Do you really believe Haaland would be pissed if he was left out of the squad for a rest, as we face Ipswich, Sheffield Utd or Burnley et al at home in the PL, or Lincoln City away in the Carabao Cup?
Big players want to play in the biggest games. That's why we need to utilise our squad to its fullest extent so they can be rotated & rested for lower profile matches.
Regardless of some fans believing that every player wants to play every minute of every game, otherwise there'd be a transfer request incoming, this isn't borne out by the facts. After the treble, Rodri warned that he feared for his health because of the amount of games he was expected to play. His worst fears were realised.
Several players lamented about taking part in the CWC because they needed a rest. Akanji said most of our squad would've preferred the summer off instead of competing in the CWC.
Foden complained about the physical & mental fatigue he was suffering from last season. Bernardo said the players would prefer a larger squad to ease the playing pressure on them.
The only City player I can recall kicking up a proper stink about not playing every game was Cancelo. But he's a mental case who kicked off over the same thing at most clubs he's played at.
Other players who'd fallen out of favour so were not playing as often as they'd like, so wanting a move for more hame time, is a different matter. Players like Sterling, Zinchenko, Jesus, Laporte etc come to mind.
Our players are human beings, not robots. The only person ever to state they prefer a small squad is Pep. I've never heard a player state a small squad was their preference.
If Pep wants to compete for the four major trophies every season, we'll need a bigger squad. We saw the effect that rinsing out a small elite squad season after season had throughout 2024-25. It devastated our squad & made our season imploded.
We can't continue to do this. Something has to change.
