A host of Manchester City fringe players must seize their opportunity against Brentford | OneFootball

Up next for Manchester City is a Carabao Cup quarter-final tie against Brentford at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow night. Pep Guardiola’s side enters every match and competition they play in to win and claim silverware. The Carabao Cup is no exception. But tomorrow night’s match comes at a time when Pep Guardiola will need to rotate his squad. Guardiola has heavily leaned on a particular set of players lately and certain players will need to be rested against Brentford tomorrow night. The match at the Etihad will provide an opportunity for a host of Manchester City’s fringe players to make an impact. It is an opportunity they must take at the Etihad.

Pep Guardiola told the media that he will rotate his squad against Brentford.

Speaking earlier today, Pep Guardiola told the media that he will rotate his squad for Manchester City’s Carabao Cup quarter-final tie against Brentford. Guardiola explained that he will give his fringe players an opportunity to start at the Etihad. But he also added that there is a semifinal place at stake so the result of tomorrow night’s match is also important: “James (Trafford) is going to play and all the players that didn’t play recently are going to play and some from the Academy because three days after that we have West Ham.”

“I’m not saying it’s not the priority to get to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup. But normally when we achieve it, it’s when we have all the squad, no injuries and we can rotate.”

“When you are one game away from the semi-finals, if you can take it, take it, because you never know when it’s coming back.”

“We lost Rayan and Omar. We have some injuries like John and Rodri.  We’ll see but we want to get to the semi-finals.”

“Now we have less recovery, three days not four [after Crystal Palace], of course the players that didn’t play recently are going to play and the Academy so we will see.”

Manchester City’s fringe players have to make an impact tomorrow night.

There is a host of Manchester City players who are unavailable for tomorrow night’s match. Rodri, Mateo Kovacic, John Stones and Jeremy Doku will miss the match due to injury. Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri are unavailable due to international duty. The Carabao Cup tie against Brentford would have been the ideal opportunity for Marmoush and Ait-Nouri to get minutes into their legs. But they won’t get that opportunity. But there is a host of City’s fringe players who will get an opponent tomorrow night and they must seize it.

James Trafford, Nathan Ake, Abdukodir Khusanov, Rico Lewis, Tijjani Reijnders, Oscar Bobb and Savinho will likely have an opportunity to impress against Brentford. It is an opportunity they have to seize. Manchester City cannot rely solely on eleven players throughout the hectic schedule they will have to contend with. Pep Guardiola needs his entire squad to start contributing. What happened in Manchester City’s recent 2-nil defeat to Bayer Leverkusen cannot occur again. City’s fringe players failed to make an impact against Leverkusen. Since that game Pep Guardiola has seemingly placed his trust in a select group of players. Tomorrow night’s match is a chance for the players who didn’t perform on that night to redeem themselves and show that can contribute at the level required by Pep Guardiola.

Tomorrow night’s Carabao Cup quarter-final tie against Brentford is an opportunity for Manchester City’s fringe players to make an impact. City need them to seize it so that Pep Guardiola can rotate his squad more often so that Manchester City’s core group of players don’t get burnt out across a long and arduous season.