Stand-in manager Borrell remains calm as Manchester City face Covid-19 outbreak

City's available pool of players severely depleted for FA Cup match against Swindon

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, left, with assistants Juanma Lillo, centre, and Rodolfo Borrell. Getty

Pep Guardiola will miss Manchester City’s FA Cup tie at Swindon Town on Friday after the Premier League leaders were hit by a Covid outbreak where 21 people have tested positive.

Assistant coach Rodolfo Borrell will take charge against the League Two club after both Guardiola and his second-in-command, Juanma Lillo, were among 14 staff members to contract coronavirus.

A further seven players are also isolating after testing positive and Borrell will pick from a mixture of the senior and academy squads on Friday, when City are unlikely to have a full complement of substitutes, as he admitted he faces a nervous wait to see if anyone else is ruled out.

Borrell, who knows Guardiola from their Barcelona days, has been at City since 2014. The 50-year-old Spaniard has not had to pick a side for about a decade since overseeing a 1-0 away win at Wolves with Liverpool’s youth team but said circumstances have made it simple now.

“It has possibly been one of the most easiest line-ups we have to decide because we are going to play with the ones we have available,” he explained. “We don’t have much more; we have got some first-team players and some others that are going to come from our second team. The second team also had plenty of Covid cases, staff as well, but there are no excuses. At this moment, we can fill the team. We don’t know if more players are going to be unavailable.”

Manchester City's Rodri celebrates his injury-time winner against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, January 1, 2022. EPA

Rodri celebrates with his Manchester City teammates after scoring the winner against Arsenal on Saturday. EPA

Manchester City's Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne stands amid bottles and debris thrown by spectators after Rodri's winner at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday. AFP

Manchester City's midfielder Kevin De Bruyne vies with Arsenal's Takehiro Tomiyasu. AFP

Aaron Ramsdale of Arsenal and Ruben Dias of Manchester City collide at the Emirates Stadium. Getty

Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City scores the equaliser. EPA

Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez celebrates scoring his team's first goal. Reuters

Arsenal's defender Gabriel receives a red card at the Emirates Stadium. AFP

Arsenal's Bukayo Saka scores his team's opener. Reuters

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola shakes hands with Arsenal assistant manager Albert Stuivenberg. Getty

City hope the outbreak will still allow them to play next Saturday’s top-of-the-table Premier League game against Chelsea. They have reintroduced the most stringent restrictions from 2020 but Borrell said there is an atmosphere of anxiety every day.

He explained: “This is unpredictable. Every time we are less and less people who haven’t been affected by Covid. We also had cases of people who had the first variant and now they have the second variant and not only people that were without the jabs.

“All the clubs are suffering, some were some weeks ago, some now and some are going to be later. As a club, we are going back to the protocols we had at the start of the pandemic, more and more restrictions to try and minimise the risk at the training facility. There is a bit of anxiety because every day we have to test and almost everybody is expecting: ‘Who is it going to be today? Are we going to be three less, four less, no one less?’”

Borrell reported that Guardiola, who is fully vaccinated, only has a mild case of the virus and will still be heavily involved.

“Fortunately, he hasn’t got a lot of symptoms. We are permanently in touch like we would be here but simply via Zoom or call like we normally do,” he said.

“We are connected with Pep and Juanma all the time. Because both have Covid, I am at the front but this is the work of many people. We’ve already talked about tactics and everything we have to do. The game might change but I’ve been working with him [Guardiola] for several years now and we are very much alike. We make decisions all together.”

Swindon are fifth in the fourth tier, 72 places below City in the English football pyramid but Borrell is wary of the FA Cup’s ability to conjure upsets.

He added: “There is a lot of history where lesser teams or smaller teams beat big opponents because of a competition that creates a great atmosphere and a lot of enthusiasm and everyone is trying to make their town or village or city proud. It is going to be a very close game.”