Club World Cup means Pep Guardiola must confront biggest Man City fear

Manchester City return to action this weekend with a top-of-the-table clash against Liverpool.

The Saturday lunchtime showdown has already irked Pep Guardiola given it kicks off the return of Premier League football after an international break. Both City and Liverpool feel the game should not be played a matter of days after most of the two club's squads return from all quarters of the globe.

It's not the first scheduling to leave Guardiola irate and the City boss is unlikely to find any solace in the fixture list moving forward. The Blues have 11 games between now and the new year, including nine in 28 days in December.

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City played more than 60 club matches last term on their way to an historic treble with a winter World Cup also part of the calendar. They have added games in the Club World Cup this season, while an expanded Champions League from next year provides further congestion. Guardiola has long been outspoken on the topic of playing too many games while his tendency to operate with a relatively small squad places further demands on his players.

December is a case in point for City as they face a glut of Premier League games plus trips to Serbia in the Champions League and Saudi Arabia in the Club World Cup. It comes with the territory of being successful but for Guardiola the current calendar is too much.

Every year it’s getting worse and worse and it will be getting worse and I don’t know how it’s going to end, honestly,” Guardiola said in August, even raising the prospect of a player strike to help secure a resolution.

Speaking in September he said: “There is