Pep Guardiola makes clear point ahead of the Carabao clash against Newcastle

Pep Guardiola bemoans his side's injury situation ahead of the Carabao Cup clash against Newcastle United.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola makes claims he will rest players ahead of the third-round of the Carabao Cup match against Newcastle United and that he “won’t waste one per cent of energy” playing his regulars in the game.

The Treble-winning club is set to face Newcastle at St James’ Park on Wednesday night and Guardiola sees this as a chance to rest senior players like Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias.

The Spaniard has been without the likes of John Stones, Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne from the start of the season and now lost Rodri to suspension in the game versus Nottingham Forest. Despite this, the Cityzens have had a 100% win rate in all competitions this season.

In a media interview after the game against Forest, the former Barcelona manager joked that he might be forced to come out of retirement as he’s unwilling to risk players to anymore injuries. He also suggested that he would resort to using players from the club’s youth for the game.

“We’ll see how many players we’ll have available, It will be good for Jack [Grealish] to take minutes, and of course some players have a lot of minutes, they are not going to play against Newcastle. That’s for sure,” said Guardiola after Saturday’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

“Carabao Cup is perfect when you are in the beginning of the season because the games at the beginning of the season you have all the squad, deep squad, for the guys that don’t play regularly, they have to play the minutes. That’s perfect.”

“But we have a lot of injuries, I’m not going to waste one percent of energy for Carabao Cup, like Kyle Walker for example, like Ruben [Dias], who have played 90 minutes for the national team, 90 minutes, because they are exhausted already. And we cannot lose it.”

“That’s why we’re going to play with the guys who need it, maybe from the Academy, maybe if my back is getting better, [I can play] maybe a few minutes. We’ll see.”

With Newcastle facing a similar schedule to Man City, head coach Eddie Howe is also expected to consider changes, though maybe not to the extent of Guardiola.

With both teams in the Champions League, the fixtures are expected to be tight in the coming weeks so one would expect a change in the lineup when the two sides meet.