Kevin De Bruyne will miss EFL Cup meeting with Manchester United

• Belgian has not recovered from the knock in game against Southampton
• Zabaleta also expected to sit out game but Kompany may get game time

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Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Kevin De Bruyne will miss Manchester City’s EFL Cup meeting on Wednesday with Manchester United at Old Trafford.

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The Belgian could not complete the last league game with Southampton after taking a knock to a leg, and though the injury is not thought to be serious the City manager said there was “no way” De Bruyne could play in the derby. “Hopefully he will be back for the West Bromwich game, but at the moment he is a doubt even for the weekend,” Guardiola said.

Pablo Zabaleta is also unlikely to have recovered in time for the United game, though Vincent Kompany has a chance. Guardiola has admitted he intends to rotate some of his players, and Willy Caballero will appear in goal instead of Claudio Bravo, simply because the reserve goalkeeper started the last League Cup game.

“Willy played in Swansea so I think it will be Willy against Manchester United,” Guardiola said. “We are going to rotate. Some of the younger players will play, first because they deserve it and second because it was tough in last few games. We play 35 minutes with 10 men against Barcelona and it was a tough game against Southampton. People are tired. I need today to see the players in the training session and after that I am going to decide.”

After being left out for most of the game against Barcelona, Sergio Agüero is likely to be used against United, as Guardiola insists changes will be kept to a minimum with a view to winning the game. “Sergio is in contention, he played really well against Southampton,” Guardiola said. “I want to be clear on this point, I am happy with Sergio and hopefully he can stay for a long time. I hope from deep in my heart he can stay here. He is a striker who scores a lot of goals in his career.”

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Guardiola will be aware José Mourinho has described the League Cup as the lowest of his priorities, though that was before the hiding United took against Chelsea at the weekend and his rival’s immediate concern now may be to avoid another damaging defeat. “

A derby is a derby and I always expect the best from United, even if they lost at the weekend,” the City manager said. “Between them José and United have quality and experience, and that means a lot. In my experience it is always difficult at Old Trafford. They are a physical team, with strength and quality in the middle and good counterattacking players in Rashford and Martial. They are a top team. They might be six points behind us but six points is only two games.”

Manchester City and their manager did not expect to be looking for a first win in six games at this stage of the season, though Guardiola insists his side are playing well for the most part and just need to cut out the expensive mistakes. “There are some things we could do better, we need to differentiate when we can play and when we can’t,” he said. “We are doing a lot of good things but of course we need a victory as soon as possible.”