Guardiola: Khusanov should not have played against Chelsea | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola admits new signing Abdukodir Khusanov should not have played against Chelsea but insists John Stones’ lack of fitness and other injuries meant he had no options.

Stones came on for Khusanov as a second-half substitute after the 20-year-old defender, who joined City this month from Lens, had endured a difficult debut in which his error led to Chelsea’s opener, before Guardiola’s side came back to win 3-1.

Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias were also missing for the victory through injury.

And Guardiola admits normal circumstances would have meant Khusanov would not have been thrown in so soon after signing for the club.

“Khusanov should not have played,” Guardiola admitted.

“It takes time. It’s not easy playing Chelsea in the Premier League after coming from another country having not communicated much with your team-mates and arrive with no training sessions to practise what we want to do and the processes we want to have.

“It’s not easy starting the way he started. Imagine all of us, leaving what Khusanov had left and if what happened happened. We would be like ‘oh god’.

“But the situation with Ruben is not there, Nathan either. We are lucky that Manu stayed, and John can help us in our final on Wednesday.”

Stones has endured a frustrating season with injury, which has seen him play just nine times in the Premier League.

But Guardiola is hoping the 30-year-old can have a big impact in the second half of the season as City look to put their torrid run behind them for good.

“John has always had these kind of situations,” Guardiola said.

“That’s why we went to the market. I would not like to go to the market in this period but we have a lot of examples where they cannot sustain it every three days. This is the problem.

“I don’t have any doubts about John or Nathan but they have not been here. Last season they were not here either. This is the problem. There are players who are reliable and there are some who have more injuries than the other ones.

“Hopefully now, this time, he (Stones) will recover better, we give him more time for his problems.”