Pep Guardiola has said ‘maybe it is a mistake’ that Manchester City sold Julian Alvarez without a replacement this summer.
The Citizens sanctioned the sale of Alvarez to Atletico Madrid for a fee that could rise to £82m with add-ons but have failed to sign a replacement for the Argentine.
His exit leaves Guardiola short of depth at centre-forward, with Erling Haaland the only recognised number nine in the squad.
City have been linked with signing Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi and Copenhagen’s Orri Óskarsson before the deadline but have decided against adding to the squad.
Guardiola insists he is happy with the squad at his disposal and said City have a number of players who can play at centre-forward if required. However, he said the lack of a recognised alternative for Haaland – who missed two months of last season – could come back to haunt the Premier League champions.
“I am happy with the squad. Of course, if we have many injuries it could be a problem,” he said at his pre-match press conference ahead of facing West Ham this weekend.
Guardiola insists City have centre-forward options
“But hopefully in two, three months, we will have Oscar [Bobb] back. And we can have Phil [Foden] in that position, [James] McAtee can play in that position, [Ilkay] Gundogan can play in that position…these are different types of players to Erling [Haaland], of course.
“Maybe it is a mistake, I don’t know, but I like to work with not a long, long squad. I don’t like to leave a lot of players without playing for a long time. If we have a long squad with no injuries, that could be 10 months without playing and I don’t like it.”
