Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has acknowledged that players who featured prominently at the World Cup are finding it difficult to reach their best early-season form because of the limited time available for rest and preparation.
Maresca made the admission ahead of City’s Champions League opener against Porto at the Dragao Stadium on Tuesday, while responding to concerns raised by striker Erling Haaland about the demanding football calendar.
“I think it’s correct that you see these kind of players that they start to be tired,” Maresca told reporters on Monday.
Haaland, speaking earlier in the day on his YouTube channel, revealed that Norway’s run to the World Cup quarter-finals left him without the usual pre-season preparation.
“The new season started and I didn’t even have a pre-season. I normally have a bit of pre-season but this time, just nothing,” the striker said.
Despite scoring three goals in three league appearances, Haaland did not feature in City’s warm-up matches after his extended international campaign.
The Norwegian said the physical demands would eventually become manageable provided he remained free of injury, but stressed that recovering mentally was equally important.
He also questioned whether players have enough time away from football to properly recharge, given the increasing number of fixtures and the lengthening season.
“We need to have that eager feeling to go back but we don’t because there is no time to properly stay away from football because there are so many games and the season is longer,” Haaland said.
While describing the situation as a positive consequence of being able to play football throughout the year, he added: “But sometimes we need a break as well.”
Maresca sympathised with his striker and other players facing similar circumstances after international duty.
“It’s not easy for them. It’s not easy for Erling, it’s not easy for most of the players that they continue to play for their international team,” he said.
The City boss suggested that managing their workload may require individual decisions, including leaving players out of matches or giving them additional time away from the team.
“It’s correct to give them some rest that can be one game out or can be one week away depends a little bit in which moment we are,” Maresca explained.
Rather than focusing on where City should be several months from now, Maresca said the priority is gradual improvement.
“To be focused on the day by day makes it very complicated to think where we can be in February, March, April in terms of expectation,” he said.
“The most important thing is to see that we are improving game after game.”
