Pep Guardiola believes football will become 'like the NBA' due to horrendous fixture scheduling - but with one key difference

With City suffering their first Premier League defeat of the season against Bournemouth last Saturday and a Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Tottenham a few days prior, Guardiola admitted he has no choice but to "just handle it." The manager highlighted the toll this marathon season is taking on his squad with the rigorous schedule set to extend through FIFA’s revamped Club World Cup, which will run from June to July 2025 in the United States.

Guardiola compared the fixture list to the NBA, but pointed out that basketball players have a four-month off-season to recuperate, instead of a mere three-week break.

"In the past, the previous ­seasons, we played a lot of games, maybe when we go to the World [Club] Cup, arriving at the last stages of the competition, we’re going to play more than 70 games," he told reporters.

"And 70 games is like the NBA, but the NBA has four-month holidays and we have three weeks because it’s not this season, it comes from the previous season, the previous season, the previous season. When that happens, you have injuries for a long time. But it’s inevitable, it’s normal, it’s normal that it’s going to happen that. Just handle it and be perfect how many I would say, how many training sessions you have to do to arrive as much as well as possible to the game."

In their 2-1 loss to Bournemouth, Guardiola fielded a team with several players still recovering from injuries due to a lack of alternatives. Among these, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake stood out, and Guardiola commended their commitment to play despite not being fully fit.

"There are players that are not in the best way and they make an incredible effort to be here," he said. "So Manu and Nathan were not in really good condition, so until the last moment I didn’t know Nathan could play and he says: ‘No, I want to try, I want to try’. If we would have had five more days to recover and prepare, maybe we would have been better, or maybe not, who knows? But I don’t want to put now for the calendar, the argument for the calendar, for many things during the season when we were winning not looks like now because we lost a game. The reality; they won, congratulate them."

Walker revealed he had six minutes of training to prepare for Bournemouth and Guardiola lavished praise on the England ­international.

"Since arriving for this season after the Euros, he has trained maybe five, four, five ­training ­sessions with us," he said, "So he can play without any ­training because he’s in a ­condition, you know, ­physicality, that is ­incredible. He played 90 minutes against many, many fast players, it’s not easy."

City are without their star midfielder, Rodri, who suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury. Kevin De Bruyne, another indispensable figure for City, has been sidelined since September due to a thigh issue. Sharing an update on the Belgian midfielder, Guardiola said: "Kevin yesterday [Friday] started to feel better, but it’s been one month and a half, and the game was so demanding. I tried to take care of him… we need him and he will be back in the right moment."

Looking forward, City will face Sporting CP in the Champions League on Tuesday. Just days later, the team will return to Premier League action with a match against Brighton on Saturday.