MANCHESTER
\nPep Guardiola joked that he may have to field one of his wingers in central defence as Manchester City continue to contend with a major injury crisis at the back ahead of this weekend\u2019s Premier League game against Watford.
\nThe champions remain at the summit of the top-flight, and know that their title destiny is in their own hands as they prepare to face the Hornets, with Liverpool breathing down their neck.
\nBut a raft of injuries to key men such as Kyle Walker, John Stones and Nathan Ake has left them without several faces at the back ahead of both this weekend\u2019s test and next week\u2019s Champions League semi-final first leg against Real Madrid – and Guardiola has now quipped that he may have to get creative in his coverage.
\n\u201cRight now, we are definitely in trouble,\u201d Guardiola spoke when addressing his side\u2019s injury crisis. \u201cWe have problems in many important positions and you have to adapt.
\n\u201cThe players know we are in trouble \u2014 maybe one winger has to play as a central defender!
\n\u201c[But a larger squad?] I don\u2019t like it. I\u2019m sad to leave four or five on the bench who don\u2019t play \u2014 I don\u2019t want it to be eight or nine.\u201d
\nThough City are now out of FA Cup contention, the club will still hope to go all the way in Europe alongside the Premier League, packing their tight schedule with even more matches – and Guardiola has spoken of how crucial it is for his team to take their moments to breathe when they can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MANCHESTER Pep Guardiola joked that he may have to field one of his wingers in central defence as Manchester City continue to contend with a major injury crisis at the back ahead of this weekend\u2019s Premier League game against Watford. The champions remain at the summit of the top-flight, and know that their title destiny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1960,6296,5673],"class_list":{"0":"post-256954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-guardiola","9":"tag-injury-crisis","10":"tag-man-city"},"yoast_head":"\n