Pep Guardiola has sent a clear message to any of his Manchester City players who might be feeling tired during the final weeks of the season.
City will turn their attention to the FA Cup on Saturday when they take on Sheffield United in a Wembley semi-final.
United – who need just one win from their remaining four league games to clinch automatic promotion to the Premier League – pose a tough test for a City side that might be feeling the effects of midweek exertions.
City booked a place in the Champions League semi-finals with a 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich on Wednesday, a game so exhausting Guardiola said his players didn’t have the energy to celebrate in the dressing room.
However, when asked if it would be a risk to start tired players at Wembley, Guardiola had a message for his squad.
“I don’t think about [this]… the only thing I see is the team, I have to convince them of the reality that the tiredness is there, but you can use it as an excuse or an opportunity,” he said.
“If you have an opportunity you will be ready at 4:45PM [on Saturday], you have an excuse you will be tired and that it’s better to not play, and they have to be honest with the team.
“It depends on your thoughts. Your thoughts all the time control your body mentally, your mental approach, your thoughts. You can think bad or good. Wrong or a positive way.
“That depends on you, not the manager or anyone outside or anything. You feel I am not tired, you feel ‘I’m ok, I want to play in the fa cup’ you are not tired.
“But if you are ‘oh yes, Champions League is nicer, Arsenal [league fixture next week] is nicer, maybe I have to rest’, and after that you will be tired.”
Guardiola also explained that some players recover quicker than others, but that every member of his squad needs to give everything they’ve got in the final weeks of the season.
“There are players who make regeneration better, they can do it and the other ones, take more time,” he said.
“Bernardo is a guy who makes incredible regeneration for example, but weeks ago he came to us and he said ‘I am destroyed’.
“He didn’t say don’t play me. After when he didn’t play he came over and said ‘thank you so much for allowing me not to play because I was so really tired’. And he is a guy who recovers quickly.
“There are so many games in such a short time and with travel and everything this is normal. They are human beings too but they have 6 or 7 weeks left we have to do every last effort, to sustain the chances of being in the competitions as long as possible.”
