PEP TALK FOR MAHREZ
Guardiola wants winger to play a key role as City chase quadruple
PEP Guardiola has challenged Riyad Mahrez to play a key role in Manchester City’s quadruple bid as the club’s record signing struggles to live up to his £60 million (RM323.3 million) price tag.
City were far from their imperious best in Wednesday’s narrow 1-0 win over West Ham, but the result kept the champions just one point behind Premier League leaders Liverpool ahead of their trip to Bournemouth today.
Guardiola has stressed his concerns over fatigue affecting his squad, with last weekend’s League Cup final win over Chelsea coming at a cost as Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte both suffered injuries that will sideline them for several weeks.
The City boss attempted to rotate his squad against West Ham, handing Algeria winger Mahrez just his 11th league start of the season.
H o wever, the former Leicester star turned in a sub-par performance and it was not until he and fellow wide man Leroy Sane were taken off early in the second half — replaced by Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva — that City looked anything like their best.
City have the international break in mid-March to look forward to, and a relatively kind run of domestic league fixtures either side of it.
But they also have their Champions League involvement and an FA Cup quarter-final visit to Swansea to factor in.
So Guardiola is looking for better productivity from Mahrez and all his other squad players over what could be a historic final few weeks of the season as they chase three more trophies. “Hypothetically, we have 20 games left in the season — 10 Premier League games and if we get to the finals of the cups — and if you think we are only going to play with Bernardo and Raheem, that is not going to happen,” Guardiola said.
“They know what they have to do, train hard, compete hard, they are going to play minutes. “With some players, it will be easy for me; but some players can’t sustain (playing) every three days. Everybody has to make their contribution then, when I see their performance, I’m going to take decisions.
“I can’t live with just Sergio Aguero, for example, we need Gabriel (Jesus) to come as quickly as possible to help us to do that.”
Jesus, out since sustaining a hamstring injury in the FA Cup win over Newport in the middle of February, is another player currently unavailable to Guardiola, although his inclusion in the Brazil squad for next month’s friendlies suggests he is not far from being available.