Pep Guardiola provides Man City team news hint ahead of Newcastle clash and insistence not to ‘waste one per cent of energy’

Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola has stated that he has no intention to ‘waste one per cent of energy’ during the club’s Carabao Cup third round clash at Newcastle this week.

The Premier League champions face a challenging period in their season as games continue to come thick and fast across multiple competitions, with the latest being the start of the League Cup for another season with a contest at St James’ Park.

Manchester City come into the match fresh off the back of yet another Premier League victory, having dismissed of Nottingham Forest at the Etihad Stadium via a 2-0 scoreline, to maintain their 100 per cent winning record during the opening six games of the new season.

Rodri’s second-half red card became the ultimate talking point of the match, as Pep Guardiola’s first-team options have been further reduced alongside the ongoing injury problems, with the defensive midfielder expected to miss the next three games in domestic competition.

With options in the first-team squad already having been exhausted during the opening weeks of the season, Pep Guardiola indicated after the weekend’s contest that his line-up at Newcastle on Wednesday night is likely to be heavily rotated and changed from Saturday’s outing.

“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,” explained Pep Guardiola during his post-Nottingham Forest press conference.

“The 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, and the guys that don’t play regularly, they have to play the minutes. That’s perfect.”

That however is not the case for Manchester City, as Guardiola continued, “But when you have a lot of injuries, I’m not going to waste one per cent of energy for Carabao Cup, like Kyle Walker for example, like Ruben (Dias), who have played 90 minutes for the national team, 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.”

Pep Guardiola is referring to his recovery from emergency surgery in Barcelona on a back problem during the final days of August, that kept the Manchester City manager away from action for two Premier League games.

Juanma Lillo stepped in for victories over Sheffield United and Fulham, ensuring the Manchester City’s Premier League title defence and pursuit of a fourth successive English top-flight crown remained in a strong position.