Pep Guardiola has confessed that the congested list of fixtures is ‘too much’ on his Manchester City squad and the competition.
Manchester City play their eighth game of the 2020/21 campaign away to West Ham on Saturday afternoon, despite only concluding their previous one on August 15.
The Citizens have lost stars like Benjamin Mendy, Fernandinho, and Gabriel Jesus to injuries.
While Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte failed to make the squad for the West Ham match, with Kevin De Bruyne having to settle for a bench spot.
Now Guardiola has suggested clubs outside of Europe have an advantage over them following Fernandinho’s injury setback in City’s 3-1 win over FC Porto in the Champions League midweek.
“I love football, I love to play football, I love watching it on television – I love everything, but it’s too much,” the Catalan coach said on Sky Sports.
“I know the business, but it’s too much for the players. The players don’t have a rest mentally or physically.
“This is going to happen because they are not consulting with anyone. There are 365 days and you have to put all the competitions and all the games [in], and especially right now with what happened last season with COVID-19, it’s reduced the calendar so it’s more difficult – but it’s too much.
“It’s too much for everyone, at least for the teams who play in Europe – for the other ones maybe it’s less.
“You finish the season and you start another one, you finish the season and you start another one.
“I would love to play a lot of games, to play during eight, nine or 10 months an incredible amount of games is okay, but you have to take a break for one or two months and make a good preparation to protect the players.”
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