Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola believes that the absence of a number of the team's players, whether due to injury or pressure from matches, was a major reason for the defeat against Liverpool.
Manchester City was eliminated from the FA Cup semi-finals, after losing to Liverpool, 3-2, last Saturday night.
"When you have all the players, it is easier to deal with the pressure of the matches," Guardiola said, in comments carried by the official Manchester City website.
He added: "We need all our players to return to face the situation, the players in the second half against Liverpool, you can say that they were sad or tired, but how did they react?"
He continued: “This is our team for a long time, it does not matter, we fight and do it, but the truth is that in the last three FA Cup semi-finals against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, we were bad in the first half, it happened against Mikel Arteta, Thomas Takhil".
"I don't know, we talked about it, and though, we couldn't do it on Saturday."
And he added: “When I have room to choose, I always think about the players that I don’t allow to play, so when I have the opportunity to do that, I want to push them, because in the end who knows if if you play with other players, will you win?”
He concluded: "I know the condition of all the players and I know the extent of the readiness of everyone who participated in the Madrid match (against Atletico). I could not do anything else and I was satisfied. I trust the players, and in the second half they showed it."
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