Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he has to “take care” of his players like “a father and mother takes care of their sons” amid an arduous fixture schedule.
In the space of a week City beat Manchester United and Napoli before conceding a stoppage-time equaliser at Arsenal on Sunday.
City travel to League One Huddersfield Town in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with a growing injury list.
“First comes the spirit we have shown this week and you have to take care of this like a father and mother takes care of their sons,” Guardiola said.
“We can be a stable team and step by step when injured players come back we will learn for what we can do better.
“Gigi (Gianluigi Donnarumma) will get better and James (Trafford) will get better and the team will grow up.”
Striker Erling Haaland will not travel to West Yorkshire after being taken off at Arsenal in the 76th minute because of a back issue, but Guardiola is hopeful the Norwegian “will be fine” for the Premier League game against Burnley on Saturday.
Abdukodir Khusanov went off at half-time at Emirates Stadium, while Rayan Cherki and Omar Marmoush are out and it remains to be seen whether Rayan Ait-Nouri can recover in time from a knock.
City were disappointing last season, failing to win a major trophy, and suffered back-to-back defeats before the international break, but have responded by going three games unbeaten in all competitions.
“Since I started as a manager from the second team at Barcelona until now, I always asked for one thing – I want the players to give everything to the pitch,” Guardiola said.
“Last season we didn’t do it in some moments and this season, especially from the USA and since United, we started to recover many things that defined our team for many years.
“When this happened [conceding an equaliser at Arsenal, I could not care less about the fact that we could do better. Yes, we could make better decisions – we will do it.”
