Some of the players in Guardiola’s Manchester City team have been playing a lot of football over the past few seasons. It’s tough to say Guardiola made a mistake. The amount of top-level professional football played since the beginning of the 2022/23 season has been incredible, almost like nothing we’ve seen before.
There are a bunch of reasons why people are feeling a bit worn out with football lately. The World Cup being in winter in Qatar, the new Nations League by UEFA, and teams like City joining in on the Club World Cup are all part of it. Players are getting tired, and the scariest part is that there’s even more to come.
Guardiola’s Critique of Football Scheduling and Player Health
They’re talking about making the Champions League bigger, having a World Cup with 48 teams—basically, the usual stuff. But even if they get rid of FA Cup replays, it won’t do much to ease the workload for City players. Guardiola’s main point, after City narrowly won against Chelsea in the FA Cup, was that the schedulers didn’t consider that City had just played a big Champions League match against Real Madrid a few days earlier.
The situation got even worse because City’s game against Real Madrid lasted longer than usual. Which went into extra time and penalties. And it showed on the field at Wembley, where City seemed tired and couldn’t keep up their usual speed and control against Chelsea. However, Guardiola was glad they managed to win. Moreover, he said it was wrong to make them play so soon after such a tough match.
“It’s impossible, for the health of the players. It’s not normal. It is unacceptable. 120 minutes, the emotions of Madrid, the way we lose, honestly. I know in this country [the FA Cup] is special but it’s for the health of the players. I don’t understand how we survived. Why don’t we play tomorrow? Chelsea, Manchester United, Coventry didn’t play midweek.” Guardiola said
Guardiola was definitely right, but he could have said even more about the problems with how games are scheduled nowadays. He mentioned a few players who he thought had a really hard time getting mentally ready for the Chelsea game. He couldn’t believe how players like Rodri and Kyle Walker managed to get through such a tough week without a break.
As featured on ManCityNews.com
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