Pep Guardiola calls for player strike as Erik ten Hag blames hectic schedule for Man Utd’s injury woes
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has urged players across the globe to stand against the increasingly busy football schedule which is taking its toll on their welfare.
The introduction of a mid-season World Cup last year only added fuel to an existing debate about the safety of players, who are now playing more football than ever before and appear to be struggling with the physical impact of doing so.
In the Premier League, the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are among a number of clubs missing a large portion of their squads through injury, but the trend can be seen across the globe. Real Madrid lost both Thibaut Courtois and Eder Militao to ACL injuries during the summer, while the same injury has proven to be a real menace to women’s football in recent years.
Repeated calls for help from the authorities have tended to fall on deaf ears and so Guardiola has now urged players to take note of the actions of the Spanish women’s side, who fought back against their own federation in search of better working conditions and the removal of former president Luis Rubiales.
„There is only one solution to change something, maybe if all the players decide for themselves to say, ‚Stop‘, then you have to change something,“ Guardiola said. „And then FIFA, UEFA will maybe react a little bit.
„In this business the show must go on. Without Pep, keep going, but without the players the show will not go on. But it depends on them, if they decide.“
He continued: „Look at Spain with the women’s team, the players decided to change something and they changed it. They changed something because the players decided that they had something inside to protect the players, and the future of the teams for new generations. The biggest legacy is that. The women’s teams in Spain did it, I don’t know if in men’s world football, they will do it.“
On the other side of Manchester, United boss Erik ten Hag admitted his players simply cannot cope with the stress being put on their bodies.
„We already expanded the squad this season because we make the reason clear. We had a World Cup in the middle of the season, we had a longer season, we had to play a longer season as well, with FA Cup. A shorter break,“ he explained.
„Every time the schedule is expanding, the load on the players is too much, it’s such a great overload. Many colleagues of mine have pointed to that and I have pointed to that as well.
„But it keeps going. We keep expanding the schedule. Anywhere, it won’t stop. Players can’t deal anymore with this overload and I think that’s what you say in this squad at the moment.“
The pair’s comments come after Burnley boss Vincent Kompany suggested implementing a cap to the number of games a player can play in a single season.
„For the players at the top, who have to play for their national teams and all of these other competitions, it should be capped appearances within a season.“ the Belgian argued. „Put a number on it. It’s not for me to put a number on it, [but] 60 or 65 games. They [still] have to work hard, don’t get me wrong, but 60 games takes a little bit away.“