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Pep Guardiola believes football authorities in England will have to consider scrapping the league cup if they want to avoid the injury problems that threaten to derail the hopes of the national team.

Leading English strikers Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford have both been ruled out for the majority of the remaining campaign after playing through the packed fixture list, while Raheem Sterling's form has slipped from the prolific best he was showing at the beginning of the season.

Manchester City's manager shared the frustration of his colleagues at United, Tottenham, Newcastle and elsewhere in the league as the fixture pile-up has taken its toll on players. Having voiced his frustration on the situation many times, Guardiola was unafraid to call for those responsible for the welfare of the players to look at what has happened and reflect on the changes necessary to make sure it doesn't happen again - even if he doesn't expect it to happen.

"It’s a big blow for the national team. Kane and Rashford are incredibly important players for them," he said.

"Hopefully there isn’t another one who does that and they can recover. There are still many months ahead before the Euros. It’s an incredible amount of games. Now we’re talking about it because they are (injured), but looking back at the injuries Newcastle have had, we have had, all the teams.

"That is normal. With that number of games, players break down. I’m not surprised. I’m so sorry for them. The big administration people cannot complain because it’s normal this happens.

"Of course it is too much to expect. They arrive in the Euros, playing with the national teams trying their best, then [back with their clubs] after no more than 20 days because the business, the show, must go on. They have to come back. It’s unsustainable. The players fall down. It’s too much.

"I’m so sorry for Kane and Rashford because they are good for the league, but we demand a lot from the players, it’s too much. They should reflect on it but all the managers complained about it and they don’t care.

"Now Boxing Day is over, another season, and prepare for the next one. A distance of two or three days again and again. The players suffer. They want to do well and the clubs have a lot of pressure to win or qualify for the Champions League. We push and push. The body says 'stop, it’s enough'."

Guardiola is sick and tired of complaining about the situation and laughed despairingly when plans to expand the Champions League and the Club World Cup were put to him.

After suggesting a solution of having 400 days in a year to combat the fixture schedule before joking that UEFA and FIFA would then talk about booking in another competition, the City manager gave his thoughts on what changes are needed in the English fixture schedule.

They include scrapping the Carabao Cup - the competition his team are 180 minutes away from winning for a third straight year and their best chance of silverware - and starting the season later.

Asked about restricting the league cup to teams below the Premier League, he said: "But then it wouldn’t be interesting - it’d just be for the Championship teams or League One and League Two.

"Eliminate competitions, take out this competition completely so there are fewer games.

“Start the season later after the summer time because you always start with two games and have a lot of games and then in one part of the season have one just game a week, then two or three.

“We are going to rest in February for one week so in three weeks we have two games but then we have 72 games in one week so it’s a bit strange. But the people thought about that.

"We need less games, less competitions, less teams, more quality, less quantity. The people are going to go to the theatre, to the cinema, restaurants, to watch the fireworks. That is what they would do.

"In the Bundesliga there are 18 teams not 20, one cup not two and they have a break. In Spain they have a break and the cup is run with one game, not two so it's a big difference.

"It’s not because Pep or Jose [Mourinho] or Jurgen [Klopp] says, you’ll not find one manager saying it. We love our jobs, but the players deserve to be treated as they should be so they perform as well as possible."