Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, will use the international break to rest up after having back surgery in Barcelona, but he will also closely monitor how his players perform for their respective nations.
Since the Blues have access to the best players available, the majority of the team will be away from the Etihad for the upcoming week. On the strength of a 5-1 victory over Fulham, they depart with a perfect Premier League record.
Prior to Guardiola’s return to the sidelines, further preparation is undoubtedly underway. He might think about the following three items throughout the coming days.
Nunes opportunity of a lifetime
Perhaps at first Guardiola and Juanma Lillo will focus inwardly on the players who are still playing. Since Matheus Nunes was not selected to represent Portugal, City will have the exceptional opportunity to assist a new summer acquisition in settling in more directly on a professional and personal level.
Given how swiftly Nunes’ transfer happened, the midfielder will have more time to process everything. Several academy players will be given the chance to compete for the attention of the senior coaching staff and hope to leave their mark.
The squad’s quality players will probably play a significant role for their nations. In the final weeks of the summer, City were able to increase the squad’s depth, although Guardiola’s roster is by no means deep.
With injuries to John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne, and Jack Grealish of varied severity, City’s roster will be strained with just a few more issues. They are capable of surviving that, but a big player change over the summer makes the balance more susceptible to disruption.
The performance of a fringe player
Although Rico Lewis, chosen for the England Under-21 team, has played a total of 79 minutes this season, Kalvin Phillips has been chosen for England despite having played just one minute against Fulham this season.
This week, both players might play more for their national teams than they did for their clubs, so Guardiola and Lillo will be monitoring how they adjust to playing after extended absences. If City wants to come close to replicating its juggernaut success from last season, even their backup players must be performing well.