At Friday’s press conference, City coach Pep Guardiola confirmed that Kalvin Phillips, John Stones and Kyle Walker will miss Sunday’s game at Liverpool. “All of them will not be available,” said the Catalan, who tried to estimate the timing of the comebacks but struggled to do so: “John will be back, I think, maybe in a week, ten days. Kalvin is better and looking good. Kyle continues to be unavailable.”
So Guardiola will have to continue to rebuild in defence and will not be able to call on his best line-up. The coach was unable to predict whether the three English players would be fit in time for the World Cup: “I don’t know.
Now, however, the top match in Liverpool is just around the corner. The two teams had played out the title between themselves in previous years, but are already 13 points apart this season, although the Skyblues have a game more on the account.
Guardiola on Liverpool in championship race: “Anything can happen “
So it’s the duel of the second at the tenth. “It’s always difficult to play there, it’s going to be a tough game, nothing else I expect. It plays out on the field, not because of the table where we are ahead of them,” said Guardiola, who of course warns of the Reds’ quality: “I know their quality, they know our quality. If it was only three games or so left, I would say they can’t finish first. But there is so long to play, plus there is a World Cup in between. Anything can happen. “
