Roy Keane tells Pep Guardiola to stop complaining about Man City’s schedule and player fatigue

Roy Keane tells Pep Guardiola to stop complaining about Man City’s schedule and player fatigue following the 1-1 draw against Arsenal.

Despite Guardiola citing a tough schedule and injuries as factors in City’s performance, Keane dismissed these concerns, noting that it’s only September and City had played two home games recently.

Keane also touched on City’s tactical shift to a deeper, counter-attacking style but felt they lacked their usual swagger and quality, particularly in possession.

While both teams showed fighting spirit, Keane argued that fatigue and scheduling complaints are unwarranted given City’s squad depth and the relatively light travel demands.

“Are you satisfied?”

Pep Guardiola fires back with a cheeky comment when pressed on City’s demanding schedule and player fatigue 😅 pic.twitter.com/bULiLV75OH

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 21, 2025

Interviewer: “In end, I know you said before the game, schedule’s not an issue. In the end, the schedule was an issue for you today. It’s fair question, no?”

Pep Guardiola: “You are the journalist, my friend. You understand my process and what happened. Don’t understand me. Ten years we are together.

“Honestly, so of course, you know the fact that the mindset has to be strong, but we have a lot, you know, fatigue with the same players.

“We have, you know, how many injured. John came back for the injured for the national team for long time. We have Cherki, have Ait Nouri, we have Nathan had been out as well more than time.

“So we have to put a lot of players maybe forget that the rhythm, Khusanov was injured with this kind of position with the pace that he has, we don’t have it.

“So many things don’t happen, but if you want to bring it, fact that I’m complaining for the schedule, that’s okay. I’m complaining for the schedule. Are you satisfied? No. Okay.”

Kelly Cates: “He’s saying essentially, Pep Guardiola, that the City players are, some level of fatigue from the game being played on Thursday night against Napoli in the Champions League. He’s saying that there is also, not necessarily complaining about the schedule, that’s absolutely what he did not want to say, but he’s saying that that may well be one of the factors. He’s also talking about their approach in this game, which I thought was interesting because although he’s right in that they have counterattacked beforehand, certainly with the players that he mentioned. This looked like a different kind of City and it’s been evolving in that direction.”

Micah Richards: “Yeah, I think it was a different type of city and the possession stats tell you that. When you come to the game today, for as good as Arsenal have been or started this season, you expect Man City to dominate the ball. In the second half, we changed that, went to a 5-4-1 and went for more of a transition-based football, which we’ve not seen you know, or not used to seeing with Man City. But I understand what it means in terms of Arsenal were the better team today. They dominated the ball. They just couldn’t do what they needed to do in the final third. And they adapted. How many times have we been on Saturday and Sunday or Super Sunday and saying that managers need to adapt? That’s not Pep’s style of play. That’s Mourinho style of play, isn’t it? Or Allardyce’s started starting to play. But i can be effective. As we saw, it was just that one moment of not concentrating that got caught out. in terms of the schedule, mean, there’s players on the bench that Man City could have played today. They went on the same team as they in… Obviously because they were playing well. In the derby, they did really well. Against Napoli, it was a tiring game because they sat really in the low block and Man City had to try and unpick that. And then today Arsenal just had too much energy for him, so he adapted to the game that it was today.”

Jamie Carragher: “The back five or defender deep was a success to a certain extent, except for the goal. Arsenal didn’t create anything. Almost 90 % of teams play like that when they’ll play against an Arsenal away from home. But they had no counter-attack. I know the goal comes from the counter-attack in the first half, but there was nothing in the second half where they really created any. So there’s no problem playing like that. But there was so much pressure on that back five or Manchester City defensively because they never got a breather at all. I mean, we thought it was strange bringing Harland off because he’s got the goal first half. But Doku was fantastic and he wanted another midfield player on. Again, that’s not Pep’s way of doing things. the thing that was disappointing when we were saying it in here, we’ve never seen a Man City so poor on the ball and causing the opposition problems even on that counter-attack.”

