Comparisons to Sir Alex Ferguson have quickly been silenced after Pep Guardiola lost five games in a row at Manchester City.
It seems Erik ten Hag’s comment about eras coming to an end might be true after all. It just seems to be happening right after his Manchester United exit.
The word crisis is being thrown around Manchester City at the moment after Pep Guardiola has led them to five consecutive losses across all competitions.
Ruben Amorim’s 4-1 demolition of City in his final home game as Sporting boss is part of that five-game losing streak.
Guardiola recently signed a new contract at City but just days later they were smashed 4-0 at home by Tottenham. During his time of adversity, Guardiola has turned to excuses.
Pep Guardiola complains about Man City injuries
Ahead of City’s Champions League clash against Feyenoord on Tuesday evening, Guardiola complained to the media about the number of injuries he is having to deal with.
Guardiola said: “Just give me my players back… you will see.
“It’s difficult when you have to play without 4 central defenders, 2 holding midfielders, the best player in the world Rodri out, 3 wingers out, just give me my players back… you’ll see Man City!”.
Yet, Guardiola was able to field an extremely strong squad against Tottenham on Saturday evening with Rico Lewis and Phil Foden the only academy products to start – and they are both established first-team stars.
A closer inspection of City’s injury “crisis” shows Guardiola has nothing to complain about.
Pep Guardiola could not have handled Man United’s injury crisis
The reliable Premier Injuries report that City currently have five injured players in their squad.
Rodri, Oscar Bobb, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Dias and Jeremy Doku are all absent from Guardiola’s team, but the figures show that 12 Premier League clubs either have the same number of injuries or more.
Frankly, Guardiola would have had no chance had he suffered an actual crisis like United last season.
As reported by BBC Sport, United had more injuries than any other team in 2023/24 with 45 separate cases recorded.
READ MORE: Manchester United get Sekou Kone injury update after being last seen walking with a protective boot
Five United players missed more than 100 days of action due to injuries and a total of 1,620 days were lost to those on the sidelines.
Overall, United’s injury crisis cost £40m which goes to show just how few options Ten Hag had for long periods of the season.
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