If City keep talking about feeling jaded then they'll start to believe they are

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.

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.