Tired? Give it a rest. If Man City keep talking about feeling jaded then they’ll start to believe they are, writes GRAEME SOUNESS

Never in my 50-odd years in this game have I heard a player say he had to come off the pitch because he was too tired.

So I was surprised to hear Pep Guardiola say that Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Manuel Akanji had asked to be substituted against Real Madrid the other night because they ‘could not continue’. That’s something I’ve never witnessed.

I can only presume that Guardiola was protecting De Bruyne and Haaland, that they were feeling something or carrying knocks, as that’s the only explanation surely for taking off your most creative player and top goalscorer when chasing the game in a Champions League quarter-final.

De Bruyne is 32 now and has been picking up 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 taken off for their own good in that respect but tired, surely not.

I was never tired by the demands of a game when I played and yes, of course, it was different in those days, when for most of the season we were playing on pitches that resembled a farmer’s field and you were allowed to be aggressive in the tackle too.

The Man City boss must have been protecting the two due to knocks against Real Madrid

The danger of Guardiola mentioning tiredness is the squad might start to believe they are 

In Joe Fagan’s Liverpool side of 1984, we won a league title using just 15 players, no-one was complaining of tiredness then, that squad also won a European Cup and the Milk Cup with four players clocking up 67 games while I managed 61. I found that after three days rest between games I was ready to go again. The only time you would see a player coming off was for their own protection. As a manager it was either myself, or the physio or doctor saying ‘Hey, get off, you’re done.’

The danger is we heard it the other week from Guardiola and then Rodri that they were too tired and needed a rest. It’s not helpful when you keep talking about it as your brain starts to believe it and then you will feel tired. I fear it may be more to do with sports scientists and the enormous influence they exert on our big football clubs today. They just need to park those comments and move on.

To be fair to City they must be scratching their heads how they didn’t win anyway against Real Madrid.

It was quite amazing 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 resorting to telling his goalkeeper to just launch it because they couldn’t play out from the back and had no answer to City’s pressing game. City had 67percent possession and 33 shots, so that defeat will be a really hard one to take because they are not doing a lot wrong.

Similarly with Arsenal, they lose to Bayern Munich and novice analysts of our game are looking for reasons that aren’t there. That Bayern side has not been consistent enough this season, the first time they haven’t been dominant in the Bundesliga for 11 years, but the stars they have in that team mean that they can turn it on against anyone on any given night. Arsenal looked a bit laboured and they lacked creativity in the centre of midfield. They are over reliant on Martin Odegaard for the cuteness of pass, but they are still better than they were last season.

It’s early doors for this Arsenal team, they are not quite good enough at this level yet. A Champions League quarter final is about right for where they are. They lost to Aston Villa last week and people are saying the failings from last season are coming back. That’s nonsense. Their season isn’t over. You can’t say they haven’t improved on what they were last year. The test for them is to deal with the disappointment now and go again. It’s the same for them, City and Liverpool – the title race is still on.

It’s early doors for Arsenal, who are not quite good enough at Champions League level yet

Arsenal looked laboured against Bayern and appear overly reliant on Martin Odegaard 

Chelsea pair were like U12 kids in penalty row

The sight of Chelsea’s players squabbling over who should take a penalty against Everton on Monday night beggared belief. It’s pathetic to see professional players behaving in that manner.

Don’t forget this is at a club where the wage bill is £404million, second only to Manchester City who paid bonuses to their players for winning a Treble. This lot just look a group of overpaid, overrated, average players and their petty actions don’t allay that belief.

Before you go out, you designate who is on free-kicks, corners and penalties. Cole Palmer is Chelsea’s designated penalty taker. It’s for him to decide if he wants it and if he does then that’s it. END OF. ‘It’s my ball, I’m f***ing taking it, now back off.’

What possesses Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke to act that way? It can only be that Palmer had already scored a hat-trick so they’re thinking ‘let me have some of the glory’. If that’s how they see the game then it’s not good because what that tells you is it’s all about me, me, me.

It’s a very, very amateurish look that sort of petulance. Like something you would see in an U12s game. It says a lot about their characters which is worrying.

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

Cool Cole offers the lot for Gareth

Cole Palmer is a class act and it’s inevitable he goes to Germany with the England squad for the European Championships this summer.

He put in a fabulous performance against Everton and he has an ability few possess. He is on the first rung of the ladder but he’s setting himself a hell of a benchmark in his first season as a Chelsea player with 23 goals already. If he continues to replicate that then we could be looking at an England great for the next ten years.

Scoring goals is the hardest part of the game but Palmer is doing that with relative ease. He’s cool-headed, he’s calculating, he works hard, he’s oozing ability. There’s nothing to dislike about him. He left Manchester City because he wanted to play and you can see he has a great appetite for the game and isn’t fazed by anything. He will be very much a part of Gareth Southgate’s thinking as he approaches the first game of the Euros.

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

FA Cup has been reduced to a sideshow

I’m afraid the FA Cup has become a casualty of the Premier League’s dominance.

What was once this country’s great showpiece game has now been reduced to little more than a sideshow with the changes heralded this week. No replays and the final taking place before the end of the league season. It’s a shame but it doesn’t matter to the big clubs anymore. It’s all about the Premier League and European football now.

Long gone are the days when we used to put aside the weekend to watch the game with family or friends, glued to the telly as the helicopters would follow the team buses towards Wembley. 

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

The FA Cup final was the grand finale to the season now it’s just another game and the dominance of the Premier League has made that happen. 

Look at the money you get per place in the Premier League, even last gets you around £112m with equal share of broadcasting deals and merit payments. That’s the brand being promoted across the four corners of the world now and, sadly, not the FA Cup.