Manchester City’s Manuel Akanji was as critical as his manager Pep Guardiola of the schedule and the fixture load players can carry, saying there is a ‘limit’ and joking about a retirement at 30.
We all know how critical Pep Guardiola always is of the fixture schedule that affects clubs and now the Spanish coach has been joined by his defender Manuel Akanji, who was very critical on the subject when asked by the media with the Champions League match against Inter just around the corner.
“Now it’s getting more complicated. It’s just got bigger, with more games. It was six and it can go to 10. If you’re going to do this, you need to take some games away – you can’t just keep adding game after game and assume everything will be like it was. You have to think about the players,” said Akanji.
The new format of the Champions League does not help this load either, as the expanded field of teams will mean more matches. The centre-back made 127 appearances for Manchester City and the Swiss national team last season in the two years since joining the Etihad club.
“At some point you’ll be too tired to play any more games. Then come injuries, definitely. We train as hard as possible and we are fit – but there has to be a limit. We have the Club World Cup at the end of this season. Let’s say we win the Premier League or FA Cup, then go to the final of the Club World Cup, the Community Shield is three weeks after. So when do we have holidays?,” added the Manchester City player.
“There are no breaks in winter. If we’re lucky. we’ll get two weeks and then we need to be back and into next season. Then the next summer it’s the World Cup and then there’s another Club World Cup the following summer. Maybe I’ll retire at 30!”
Manchester City face Inter next Wednesday in the Champions League, but that’s not all as they host title rivals Arsenal on Sunday, before finishing with another EFL Cup game against Watford 48 hours later.