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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has backed Jurgen Klopp over concerns regarding the ‘crazy’ scheduling of modern football.

Both Premier League bosses are set to start the new season without some of their star names, following their respective international exploits this summer.

Liverpool's first-choice strike trio, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, are all yet to return to training.

City themselves are still without Gabriel Jesus, Sergio Aguero and Nicolas Otamendi - all of whom featured at the Copa America - while Riyad Mahrez’s 2018-19 season only ended on Friday, after Algeria’s Africa Cup of Nations success.

The two teams kick off their competitive campaigns on August 4 in the traditional season curtain-raiser, the Community Shield.

(Image: Action Images via Reuters)

On Monday, Klopp declared that "the situation, in the long-term, is not acceptable.”

The German is also angry that the Premier League starts a week earlier than other domestic leagues, in a year where the Reds are involved in six competitions.

Now, on the back of a season where City played 61 games - having reached the Champions League quarter-finals and sweeping all before them domestically - Guardiola has backed his rival’s assessment.

(Image: Getty Images for Premier League)

“Some of them will come on the 29th or 30th; the others will come in three or four weeks,” Guardiola said.

“They decide to come back between three or four weeks. I don’t want them to come back when they’re not fit or tired or mentally not recovered from an incredibly tough season.

“We cannot forget we started a new season while Riyad Mahrez had not finished the last one. It’s a crazy schedule and it is going to kill our players! We cannot sustain that for a long time.

“They have to breathe and rest and give more quality in the tournaments. They have to rest.”

Despite the considerable strain, Guardiola admits some of his players have been eager to return to the training ground earlier than scheduled, such is the level of competition - not just from the outside, but within.

“Some people want to come back a little bit earlier because they want to come back and they are more than welcome,” he said.

“I like it! The manager creates incredible training sessions! That’s why they want to come back earlier!

“They know to come back because the standard rises every season. They know that if they want to play, they will have to be fit. If not, another team-mate is going to play.”