Pep Guardiola admits Huddersfield forced Phil Foden to put a full shift in

Pep Guardiola conceded Huddersfield’s stubborn resistance prevented Phil Foden and Nico O’Reilly from clocking off earlier in Manchester City’s 2-0 Carabao Cup win.

Guardiola made nine changes for the third-round tie and after Foden had given dominant City an interval lead, they had to wait until the 74th minute before Savinho added their second.

Both Foden and O’Reilly, both withdrawn late in the second half at the Accu Stadium, were the only two City players to retain their places having started in Sunday’s 1-1 Premier League draw at Arsenal.

Guardiola said: “We would have liked to score a second goal and make the substitutions before for Nico O’Reilly and Phil because they played a tough game against Arsenal three days ago.

“But they are young. They have good vitamins during the days, good food, good protein and yeah, now come back to Manchester to prepare (for Saturday’s home game against Burnley).

“I’m not a guy who likes to play three games with the same players, but I wanted a bit of consistency of patterns and routine for the players.

“I prefer a rotated team and it was perfect for many players – Oscar (Bobb) played good, Savinho played good, and all of them were aggressive, without the ball we were really good, winning duels, so in terms of that I’m really satisfied.”

Guardiola handed teenage forward Divine Mukasa his full debut while Reigan and Jaden Heskey, sons of former England striker Emile, both made their first senior appearances.

Huddersfield, who made seven changes, worked tirelessly to restrict City to two goals and twice went close themselves.

Aston Villa loanee Zepiqueno Redmond, making his full debut, fired narrowly over in the second half and substitute Cameron Ashia’s fine curling effort struck a post.

Midfielder Ben Wiles, Town captain on the night, told the club’s official website: “It was always going to be difficult – even when they are making substitutes and rotating the team around, it’s still an unreal team and they’ve got so much quality.

“There’s some things we can take from it, come out of it, it’s just such a good experience for everyone, to see how the elite level perform and how they make decisions at the right time.

“We were creating chances against one of the best teams in the world, so it was nice to see that we were creating chances, and it was nice to see some lads getting game time and showing what they can do.”