Man City squad still stronger than Liverpool´s even with injuries – Mills

Manchester City still have a stronger squad than Premier League title rivals Liverpool even with their numerous injury lay-offs, according to Danny Mills.

Reigning champions City have lost their past four games in all competitions – the first time that has happened in Guardiola’s illustrious managerial career – and trail league leaders Liverpool by five points.

Recently crowned Ballon d’Or winner Rodri heads City’s list of absentees, which also includes Oscar Bobb, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Manuel Akanji, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and Nathan Ake.

While former City full-back Mills believes Pep Guardiola still has the best selection of players to choose from in the division, he has questioned whether the club could be doing more to prevent the injuries.

“I think you can look at the injuries and say City still have the strongest squad in the world, without a shadow of a doubt,” Mills told Stats Perform. “There are two internationals for every single position on the pitch.

“There’s a part of me that then thinks, if you have that many injuries, you have to look at why you’ve got that many injuries. Are they all freak accidents?

“Are they all impact injuries where you had no choice in the matter? Are they muscle injuries where maybe you have to look at training? So there are lots of factors to look at.

“Is training too difficult? Are the players playing too many games? Is there not enough rotation within the squad? What does recovery look like?

“You can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’re unlucky, we’ve got injuries’. Generally, there are reasons why you get injured. You always get two or three freak injuries that there’s absolutely nothing you can do about. But you also have to look within and manage those situations.”

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City have successfully navigated games without the likes of Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne in the past, both of whom are now back fit, but coping without holding midfielder Rodri is proving a more difficult task.

Guardiola’s side have won 28 of their 36 games with Rodri in the side since the start of last season, losing none of those, while they have lost five of their 13 matches without the Spain international.

That win percentage drop-off from 77.8% with Rodri in the team to 53.8% without him also paints a clear picture, but Mills insists City can find a solution as they often have in the past.

“Every team has injuries, every single club that’s ever won anything,” he said. “Manchester City have done this before. They won the league without Sergio Aguero, playing a false nine at times.

“They went through spells without Vincent Kompany, without a centre-half. They found a way, and that’s what the very, very best teams do. They find a way when maybe they haven’t got their preferred 11.

“It’s never easy to lose one of your main players, even if you have pretty adequate replacements. Rodri makes Manchester City tick. We’ve seen it before with Fernandinho in that role. He was absolutely superb.

“But you have to find a way around that. You still have Kevin De Bruyne. You still have Mateo Kovacic in there. You’ve still got Phil Foden that can drop into those spaces, Bernardo Silva. We’ve seen Ilkay Gundogan has been in there as well.”

Losing four games in a row is also a rarity for City, having last done so in August 2006 when Stuart Pearce was manager of the club.

The most recent of those defeats, a 2-1 reverse at Brighton and Hove Albion, saw the Citizens lose a league game they led at half-time for the first time since May 2021 – also away at Brighton.

Liverpool have taken full advantage of City’s blip as they have collected 28 points from the first 33 on offer – only in 2019-20 (31) have they accrued more at this stage.

However, Mills insists Guardiola’s side are still more than capable of overhauling Liverpool, who they face at Anfield on 1 December.

“I don’t think the title race is over by any stretch of the imagination. I know Liverpool are top at the moment, but City have been there, seen it, done it several times, with a manager who’s done it as well.

“I know the Liverpool players have done it, but the manager hasn’t been in this situation. Liverpool will go through a tricky spell. How they deal with that is yet unknown.”

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Mills also pointed to the uncertainty surrounding the future of Guardiola as another reason behind City’s drop-off.

“Pep’s future is uncertain, and I don’t think that helps,” Mills said. “We saw it with Alex Ferguson [at Manchester United] the first time around, when he said he was going to retire at the end of the season, and United dropped off.

“We saw it last season with Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool were top by about five points clear. I know City had a game in hand at that stage, but they ended up nine points behind Manchester City. It clearly has an effect.

“There will be the argument that Alex Ferguson won the title in his last season, but maybe after such a long time, that was just one last hurrah, and maybe that was more about the players.”