester City were linked with a number of possible back-up options in the striking department during the final weeks and days of the summer market, but ultimately opted against all possible solutions with a satisfaction at their existing group of players.

Pep Guardiola is of the belief that when his squad is fully-fit, his roster is strong enough to compete across all competitions, utilising the likes of Phil Foden, James McAtee, Oscar Bobb, and Ilkay Gundogan in the false-nine role in any absence of Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian playmaker in particular is expected to make a return in the opening months of 2025, having undergone surgery on a fractured leg just days after the start of the brand new Premier League season in August.