Pep Guardiola could hand Julian Alvarez his first competitive start in Manchester City colours when Nottingham Forest visit the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening.
City announced the signing of Alvarez on the final day of the January transfer window, with the 22-year-old spending the second half of the previous campaign at River Plate.
Alvarez has made a strong impression since his arrival to Manchester, starring in pre-season with his energetic displays across the frontline and scoring against Liverpool in the Community Shield in July.
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The young Argentine was joined by Erling Haaland through the door at the Etihad Stadium in the transfer window after City signed the Leeds-born forward for a reported fee of £51 million from Borussia Dortmund.
Haaland has took next to no time to settle to life in Manchester, scoring twice on his debut in a 2-0 victory away at West Ham on the opening day of the season before grabbing his first hat-trick for City in a comeback win against Crystal Palace at the weekend.
Pep Guardiola has lauded Haaland for his attitude since his sensational move to the Premier League champions, who sold Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling to Arsenal and Chelsea respectively this summer.
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"He's 22-years-old, he’s young and he recovers well," the Manchester City manager said when asked if the Norwegian could start a fifth successive league game when the Blues face Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
However, with City set to play four times in the next 11 days - including a trip to Sevilla in their opening Champions League group-stage game and a league meeting with Tottenham - Guardiola could look to shuffle his pack against the Reds in midweek.
The Catalan could hand Julian Alvarez his first Premier League start against Forest after the River Plate academy graduate netted in City's 3-3 draw with Barcelona in a charity friendly at Camp Nou last week.
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This could see either Alvarez line up alongside Haaland in either of the wide attacking positions or instead down the middle for the Premier League champions.
Guardiola added: "I think he (Haaland) is able to play quite regularly, but not because there is a World Cup (this year). I don’t handle players for national coaches.
"They don’t think about us when they are with their national teams. So we are here and going to try to make decisions game by game and see what happens."
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With the games coming thick and fast for the Blues, Guardiola is aware he will need to make full use of the personnel at his disposal as City look to compete on all fronts again this season.
The 51-year-old said: "It was four days between these games, then three days for Aston Villa and Sevilla, then three or four days for Tottenham.
"Maybe that will be different. With travel for the recovery, it is much much worse. In the end we played here, we had a day off for recovery and then training. The players I see today are really well."
Topics: Manchester City, Premier League, Pep Guardiola, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Julian Alvarez, Football
Vayam Lahoti