“We were really good” – Pep Guardiola lauds Abdukodir Khusanov and Ruben Dias despite Manchester City defeat to Nottingham Forest | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola was very pleased with Manchester City’s solid defensive display despite his side losing narrowly to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.

City lost ground in the race to finish in the Premier League top-four as a late Callum Hudson-Odoi strike beat Ederson at his near-post to inflict a ninth league loss of the season for the reigning champions of England.

The Blues are now four points adrift of Nottingham Forest in the division and could finish the game-week in fifth place should Chelsea beat Leicester City at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.

After crashing out of the UEFA Champions League at the last-16 play-off stage and having all but conceded their league crown to leaders Liverpool, the FA Cup remains Manchester City’s only possible shot at silverware this season.

However, changes will come aplenty in the summer when Manchester City revamp and build on their net £181.5 million January acquisitions of Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Omar Marmoush and Nico Gonzalez.

Khusanov and Gonzalez started against Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon, with the former impressing once again with a series of crucial interceptions and tackles to thwart the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Chris Wood.

In the absence of the injured trio of Nathan Ake, John Stones and Manuel Akanji – City’s centre half pairing of Khusanov and Ruben Dias were rock solid in the 1-0 loss to Forest and received special praise from Guardiola for their performances.

“Really well! We don’t have more players. But, we played really well – Khusa (Abdukodri Khusanov) for the time (he’s been at Manchester City), Ruben (Dias) as well,” Pep Guardiola told reporters after the contest.

“They (Nottingham Forest) defended really well and we could not find the precise in the last moment, we could not do it. We conceded few (chances), really, really few. Defensively, we were really good. The rhythm was not the highest but the game was tight.”

Manchester City have another entire midweek free of competitive action to finalise preparations and a game plan for their return to Premier League action next weekend against Brighton & Hove Albion at the Etihad Stadium.