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Pep Guardiola has revealed that he was left with no choice but to name only six substitutes for Manchester City's trip to Burnley on Saturday.

The Catalan coach received criticism for what some perceived to be a reluctance to promote youth players to the squad.

With the likes of David Silva, Fabien Delph, John Stones and Leroy Sane out, Guardiola confirmed earlier this week that 19-year-old forward Lukas Nmecha would be training with the first-team.

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But he was not included in Saturday's squad, and Guardiola explained his decision after the 1-1 draw at Turf Moor.

"We don’t have any more players, that is the reason why. We have one goalkeeper and five players," he said - quoted by Metro. "We could take one from second team but they played a game yesterday."

Guardiola also revealed the reason behind dropping Aymeric Laporte to the bench after his impressive debut against West Brom last week.

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"We played two-and-a-half days ago," he added. "We felt two games in a row would be difficult hasn’t had one serious training sessions with us.  When Vinny is fit he is a big player for us."

Despite criticism of his squad, Guardiola named three players aged 21 or under as substitutes at Burnley.

Tosin Adarabioyo, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Brahim Diaz were all the bench as City were held by Sean Dyche's side. They were alongside experienced duo Claudio Bravo and Yaya Toure, and Laporte.

City are now 13 points clear of second-placed Manchester United in the Premier League standings after Saturday's results.