Pep apology to youngster who didn’t get off bench
PEP Guardiola apologised to Ian-Carlo Poveda after the City youngster did not make it off the bench against Southampton.
Tommy Doyle, Eric Garcia and Phil Foden all started for the Blues in their Carabao Cup tie and the manager looked to be throwing on more academy players when he signalled for Adrian Bernabe and Ian-Carlo Poveda to come on for the final 20 minutes.
However, Jack Stephens’ header to pull a goal back for Southampton caused Guardiola to tell both players to put their bibs back on and when Angelino went down with a precautionary injury it left Poveda sitting on the bench for the 90 minutes.
“I’m so sorry to Ian-Carlo because he wanted to play as well but after 3-1 the game was not over and that’s why we didn’t make the substitution,” said Guardiola. “After, with what happened with Angelino, John [Stones] came on.”
City’s win continued their remarkable run in this competition that has seen them win the trophy for the past two seasons and now unbeaten in three years of games.
For the manager, it was a good opportunity to give some players a rest and test out the squad against a resolute Southampton side.
“This competition is good to move the team and we play seriously. Our quality of the pass was high, we arrived in the final third with quality, quicker.
“It’s not easy, attack that system with eight players back and fast players up front but generally it was a good game other than the last minutes. We go through, quarter-finals, Thursday (today) is the draw.”