Pep Guardiola says he cannot afford to give Kevin De Bruyne a rest over the Christmas period as Manchester City try to close the gap on leaders Liverpool at the top of the Premier League.
Starting with third-placed Southampton on Saturday, City face five matches in the next 15 days, including away clashes at Arsenal in the Carabao Cup, Everton and Chelsea.
City are currently ninth in the Premier League and Guardiola says that De Bruyne, who was rested for their last four Champions League matches, will be needed if they are to cut an eight-point deficit to the top.
“He is so important for us, he is not going to rest,” Guardiola said. “He rested in the Champions League, he rested in other games - in previous weeks he just played the Premier League games and right now we need him.”
Sergio Aguero continued his recovery from knee surgery in the summer and the Argentinian striker could be again on the bench for the clash at St Mary’s.
The 32-year-old played the final 15 minutes of Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with West Brom, but Guardiola said that he only returned to training on Friday.
“After the game he could not train,” the City boss said. “Yesterday he didn't train. Today he trained and trained really well but I don't know how many minutes [he can play].
“It is important that he can make training sessions so it was unfortunate after the game that he could not.
“It wasn't anything about the knee but it was another position and today he trained.”
Without Aguero, City have struggled to score this season. They have just 18 goals - 17 fewer than this point last season - and Guardiola says his side must make even more chances if they are to overcome their problems in front of goal.
Asked how to fix it, he said: “Insist, insist and insist, there is no other option. If 25 shots is not enough, we have to create more.
“The only thing is to insist, be positive and one day it will break. Be aggressive, put more players there [in attack] and when we are able to score goals and win games the confidence will be back.
“But the reality is comparing the 40 goals we scored in the first 12 fixtures in the year we won the first Premier League, 36 in our second Premier League [title season] and last season we had scored 35 at this stage.
“This year we have 18, so in the previous seasons we were there really well and we have to score more, this is the reality.
“Last season we scored more goals than the champions. We conceded unfortunately too much but we have to score more, everybody knows it. But it doesn't depend on one specific player, that would be a mistake.
“Everyone can score, it depends on the mentality and the desire to to score, not just on one or two players.”