Kelly Cates: “So is the focus then? If we’re focusing on the wrong thing, we’re focusing on Manchester City defending deep, being in the low block, should we be focusing on that, what Jamie’s saying is effectively sloppiness?”

Roy Keane: “Yeah, we felt that, but I still think there’s been signs City have obviously improved certainly over last few weeks. They had obviously a big result beating United, then beating Napoli, but you know, the fatigue and the challenges of trying to win league titles, but that is part of the challenging playing football matches or players going to the extra bit, which City have done over the years.

“So I’m surprised where Pep, if you’re talking about fatigue and schedules, we’re in September and they’re on the back of two home matches and the United game, they were fairly comfortable beating United eventually. Napoli had a man sent off after 20 minutes, they’ve played two home matches, they’ve not travelled from Russia or Poland when you’ve had a tough away game. But they’ve come down to London… so I just think if Pep’s getting that message out in September about the matches, but we all know the challenge of being a footballer is being robust and playing two or three games a week. And we look at our players on the bench there and the opposite. I’m sure there must be other managers in the Premiership looking at Pep thinking, Pep, if you think you’ve got problems with schedules and the strength and depth, my goodness.

“So I kind of didn’t like that angle Pep was coming from, the whole point of sitting deeper and trying to play on the counter. That is fine. I love seeing teams doing that, but the problem is City didn’t have that get out. They didn’t have that swagger that they had a number of years ago. And you mentioned players like De Bruyne. Of course, they haven’t got that quality this moment in time. But I still think City, both teams will come away with something. City did show a bit of fighting spirit. They dug at it. And another minute or two, they would have got the job done. And then you give them some credit because they stuck at it. They persevered. And they showed real quality.

“So we were lucky to see two brilliant goals, really. Brilliant goals. Counter-attacking and the ball over the top, think the manager would be fairly pleased but I’m not really having Pep talking about fatigue and the schedules. We’re into September again on the back of two home matches and have travelled on to London. Pep’s a big boy, I’m sure they can deal with that.”

Here’s how fans reacted as Roy Keane tells Pep Guardiola to stop complaining about Man City’s schedule and player fatigue…

@lykaawilss: Imagine crying this much even with the amount of money he’s spent and he’s choice off a small squad, hope you have a miserable season

@stewart_buick: Absolute bullshit. It’s September, you have played two home games and only had to travel to London.

@Edward_Braisby: The interviewer absolutely had his pants down throughout this, the glare he gave him as he walked off at the end said it all

@BrianDurand56: Pep (justifiably) pointing towards the schedule after a CL game on Thursday. But a reminder that they played v 10 for most of the game – whereas Liverpool had to go to the last minute and had a shorter recovery time, before a 12:30 Sat ko

@jamesbcfcF1: Thankfully Roy came out after with some good analysis saying they should be able to cope with a tight schedule, EFL teams have it just as bad if not worse.

@Ricky9Forbes: Fuck off and fuck off again. They played in the world club cup and picked the exact same team three games in a row. Cry me a river. 😩😩😩😩

@gjpusb82: Pep moaning about the schedule. The last time I checked Thursday game Sunday game is the same as Wednesday game Saturday game which teams have been doing for over 50 years. #ARSMCI

@barlowjacob: Pep can’t really moan too much about fatigue if he’s played the same team 3 times in 7 days. There was plenty of opportunity for rotation on Thursday in my opinion.

@McKendryNose: 5 Premier League games into the season Pep is complaining about fatigue. If that was Arteta, he would get annihilated on all media channels

@Realist_LFCfan: Pep crying about fatigue like he hasn’t been a chequebook fraud his entire career.

@xEllie24_: Pep moaning and making excuse after excuse about the schedule, but if this is mikel talking like this its front news of every news outlet for the world to berate him.. Did he forget WE did this exact schedule last season?. Prat