Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has claimed there's "no solution" to the busy soccer schedule all elite clubs face after Erling Haaland expressed his concerns during preseason.
City has lost its opening two games of the preseason tour in the United States against Celtic and AC Milan but only has five first-team players available due to the international tournaments being held this summer. For teams like City, the top players can expect to play up to 70 games due to going far in every competition, and complaints have been made by several coaches and players.
The busy schedule increases the odds of injury due to players being unable to fully rest and recover, and on Friday it was Haaland's turn to speak out as he said it was hard for players to stay sharp. Guardiola was asked by Mirror Sports U.S. after Saturday's 3-2 loss against Milan if there was a solution to the problem, but the head coach admitted it's "impossible" to solve.
"No there's no solution. There's no intention to the solution," Guardiola told Mirror Sports U.S. in Saturday's postgame press conference. "The clubs have to travel to make our brand around the world and see our players in other continents. That's just what it is, we have to adapt.
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"It's not just this season, it's happened for five, six, seven years so every time is the same. We'd like to have preparations properly but it's impossible. With the Euros they deserve to play, the national teams they deserve to play.
"FIFA, UEFA, and a lot of other competitions want to defend their product so they make games, so this is what we have to do. But, we have a good squad when they come back and we have five interesting (first-team) players just in case we need them (during preseason).
"Having the same calendar like this year. It is what it is and we have to adapt." It's almost unheard of for City to lose twice within a week, but the majority of its first-team players are still on an extended summer break due to Euro 2024 and Copa America.
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Haaland is looking sharp after scoring against both Celtic and Milan, but his nation Norway did not qualify for Euro 2024 this summer. Haaland has many friends and teammates who did qualify with their respective nations and shared his concerns ahead of the upcoming season that they could be fatigued.
"We all saw in the Euros as well in general how tired people were. You could see the level, you could see even in people’s faces how tired they were of football if you can say it that way," Haaland said on Friday.
"That’s how it will be as well this season, not in the start, though maybe for some because some will not get a lot of vacation. But that’s the way we’re going now, I don’t think we can be sharp in every single game. We can try, but it’s difficult to be sharp if you play over 70 games a year."
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