Pep Guardiola fears the full extent of a mid-season World Cup won’t reveal itself until spring and is worried the tournament could have an effect on Manchester City during their run-in.
The Blues boss believes the teams who have managed to keep players fresh will thrive in March and April, when the season could catch up with players who have already been put through a punishing schedule and will next week head to Qatar for an unprecedented winter World Cup.
Speaking before City play Chelsea in the Carabao Cup third round, Guardiola twice branded the tournament schedule “crazy” in a passionate broadside at the workload players are being forced into by the governing bodies.
City have two games left before the six-week break for the tournament, by which time they will have played 22 matches in 15 weeks, which also includes a 14-day international window in September. It would have been 24 games had City not had Premier League fixtures against Tottenham and Arsenal postponed.
When players return to their club sides just before Christmas they will have to be carefully managed, with the schedule immediately kicking back into top gear, including a potential Carabao Cup fourth-round tie just four days after the World Cup final.
“I have the feeling we’ll have to pay a lot of attention to how the players feel after the World Cup, and in March and April when we arrive in the latter stages that the squad who has had longer and will be fresher have more chances to win games in that period,” said Guardiola.
“It’s how they come back from the World Cup. I think the target for all the clubs will be the amount of energy they spend in training sessions to be perfect. I have the feeling it will be shower, massage, shower, massage to recover the players for the next game. It’s crazy. It’s a lot of games for the players.
