Credit: Twitter
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has taken a subtle swipe at the Premier League for its hectic scheduling after his side won the UEFA Super Cup on penalties against Sevilla on Wednesday. The Spaniard, who reportedly lifted his 13th trophy with the English club, complained about the fact that his team had to play a game in less than 72 hours after the Super Cup win in Athens, Greece.
The City manager sarcastically thanked the Premier League for scheduling their next match against Newcastle on Saturday, as he said, “Thank you so much for the Premier League, to let us play on Saturday, and not on Sunday or Monday. Thank you so much”.
Guardiola also revealed that he had banned his players from drinking alcohol to celebrate their Super Cup triumph, saying that they had to focus on their upcoming fixture against Newcastle United and recover and stay fit for it.
Watch the video here:
Manchester City won the Super Cup for the first time in their history after beating Sevilla 5-4 in a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw in regulation time. Youssef En-Nesyri gave the Europa League winners the lead in the first half, but Cole Palmer equalised for the Champions League holders in the second half. The shootout was decided by Nemanja Gudelj’s miss for Sevilla, which handed victory to City.
Guardiola blames UEFA and FIFA for bad scheduling after Kevin de Bruyne’s injury
Since the implementation of new stoppage time regulations, games have been significantly extended, lasting an average of ten minutes throughout the first week of Premier League games.
Guardiola worries that this modification, combined with the relentless schedule of football, is to blame for the current spike in major injuries. Thibaut Courtois and Eder Militao of Real Madrid have both suffered ACL injuries, while Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City, Christopher Nkunku, and Jurrien Timber are all expected to miss significant amounts of time due to other issues.
Guardiola then criticised UEFA and FIFA for endangering players with their relentless fixture schedule, calling on the players to rise and oppose the modifications. He recalled from his playing days, how he had 25 days to prepare for his first official match against Skonto Riga after his first pre-season. He compared the situation to nowadays, where players barely get a 4-5-day gap. He blamed this scheduling for the rise in ACL injuries.
He further added, "This is a lost battle unless the players themselves stand up for themselves and go 'We aren't playing'. It's a lost battle, nothing UEFA or FIFA will do. And now they keep adding more minutes, we play 112 minutes now in a game. Imagine a match that a team starts wasting time, wasting time, wasting time, so it gets ten minutes longer. And the team that did not waste time scores, 1-0. Last 15 minutes, the team that did waste time now has this advantage to try draw the game after wasting time for the whole match. Does it make sense? No, no it doesn't.”
It will be interesting to see if any of the leagues take his advice seriously and have a slightly relaxed schedule going ahead. A lot of teams from various leagues are currently recovering from injuries, which ultimately has an adverse effect on the balance of the team.
