Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola defended his stand-ins after defeat at Brighton.
Guardiola listed their absentees after a fourth consecutive loss.
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“Results can be similar. The point is we don’t have the players. All four central defenders are injured,” he said.
“Rodri, the best player, is not there. De Bruyne away from his best. Doku injured, Jack (Grealish) injured. In one game we can do it but to be consistent we cannot. The second half can use Manu (Akanji), Nathan (Ake) and Ruben (Dias).
“Last moments to change the game we can use Doku. Don’t misunderstand me, it looks like I’m complaining about the players we played but we played really good.
“But to play previous seasons we had the squad. Now we don’t have it. We have to survive with that. We have to live with that.”