Pep Guardiola says he and his players are working hard to fix some of the issues City have had this season.

A lengthy injury list has made the current campaign challenging at times, and the boss admits he is trying to understand and figure out ways that will help his players cope better in certain situations.

Asked at his Friday press conference what things he can do to influence matches differently, the boss said: “[We can] change the players from the bench, maybe drop the team a little bit more and rest with the ball a little bit more.

“The problem in the second half against Madrid is that we didn’t rest with the ball, for five minutes they took the ball and started to play, play, play and in two seconds, they scored a goal.

“We lose the ball and Mbappe and Vinicius run more, more, more.

“In the past, we put together 25 to 30 passes, and now we are not able do it.

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“To score you have to play first – tomorrow, do you think we can compete with Newcastle’s physicality?

“Defend, be more compact, defend with the ball and know exactly in the right moment what we have to do. Help each other.

“If you want to fight against Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton, Longstaff or whoever will be there, they are stronger, quicker, faster than our players.

“But in the years we won the titles we were not physically strong, but what happened? We won it, when Liverpool were bigger and stronger and so were Arsenal, we did it so what is the problem?

“Before we had the confidence to play with the ball, but now we suffer when we have the ball.

“I accept, when our opponents have the ball, we are going to suffer – accept it. But now we suffer when we have the ball - it never happened before. We were always confident with that.

“I can’t go to the gym and in three days get the players faster, stronger, quicker. It ls not going to happen.

“But what we have is the quality - have the ball, pass the ball. But we are struggling a bit because they are human beings.

“The next game is always an opportunity to get better, to challenge and make our confidence a little bit higher, and this is what we have to do.

“And at the end of the season myself, team and the club, we have to take the decisions we have to take to avoid what happened this season in terms of injuries and many other things and try to live the  seasons that we have lived before.”

Watch the second part of Pep’s press conference in the video player above...