CITY V BURTON
PEP Guardiola does not believe that Liverpool’s cup flop has handed the Merseysiders an advantage in the Premier League title race.
Jurgen Klopp fielded an understrength team as the Merseysiders lost 2-1 in their FA Cup third round tie at Wolves on Monday night.
And with Liverpool already out of the Carabao Cup, they are focussed entirely on keeping their four-point gap over City at the top of the table, and on the Champions League.
But the Blues face a two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final against League One side Burton Albion, starting tonight, and have drawn fellow top-flight side Burnley in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
That means City could play a possible 65 games this season if the Clarets take them to a replay.
But Guardiola says it will only become a problem for City if they suffer more injury woes.
The treatment room is clearing, with Benjamin Mendy due back in action at the end of this month, and only goalkeeper Claudio Bravo out in the long term.
That has allowed the Blues to rotate for the domestic cup competitions, and if they can continue to do so, Guardiola says they will be seeking to win all four trophies.
The Blues boss says he prefers to be chasing on four fronts.
“I like to be in the four competitions as far as possible,” he said. “When Wigan put us out of the FA Cup last season I was sad. But since I arrived we played United (in the League Cup) and played with a lot of young players, the same the second season, the same the third season – that’s what has happened.
“I take the cups seriously. Against Rotherham, for example, we played with nine players who didn’t play against Liverpool and the nine were a good selection.
“It was perfect for the rhythm – Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Nico Otamendi, Kyle Walker – perfect. It’s better to play Rotherham.
“Seventy minutes for Kevin at full intensity and tomorrow trying to play a little longer.
“If everyone is fit and not injured we can cope with it. The problem is if you have ten injured players, it’s almost impossible. When everyone is fit, it’s better.” He refused to comment on Klopp’s decision to rest most of his top-line stars at Molineux, but said: “The reality for Jurgen is he knows exactly what happened. “Sometimes it happens when you have many problems. “Maybe I would take a decision to play with some others. ”I’m not the right person to judge what the others do because I don’t like it when others judge our decisions. “Of course you need a big squad, without quality you can’t even win one trophy. “The quality and amount of players we have you can do it because the team is always stable. But you cannot survive today, not just in England but in any league in the world, fighting for the title with just 12 or 13 players, it’s impossible. “You need a bigger squad and every player has to be top. “And you need four or five players close to the other good eight or nine players you can move forward and win games.” Pep Guardiola