Guardiola gutted by Mendy’s long layoff
MANCHESTER — Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola fears French fullback Benjamin Mendy faces months on the sidelines with injury and compared his situation to teammate Ilkay Gundogan’s nine-month layoff.
Mendy, signed for $67 million from Monaco in the summer, injured his knee during City’s weekend win over Crystal Palace and will fly to Barcelona to see Guardiola’s personal medical team for tests on Thursday.
City is still not sure about the full extent of the problem but Guardiola nodded when asked if his absence would be measured in months.
“He is traveling to Barcelona and we are going to see what he has,” said the Spaniard after City continued its unbeaten start to the season with a 2-0 Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday.
“Our first impression is that it will it be a little long,
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longer than we expected which is unfortunate, but I am pretty sure it will be longer than we would like.
“It’s very frustrating for him, first as a person but, like happened with Ilkay Gundogan, I feel really sad for him.
“The way we want to play, we will miss him a lot. He is a unique player, the joy he gives on and off the pitch. I think it is a major setback.”
Guardiola, who spent around $200 million on three fullbacks in a 10-day period over the summer, also conceded the injury could force his club into the transfer market in January for a replacement.
“We will see in January,” he said. “We thought next summer we would look for another leftback but we will see what we will do.
“We have alternatives — Danilo, (Fabian) Delph, Fernandinho can play there. We’ll see as we go along.”
City’s victory, its eighth in nine unbeaten games this season, featured goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling.
But Sergio Aguero missed a penalty that would have seen him equal Eric Brook’s club record of 177 goals which dates back to the 1930s.
“It doesn’t matter that he missed a penalty. The next time he will score,” Guardiola said.
“That is going to happen. It doesn’t matter today or tomorrow. He doesn’t need 50 goals to break a record, just one. The moment it happens ask me about it.”
City has now compiled an astonishing 29-3 aggregate score in its nine games this season and, as it prepares for Saturday’s Premier League trip to Chelsea, Guardiola admitted he does not know his best attacking formation.
“I have a lot of confidence in five or six players,” he said. “When playing with Sergio or Gabriel (Jesus) we have a lot of confidence.
“Bernardo (Silva) is an extraordinarily good player. A perfect player. I have a lot of confidence in them all. I sleep well in that respect.”
City also beat Ukrainian champion Shakhtar with versatile midfielder Fabian Delph playing at leftback as Mendy’s stand-in, and Guardiola paid tribute to the former Aston Villa man’s performance.
“I am so happy with him,” said Guardiola.
“Midfield players can play everywhere.