Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola will make changes to his starting lineup for the Carabao Cup match against Newcastle United.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he will not “waste one percent of my energy” on the Carabao Cup third-round clash against Newcastle United because he intends to rest some top players.

Guardiola has lamented his team’s injury list before of Wednesday’s trip to St James’ Park, even joking that he could have to come out of retirement. Kevin De Bruyne, Matteo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva, and John Stones are all sidelined, and Rodri is suspended.

The Spaniard is unwilling to risk further injuries by playing at full strength and has hinted at using youngsters from the club’s youth. Guardiola has previously stated that important duo Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias would not play on Tyneside because he is focused on the Premier League, Champions League, and FA Cup.

“We’ll see how many players we have available,” Guardiola said following Manchester City’s 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday. “It will be good for Jack [Grealish] to get some minutes, and of course, some players have a lot of minutes and will not play against Newcastle.” That is for certain.

“The Carabao Cup is ideal at the start of the season because the games at the start of the season have all of the squad, a deep squad, and the guys who don’t play regularly have to play the minutes.” That is ideal.

“But we have a lot of injuries, and I’m not going to waste one percent of my energy for the Carabao Cup, like Kyle Walker, or Ruben [Dias], who have already played 90 minutes for the national team, because they are exhausted.” And we cannot afford to lose it.