Fatigue? Give him a rest. If Man City keep talking about feeling jaded, then they will start to believe they are, writes GRAEME SOUNESS

Never in my fifty years of playing have I heard a player say that he had to leave the field because he was too tired.

So I was surprised to hear Pep Guardiola say that Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Manuel Akanji asked to be substituted against Real Madrid the other night because they “couldn’t continue”. This is something I have never witnessed.

I can only assume that Guardiola was protecting de Bruyne and Haaland, that they were feeling something or landing blows, because surely that is the only explanation for taking out your most creative player and top scorer as he chased the match in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

De Bruyne is 32 now and has suffered a few muscle injuries while Haaland has had one or two niggles, so I could understand, with City still having so much to play for, that they would be withdrawn for their own good in that case- there. respect but tired, certainly not.

I never got tired of the demands of a game when I was playing and yes, of course it was different in those days, where for most of the season we played on pitches that looked like a field of a farmer and where it was allowed to be aggressive. the tackle too.

Man City boss had to protect both because of knocks against Real Madrid

The danger of Guardiola mentioning fatigue is that the team might start to believe it is.

In Joe Fagan’s Liverpool team in 1984 we won a league title with just 15 players, no one complained of fatigue at the time, this team also won a European Cup and the Milk Cup with four players totaling 67 games while I managed 61. I found that after three days of rest between games I was ready to go again. The only time we saw a player go out was for his own protection. As a manager, it was either myself, the physical therapist, or the doctor saying, “Hey, get off, it’s over.”

The danger is that we heard the other week Guardiola and then Rodri say they were too tired and needed rest. There is no point in continuing to talk about it because your brain will start to believe it and then you will feel tired. I fear this has more to do with sports scientists and the enormous influence they have over our major football clubs today. They just need to put these comments aside and move on.

To be fair to City, they have to ask themselves why they didn’t win against Real Madrid anyway.

It was quite astonishing to see how our best passing and pressing team made the biggest football club in the world look very ordinary. It says something when you see Carlo Ancelotti resort to telling his goalkeeper to just throw the ball away because they couldn’t play out from the back and had no answer to City’s pressing play. City had 67% possession and 33 shots, so this loss will be very difficult to take as they aren’t doing much wrong.

Likewise with Arsenal, they lose to Bayern Munich and novice analysts of our game look for reasons that don’t exist. This Bayern team hasn’t been consistent enough this season, it’s the first time they haven’t dominated the Bundesliga in 11 years, but the stars they have in this team mean they can contend anyone any night. Arsenal looked a bit labored and lacked creativity in the center of midfield. They are too reliant on Martin Odegaard for passing kindness, but they are still better than they were last season.

These are the first doors for this Arsenal team, they are not good enough at this level yet. A Champions League quarter-final is just about perfect for where they are. They lost to Aston Villa last week and people are saying the failures of last season are coming back. It’s absurd. Their season is not over. We can’t say that they haven’t improved compared to last year. The test for them is to face the disappointment now and start again. It’s the same for them, City and Liverpool: the title race is still on.

These are the first doors for Arsenal, who are not yet good enough at Champions League level.

Arsenal looked labored against Bayern and appear too reliant on Martin Odegaard

Both Chelsea players were like U12 kids in the penalty lane

The sight of Chelsea players arguing over who should take a penalty against Everton on Monday night was beyond belief. It’s pathetic to see professional players behave like this.

Remember, this is at a club with a wage bill of £404 million, second only to Manchester City who paid their players bonuses for winning a treble. This group just seems like a bunch of overpaid, overrated average players and their petty actions do not assuage that belief.

Before going out, you designate who is on free kicks, corners and penalties. Cole Palmer is Chelsea’s designated shooter. It’s up to him if he wants it and if he wants it, that’s it. END OF. “It’s my ball, I’ll take it, now step back.”

What pushes Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke to do this? It could just be that Palmer has already scored a hat-trick, so they’re thinking ‘let me have some glory’. If that’s how they view the game, it’s not good because it tells you it’s all about me, me, me.

It’s a very, very amateurish look, that kind of petulance. Like something you would see in an U12 game. This says a lot about their characters, which is worrying.

Noni Madueke, left, and Nicolas Jackson, right, fighting over a penalty was pathetic

Cool Cole offers it all for Gareth

Cole Palmer is a class act and it is inevitable that he will travel to Germany with the England squad for the European Championships this summer.

He had a fabulous performance against Everton and he has an ability that few people have. He is at the top of the rankings but he has set himself quite a benchmark in his first season as a Chelsea player with already 23 goals. If he continues to replicate that, then we could be looking at a great England for the next ten years.

Scoring goals is the hardest part of the game, but Palmer does it with relative ease. He is cool-headed, he calculates, he works hard, he is overflowing with abilities. There’s nothing to hate about him. He left Manchester City because he wanted to play and you can see he has a great appetite for the game and is not bothered by anything. It will be an integral part of Gareth Southgate’s thinking as the first Euro match approaches.

Cole Palmer will be part of England boss Gareth Southgate’s thinking ahead of the Euro

The FA Cup has been reduced to a sideshow

I fear the FA Cup has become a victim of the Premier League’s dominance.

What was once this country’s big flagship game is now reduced to little more than a sideshow with the changes announced this week. No replays and the final taking place before the end of the league season. It’s a shame but it no longer matters for the big clubs. Now it’s all about the Premier League and European football.

Gone are the days when we set aside the weekend to watch the match with family or friends, glued to the TV while the helicopters followed the team buses towards Wembley.

The FA Cup Final was the grand finale of the season. Now it’s just another game and the dominance of the Premier League has made this possible.

Look at the money you get per place in the Premier League, even the last one gets you around £112m with an equal share from broadcast deals and merit payments. This is the brand that is now promoted to all corners of the world and, unfortunately, not the FA Cup.

The FA Cup has been reduced to a sideshow due to the dominance of the Premier League