‘We have four or five senior players’: Pep Guardiola lashes out at football bosses over schedule
‘We’ve got four or five top-tier players’: Pep Guardiola lashes out at England football bosses over Man City’s schedule, sarcastically calling them ‘the big brains of football’ His team meets Liverpool in the Carabao Cup FOUR DAYS after the World Cup final
Pep Guardiola took aim at authorities after Erling Haaland scored on his return to action for Manchester City.
Kevin De Bruyne – who also scored in the friendly win against sister club Girona – and Ilkay Gundogan were the only available players to feature at the World Cup.
City meet Liverpool in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup on Thursday night and Guardiola lamented the brief turn from the World Cup final to the return of domestic football.
Pep Guardiola is not happy about the return of club play with the ‘great minds of football’
“We have four or five (older) players,” said Guardiola. ‘We have to see them come back.
“We don’t have any players, but the big brains of football used their minds to create this schedule for us to play.”
Nathan Ake, Aymeric Laporte and Rodri are all expected to return to City training earlier in the week and could be in the squad for the Cup clash against Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Julian Alvarez, who lit up the tournament with finalists Argentina, will have a few days off before rejoining the Premier League champions.
The 22-year-old has been playing solidly since February and spent five months at River Plate before joining City in the summer.
Kevin de Bruyne scored for Manchester City on his return to action after the World Cup
Phil Foden, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Kalvin Phillips, Jack Grealish, Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias were all knocked out in the quarter-finals and City have yet to say how much rest they will be granted ahead of a league game at Leeds United December 28th.
The 16 representatives City had at the tournament were the most in the division and they treat each player’s recovery differently. Despite early elimination from the group stages against Germany and Belgium, Gundogan and De Bruyne resumed training within two weeks.
Guardiola added: “It was really good as a first game after a long time, especially for some players like Erling and Riyad (Mahrez) who hadn’t played at all. They were good minutes for all of them.’
Ilkay Gundogan is one of the many Manchester City players who featured at the World Cup
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11549519/We-four-five-senior-players-Pep-Guardiola-hits-football-chiefs-schedule.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 ‘We have four or five senior players’: Pep Guardiola lashes out at football bosses over schedule