Guardiola on injuries, making mistakes and ‘tempo’

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has been speaking to the media before Wednesday’s Champions League game against Juventus (kick-off 20:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Guardiola does not believe Phil Foden will be back for this match, while Mateo Kovacic may get a “few minutes”. Guardiola added: “Nice to have them back in team training sessions and to have them here with us.”

• He also does not know how long it will be before Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji return, with Ake set to be out “longer than Manuel”.

• On if he is happy with the players’ attitudes at the moment: “Yeah, I love them. We can do better in terms of results. We have to find something inside of all of us to get results, but I am not the right person to say any wrong words about the team. We have to perform well and the next few weeks is very important.”

• On whether a change in fortunes is coming: “The team is good. We can’t rotate the team to give rest, that is a problem. The problem is especially because we had most important injuries in the same department, the same position in central defenders. So sometimes that is difficult, but the team are good.”

• He added: “In the end we punish ourselves in many games, we make mistakes and we have to avoid it. So, I don’t blame the situation, that is the situation. Life is like this. We have to do better with the players we have in terms of results.”

• Guardiola added: “Our strength is the ball. Our strength in the success of the past eight or nine years is we run like desperate things when we don’t have the ball. With the ball we are incredibly patient. Let them run and run. Now, we are in a moment where we attack so quick and we do a lot of things where we are not in the right tempo.”

• He says the current issues are “not a mental thing” because his players are “professionals”.

• Guardiola said he is “trying to find a solution” and added: “I have full confidence. If the results from now on in future will be even worse, the confidence of my team is undeniable. Confidence of my team is always there.”