Gareth Taylor provides Man City fitness update and addresses goalkeeper debate

Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor has issued a squad fitness update ahead of their UEFA Women's Champions League clash against Swedish side Hammarby on Tuesday night.

The Cityzens secured a 4-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the Women’'s Super League on Friday night, with striker Khadija Shaw scoring a hat-trick against the North London club. But attention has now shifted to European competition with another significant clash on the horizon.

Ahead of City's midweek UWCL fixture at the Joie Stadium, Taylor addressed the health of his squad and revealed it is good news regarding Naomi Layzell and Laia Aleixandri.

"There's some positive news on her after further investigation and Laia is similar. That's really good news because it could've been longer. They're both working extremely hard, this game has come too soon for them but they're not far away at all.

"Hopefully we can start getting that little bit of support for the players in the backline, we're a bit stretched at the moment."

City remain without long-term absentee Vivianne Miedema, who underwent knee surgery last month. The extent of the injury and recovery time has not been revealed by the club at this stage.

Another big selection question for the manager is the goalkeeper as he has rotated between Khiara Keating and summer signing Ayaka Yamashita this season. Keating was a mainstay in the City team throughout last season, but her game time has been reduced in the early months of this campaign.

The 20-year-old shot-stopper has started four games across all competitions, while Yamashita, who was signed from Japanese side INAC Kobe Leonessa during the last transfer window, has kept four clean sheets in her seven starts.

"We have two very good goalkeepers," Taylor continued, when asked about the goalkeeper competition. "That's it. Khiara deserved to stay in [the team] after Crystal Palace. We'll see about tomorrow and the next game, but we don't look any further than that.

"What I will say is Khiara's reaction after not playing at the beginning of the season has been very good. She got her rewards by staying in the team, and she performed very well again against Spurs.

"We'll see what happens in the next game. We've played 11 games and Khiara has started four so far, it's probably not as big of a swing as you would imagine. 

"We have two very good goalkeepers who bring different things. We always look at the opponent and who we will need to implement our style against those opponents."

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