Pep Guardiola praised the competition within Manchester City’s squad but insisted the club “need” players
One player who did start for Guardiola’s team was Leroy Sane, a forward who has been a common feature on City’s bench this season having made 10 substitute appearances already during the current campaign. However, he started for the first time in five games against Schalke and went on to play a major role in the final result with the 23-year-old scoring once and setting up three other goals.
He took a starting berth ahead of Riyad Mahrez in the City side, and Guardiola insisted after his team’s European triumph that the competition in the squad is pushing everyone on. “They know they have to compete with each other,” said Guardiola. Everybody wants to play and everybody has to play at a good level. Today [Tuesday] everybody tried to play, to be involved and keep going. In the last game Riyad [Mahrez] was one of the best players and today Leroy played at a good level. We are happy to achieve the quarter-finals. Hopefully we can achieve one step forward.”
However, Guardiola warned it is imperative that the squad’s sidelined stars make quick recoveries in order to maintain an imperious run of form. De Bruyne is currently out with a thigh problem, while he is also joined on the medical room by the likes of Fernandinho and Claudio Bravo. “At the moment we have a lot of injured players,” Guardiola added. We want to continue this run, especially in April, but we need players to come back fit or it won’t be possible.” City’s next fixture is against Swansea City in the FA Cup quarter-finals on March 16.