Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admitted that Jeremy Docu was likely to be absent “for a while,” on the eve of the upcoming major matches in the Premier League and Champions League.
The document scored three goals and three assists in consecutive appearances against Salford City and Ipswich Town earlier this month. But last week he was missed by injury against Paris Saint-Germain and paused again Saturday’s return victory over Chelsea.
There is no definitive timeframe on document’s recovery, but he will not play against Club Brugge this week and will probably not appear on the next Sunday visit to Arsenal.
“For a while. I don’t know how much, but for a while, yes. They won’t be ready for Wednesday, sure. I don’t think so for arsenal [either]. We’ll see, ” Guardiola explained.
Although City has enough strength to cover the document’s absence, the team continues to defend themselves with injuries. This led to the new 20-year signature of Abdukodes Khusanov, who was inserted straight into the initial exhibition against Chelsea with minimal preparation and maintenance of the debut from the nightmare.
“The problem is that we continue with problems. Khusanov was not supposed to play; he had to take the time to do it,” the boss commented.
“It is not easy against the Chelsea in the Premier League, it comes from another country and does not communicate much with its teammates and comes without training to see what you want to do, what kind of process you have.
“Let’s start as he started; imagine that we all live what Khusanov lived and that what happened happened, it would be, ‘Oh God!’ … but the situation is Ruben [Dias] Not there, Nathan [Ake] not so we are lucky to have a flaw [Akanji] John remained [Stones] can help us for the finals on Wednesday. “
Guardiola marked Brugge as a “final” match because the entire City status in the Champions League is based on one 90 -minute game this season.
Win in just two of the first seven games – and none of the last five – remained City outside the top 24 on the eve of the eighth round. They have to beat Brugge, who has three points of advantage and fights for staying in the knockout, and they hope that other results will also support them to qualify.
At best, City can finish in 19th place, which would mean two more games in the play-off knockout round. If they fail to win three points against Brugge, City would drop out of the Champions League before the knockout phase for the first time since the 2012/13 season.
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