Manchester City have a player who has admitted that he was playing through pain during his side’s 1-0 win against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final.
Pep Guardiola would be concerned hearing such an admission at the most crucial period of the season.
With six games left in the Premier League as well as an FA Cup final to go, the last thing the City boss would want is for players to pick up injuries.
After the game, Pep Guardiola was expected to be all smiles as his team had reached the FA Cup final after defeating Chelsea.
However, the £378,846-a-week man was seemingly exasperated, which may have come as a surprise to viewers around the world.
The Catalan tactician discussed how the scheduling of the competition’s semi-final on Saturday after Manchester City had faced Real Madrid on Wednesday was a risk to his players’ health.
Man City player admits he was playing through pain vs Chelsea
Just by watching the game, it looked like the City players were not at their sharpest, especially struggling to chase the ball back when getting hit on the counter.
The Sky Blues’ evident tiredness affected their technical security on the day, with say, Kevin De Bruyne, who started against Real Madrid playing far too many wayward passes.
However, that was maybe because De Bruyne looked burned out physically due to having played 90 minutes against Los Blancos.
As a result, Pep Guardiola was full of praise for Rodri and Kyle Walker after his side’s victory against Chelsea, who were committed from minute one despite playing 120 minutes of football against Real Madrid.
Now, City have four days to rest and recover until they face Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium.
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva, much like Pep Guardiola initially slated the fact that his side had been scheduled to play against Chelsea on Saturday.
“Today we didn’t play on a level field because the FA didn’t give us a chance to recover. Which in my opinion is not reasonable at all.”
“I’m just saying because we won. If we didn’t win, I wouldn’t say because I don’t like to find excuses. But today I don’t think it’s acceptable we have to play”, he said [via Manchester Evening News’ Simon Bajkowski].
The £43 million man continued, “It’s too much. Today was too much. We played 120 minutes less than three days ago, and we had to play against a team that didn’t travel because they’re from London. And they had five days waiting for us and thinking about our game.
“There’s no excuse for the game to not be tomorrow. It’s not acceptable. For all of us as a team that’s how we feel.”
“It looks like they don’t care because we’ve said it many times. It’s not about wanting to be favourites, it’s about health.”
Bernardo Silva admitted that while he went on to score the winner for Manchester City against Chelsea, he was feeling his calf and his hamstring.
“I played 90 minutes today. Me, Kevin [De Bruyne], Phil [Foden]. I wasn’t fine at all. I wasn’t fine. I’ll be honest, I was feeling my left hamstring and my right calf. This is not fair for Man City, for us.”
“When I say Man City, maybe other clubs went through it, this is just our personal experience. They have to pay more attention to these details. We represent England in these European competitions and it’s important for England for this country for other clubs to qualify for the Champions League, Europa League, Conference League. So they need to pay more attention.”
Damning indictment for Bernardo Silva to to come and say that after Chelsea win
The fact that a player, Bernardo Silva in this case admitted that he played through pain against Chelsea is perhaps the biggest indication that Manchester City should have played their semi-final on Sunday instead.
It is not safe for top players like the Portuguese international to be putting as much stress on their bodies, especially with Euro 2024 to come too during the summer.
In our view, the fixture scheduling for City has been an undeniable mistake and that too, at the risk of players like Bernardo’s safety.
One hopes that lessons are learned in the future and fair play to Bernardo Silva for giving a unique insight into his physical condition after the game.