City have missed ‘unstoppable’ Mendy: Guardiola
| BURTON ALBION | MAN CITY |
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said his side have missed the "unstoppable" Benjamin Mendy.
The French left-back has played only 18 times for the club since signing from AS Monaco for £49.2m (S$86.1m) in July 2017 due a succession of serious knee injuries.
In his absence, Guardiola has turned to Danilo, who is primarily a right-back, and midfielders Fabian Delph and Oleksandr Zinchenko to deputise at left-back.
Mendy, 24, however, is back in the City squad for tomorrow morning's (Singapore time) League Cup semi-final, second leg against Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium.
The tie is essentially a foregone conclusion with the Citizens 9-0 up from the first leg.
Said Guardiola: "The results that we have had in the last two years would say not too much.
"But I say I have missed him (Mendy) a lot.
"I had the feeling he could give us extra, so hopefully in the last part of the season, and in the future, the club can use him.
"When he pushes from outside, from the left side, he is unstoppable and, especially in the last third, he is so clever.
"He does not cross to cross.
"He is clever when he does these kinds of actions.
"But in the last season and a half, he has played in few games and all the training and practice, he was not there.
"We will need some time to adjust, especially his quality, for what we need."
Meanwhile, Burton manager Nigel Clough said that his target for tomorrow's match is for his third-tier side to find the net "against one of the best teams in Europe".
He said: "If we could get a goal then that would be a wonderful achievement.
"If one of our players could score against one of the best teams in Europe, then that would be a milestone for us, and a wonderful individual milestone for whoever got a goal."
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