Alan Shearer has hinted at the fact that he disagrees with a point Pep Guardiola made during the weekend.
Guardiola made headlines during his post-match interview after Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0 in the FA Cup semi-final, describing the decision to schedule the game on Saturday as “unacceptable.”
The Catalan was upset about how his City players had played a game as physically and mentally demanding as against Real Madrid on Wednesday and he felt “the health of the players” was being put at risk.
However, Pep Guardiola was not the only representative from Manchester City who had no qualms about providing a scathing assessment of the fixture schedule.
Bernardo Silva was no different to his manager,stating that the game was “too much” to handle from a physical perspective.
Worryingly from City’s point of view, the £43 million man also admitted that he felt pain in his calf and hamstring.
Shearer says he disagreed with Guardiola after FA Cup semi-final
It is safe to say that some agreed with Pep Guardiola wholeheartedly while others felt he was making a mountain out of a molehill.
Don Hutchison also came out and backed the Spaniard on X, as he questioned why Manchester United and Coventry City’s FA Cup semi-final could not have been scheduled for Saturday instead.
Hutchison suggested it would have been a better idea for City to play against Chelsea on Sunday.
But that did not end up being the case.
However, Guardiola’s message seems to have been heard loud and clearly.
It is likely set to ignite conversation for at least the rest of the week.
Alan Shearer, who was also alongside Gary Lineker, Frank Lampard and Micah Richards when Pep Guardiola was expressing his discontentment has suggested he disagreed with him.
“I’m stood there thinking, because you know my stance on players playing too much football. And I’m stood there thinking, well, okay, I’ve got to come back with a question here so I’m thinking, there were two questions I had in my head.”
“It was one, well, why don’t you use more of your squad? You only changed four, you’ve got so many great players on your bench, you should’ve changed more”, he said on The Rest Is Football podcast.
Alan Shearer revealed how he wished to ask Pep Guardiola about how he felt about Arsenal and Liverpool having a similar schedule to Manchester City’s.
“Or do I go in with a tact of saying, well, hang on a minute, Arsenal played Munich away on Wednesday, in a couple of hours’ time or an hour’s time, you go in against Wolves. Then, Liverpool played Atalanta away on Thursday evening and they only had three days break before they played again today, being Sunday against Fulham.”
“So, it was like, come on! And I understand it because they want to protect the players, they want to protect their team and that’s all they’re interested in, looking after that. But at this stage of the season, we heard this argument all the time. It’s because you get to the cup final because you’re pushing for the league, come on! Really?”
Shearer added, “If I was playing for Man City against Real Madrid on Wednesday and I got knocked out on penalties, I’d want a game on Friday and not Saturday just to get it out of my system.”
“Frank Lampard said the same when you [Gary Lineker] asked him the question. ‘What do you think, Frank?’ And he said, I loved playing, I didn’t want to train, I just wanted to play games.”
When Micah Richards argued that football is far more intense nowadays in comparison to the past, the Newcastle legend replied, “You’ve got bigger squads, you’ve got five subs, Man City, pass, pass, pass, pass. I know they work hard, I’m not saying they don’t but really? Come on!”
Bizarre rationales used by Shearer across the board
For starters, the fact that Alan Shearer felt Pep Guardiola had the luxury of bringing an array of top players off the bench against Chelsea goes to show that the idea that Manchester City have the best possible squad still exists.
Of course, City have a top roster of players but in terms of attackers, the only player they could have brought on to have an impact on the game was Jeremy Doku, which they did.
Oscar Bobb was the only other substitute capable of playing as a forward while Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes are central midfielders.
The Sky Blues do not have the squad they did perhaps during the 2018/2019 campaign.
Secondly, it is surprising to hear Alan Shearer not just veer to the side of Pep Guardiola being correct about questioning why Manchester City could not just play on Sunday.
In our view, it is unnecessary to highlight how Liverpool and Arsenal had the same schedule as the crux of the matter should be the players’ well-being, regardless of which club they play for.
To add to that, the Manchester City players likely feel the same as Alan Shearer in wishing to play as much football as possible, as they compete on multiple fronts season after season.
But simultaneously, more can be done to safeguard their health and safety to ensure they are available during the most challenging part of the season.