Manchester City could take a step closer to winning another piece of silverware this evening.
After beating Watford 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium in the previous round, City will be taking on Tottenham Hotspur in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup in North London.
City’s previous match saw them beat Southampton 1-0 at home in the Premier League on Saturday thanks to a fifth-minute Erling Haaland goal to keep their unbeaten start to the season going.
Throughout the first few weeks and months of the season, City have had to deal with numerous injury issues while getting through a packed domestic and European fixture schedule.
Looking ahead to Wednesday night’s Cup clash in the capital, Pep Guardiola has discussed the possibility of him looking outside of City’s senior squad to put a team together to take on Ange Postecoglou’s side.
Pep Guardiola hints at potential academy player featuring against Tottenham
When asked in his recent press conference (via Man City) about the players in City’s academy and whether any of them could feature against Spurs, Guardiola gave this honest response.
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He said: “There is someone. But we play against Spurs when they are coming from a defeat.
“I know what happened, mentally and for the manager and the players playing against City, sorry to tell you again, four Premier League titles in a row, I know they will be at their best.
“The Carabao Cup, also, we won four times in a row. Always, I use the first rounds to play the guys who didn’t play maybe regularly. But now we have a problem. We have a lot of injured players.
“I cannot take as much, but I don’t want to put that much pressure on the young, young players to be in this stage against this opponent for the way they play. That’s why I have to make a mix for the players. Split minutes.
“We will arrive home at 2am or 3am on Wednesday night and Friday we have to travel to Bournemouth. It’s a really intense game, the way they play and the way they are, that’s why we have to try and think about it and keep one eye on that.
“And after travel to Lisbon, the recovery will be so difficult this time. That’s why you have to take a look at how the players come back and today in training, how fresh [they are] and try to minimise the mistakes in the selection.”
Could Guardiola call up Kaden Braithwaite again?
Looking back to the win over Watford in the previous round of the Carabao Cup, Guardiola gave 16-year-old defender Kaden Braithwaite his senior debut for City in the 2-1 win against the Hornets.
In that game, the teenager made two tackles and one interception as well as accurately completing 62 of the 65 passes he attempted and winning three of the four ground duels he was involved in.
After that match, Braithwaite shared what Guardiola told him ahead of making his senior City debut.
He said: “He just said he doesn’t mind if I make mistakes and stuff like that. As long as I work hard and run, that’s all that he cares about.”
Given this previous example of Guardiola giving an academy star the chance to shine in the first team, it could be likely that the player the City star hinted at in his latest press conference could be Braithwaite.