- Manchester City are expected to go far on several fronts again next season
- Players have received their journals and are preparing for weeks of non-stop action
- Ruben Dias shared City’s schedule on social media, along with a sweaty emoji
Manchester City defender Ruben Dias has called time on the club’s busy schedule for the upcoming season, with fixtures coming in quick succession despite persistent warnings that footballers will burn out and go on strike.
Central defender Dias made 45 appearances for City last season, plus a further seven for Portugal. He is likely to be under pressure in the coming months as Pep Guardiola’s side are expected to go deep on multiple fronts once again.
FIFA has been told that players can take matters into their own hands to deal with the congestion, but it appears that next season a number of players will be pushed to breaking point as their workloads remain much the same as in recent years.
Dias gave his supporters on X, formerly Twitter, a rare taste of what’s in store for City, posting a screenshot of their brutal fixture list with the caption ‘POV: You play for City’ and a nervous, sweaty emoji.
Starting this weekend, in the Community Shield match against Manchester United at Wembley, City will be battling it out for nine months.
Ruben Dias has lifted the lid on Manchester City’s ruthless programme for next season
Dias shared a screenshot of City’s diary with matches in different competitions colour coded
The schedule is colour-coded with Premier League matchweeks in green, Champions League matchdays in purple and Carabao Cup and FA Cup matches also highlighted. International breaks are also highlighted.
The expanded Club World Cup tournament, which will be held in June next year, is also part of the programme.
Guardiola has spoken out about the need for changes in workload and believes the short period between the end of the campaign and pre-season preparation is damaging.
“I am against the lack of time to recover from year to year,” he said.
“This is what I complain about all the time. For me, it doesn’t matter to play every three days, six days, seven days. It’s okay.
“But it’s really hard to finish the season and then start over in three weeks and go to Asia, to be financially stable, or the States. It’s really hard, for ourselves and especially for the players. For me, things have to change.”
Pep Guardiola has spoken out about the need to reduce players’ growing workloads
City’s squad are likely to come under pressure again as they prepare for a battle on multiple fronts
The players’ union FIFPRO said strikes could not be ruled out if FIFA failed to meet growing demand amid its busy schedule.
David Terrier, president of FIFPRO Europe, said there was an “emergency” in terms of mental and physical fatigue and urged that the number of matches be limited.
A FIFPRO player workload and recovery season review has produced some surprising revelations. As part of the review, a player survey revealed that over 50 percent of respondents said they had been forced to play while injured.
82 percent of managers said they had fielded a player who they knew needed rest.
Last season, several coaches, including Jurgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag, criticised their players’ diaries and lamented a series of injuries that were partly attributed to burnout.