How many minutes each Man City player racked up over the international break as Pep Guardiola eyes big U-turn

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Manchester City have seen a wide range of their players feature for their countries during this season’s international breaks.

In the lead-up to the November international break, City lost four consecutive matches across all competitions, something that Pep Guardiola had never seen any of his sides do throughout his managerial career.

After their 2-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League, Guardiola admitted City needed the break to come when it did.

Now that the final international break of 2024 has come to an end, let’s take a look at how many minutes each figure from City’s squad played ahead of the resumption of domestic football.

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How many minutes each Man City player racked up in the international break

Erling Haaland – City’s prolific striker started and captained Norway in their Nations League matches against Slovenia and Kazakhstan, scoring four goals and delivering one assist in the process. In doing so, Haaland became the Nations League’s all-time top scorer, taking his total tally to 19. Subbed off in the latter stages of both wins, the 24-year-old played a combined total of 173 minutes.

Ederson – The City shot-stopper completed the full 90 minutes in Brazil’s World Cup qualifying matches against Venezuela and Uruguay, both of which ended in 1-1 draws.

Bernardo Silva – After completing 77 minutes in Portugal’s 5-1 win over Poland in the Nations League, Silva was granted an early return to City by Roberto Martinez.

Kyle Walker – In England’s 3-0 win over Greece, Walker started, captained and completed the full 90 minutes. Then in Sunday’s 5-0 victory against Ireland, the 34-year-old played 62 minutes at centre-back before being taken off.

Rico Lewis – Similarly to Walker, Lewis played the entirety of England’s revenge win against Greece but was an unused substitute in the Ireland match.

Josko Gvardiol – As he has done in all of Croatia’s Nations League matches this season, Gvardiol played the full 90 minutes in their 1-0 defeat to Scotland and their 1-1 draw with Portugal, bagging his country’s only goal of the break.

Savinho – Like Ederson, Savinho found himself in the starting XI for Brazil’s matches against Venezuela and Uruguay. Unlike his City teammate, however, the winger was subbed off in the second half of both games, ultimately racking up a combined total of 141 minutes.

James McAtee – Completing the full 90 minutes in the England U21s friendly matches against Spain and the Netherlands, McAtee

Mateo Kovacic – After completing the full 90 minutes in Croatia’s defeat to Scotland, the City midfielder was substituted off at halftime in the draw with Portugal.

Stefan Ortega – Despite being called up to be part of the German national team, City’s back-up goalkeeper was an unused substitute for their Nations League matches against Bosnia and Hungary.

City need to get back on track

Given their poor run of form in the couple of weeks prior to this latest and final international break of 2024, City must hit the ground running in terms of getting positive results to get their season back on track.

With the Manchester club having to deal with fitness and injury issues over the past few weeks and months, everyone at the club, especially Guardiola, will be hoping that this won’t continue to be a consistent problem moving forward.