Pep Guardiola said he turned down the chance to revamp his Manchester City squad in the summer and admitted it was the wrong decision after watching injuries play a significant role in their disappointing start to the season.

City are set to bring in fresh faces during the January window with a fee already agreed for Lens defender Abdukodir Khusanov and ongoing interest in Eintracht Frankfurt forward Omar Marmoush.

It’s a response to the injuries which have hit the squad since the beginning of the campaign. And Guardiola said that he should have sanctioned more incomings during the summer after only signing Savinho and the returning Ilkay Gündogan.

“I always said in the summer time — the club thought about doing it — and I said: ‘No, I don’t want to make any signings,'” Guardiola said.

“I rely on the team and I want to stay with them. Just Savio came, Gundo back — I wasn’t expecting that at the end — but he came back and just Savio came.

“And I said, because I rely a lot with these guys and I thought still I can do it again, do it again with those guys and do it. But after the injuries, wow, maybe we should have done it.”

Guardiola is preparing his team to face Brentford in the Premier League on Tuesday. He’s likely to be without captain Kyle Walker after he told the club he wants to explore the possibility of a move abroad in January.

AC Milan are interested in the 34-year-old England defender who has 18 months left on his contract at the Etihad.

Guardiola is also fighting to keep James McAtee at the club following interest from Germany.

“Kyle is our player right now, so that’s all,” Guardiola said. “What’s going to happen, I don’t know. I would love to say categorically yes [McAtee will stay] but I don’t know. I would love him to stay here.

“I was the one to say, I want Macca here. He didn’t play much minutes so far, but I was the one who said I want James here with us.”