Guardiola provides unique insight into his management style
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 sort of call you much? Has he spoke to you much since he became a manager?
00:03 In the beginning, yes. I know a long time we are not in touch, but we are close.
00:08 Burley is not far away from here and of course we follow them.
00:12 So there's not been, there are many friends that they were here.
00:15 Carlos Sartori was a Marbush assassin.
00:17 So many, many people working here that helped me, helped me and helped the team.
00:21 And this club for many years are there.
00:24 So always we are in touch and one eye what they are doing.
00:29 Jeremy Doku, Pep was somebody that played on the venue.
00:33 Did you ask him before you signed? You didn't speak to him at all?
00:37 No, no. Yeah, yeah. Jeremy, we spoke, yeah.
00:41 We saw a little bit and he was right.
00:44 So I think Bini has a big talent that,
00:48 my point of view, every player that has been with him is better.
00:51 So he has the ability to, in a collective issue,
00:54 improve the players and the way they play.
00:57 Hi Pep, you said just then that one day you will obviously leave this job.
01:02 I know you said you would consider a new contract
01:04 and that's potentially not something for a while.
01:06 But when you do leave, have you thought about the club you'd like to leave behind?
01:11 I mean, I think we saw Alex Ferguson, he went out,
01:13 won the Premier League title, clubs left a good team behind him.
01:17 Wenger didn't maybe go out and see him, kind of, wasn't quite as good scenario.
01:21 Have you thought about the scenarios you'd like to leave behind?
01:25 I try to do my best during this season,
01:28 this season, this time together and hopefully...
01:34 I don't know, at the end what we are doing is trying to do our best
01:39 when we are involved, when we are here.
01:41 So I'm not thinking much what, you know,
01:45 we leave for the next, you know, people that are going to be in charge.
01:50 I don't know, I'm so concerned about focusing on the game day by day
01:57 and after, I don't know.
01:59 And you've got obviously Kevin back now, Erling coming back.
02:03 Julian Alvarez has played a lot this season.
02:06 Last season when Kevin and Erling were fit, there wasn't as much playing time for him.
02:09 What role do you think he'll have in the second half of the season, Julian?
02:12 Do you think he'll play as much in the second half as he did in the first half?
02:16 When we are on the squad, it depends on how they perform.
02:21 They will have more minutes and less minutes, so they have to compete.
02:25 So, you know, I see what I see in the training sessions.
02:30 I see many things and of course I want to be everywhere involved,
02:34 but it depends on how they perform.
02:35 Julian has been so important and why he should be different from now on.
02:40 So it depends on how they perform.
02:44 Hi Pep, you've talked before about De Bruyne and Foden maybe playing together
02:48 in some games but not in others.
02:49 What type of games would it be suitable for them to play?
02:55 And then in which other type of games would you rather go with something else?
02:58 What's the difference?
02:59 No, I don't know. Right now I don't know.
03:01 I know in the teams, for example, play five in the back, we could do it.
03:07 In the teams they have a lot of quality and you have to imagine,
03:11 you have to drop a little bit or defend a little bit deeper.
03:14 So we should change.
03:17 Normally we move with two holding midfielders.
03:19 With them we cannot do that.
03:20 We have to be with three in the middle, five in the middle.
03:25 So, yeah, there's some adjustment that maybe we should do.
03:28 But of course we can play together because if they are able to do it, they can.
03:32 It's like Julian, for example, you know, alongside Phil, alongside Erling, Julian or Kevin.
03:38 None of them can play a holding midfielder properly,
03:42 like Mateu or Mateu or Gundo in the past with Rodri.
03:45 So we have to adjust something.
03:47 Hi, Pep, I'm sure you're not thinking about your future too much right now,
03:53 but when will you give yourself time to think about what you want to do next?
03:56 Will it be a case at the end of the season you'll sit down and decide
03:58 whether you want to speak to the club again about a new contract
04:00 or whether you'll have that one year and then...?
04:02 I think we'll have time.
04:04 Now I feel really good, like I've always been, but football doesn't change a lot.
04:11 Still, I have my opinion that when you have one year and a half left,
04:15 your contract is a lot of time in world football.
04:19 So we'll take time. We'll have time, I would say.
04:23 In the past, how much time have you given yourself to make that,
04:25 when you've extended in the past, how much time have you given yourself
04:29 to think about that before you've gone to the club and said, 'This is what I want to do'?
04:32 Is it a quick decision or is it something that takes months and months to decide?
04:35 No, no.
04:36 I take normal decisions quick. I rely on a lot.
04:42 I trust my feelings and instinct and every time they offer, of course,
04:46 my family is involved, was involved, but not much time.
04:52 When I feel it, it's OK. I feel good, they want me, OK.
04:56 But we cannot admit that eight years is a lot of time.
05:02 Next season will be nine seasons, so it's a lot of time.
05:06 You have to see the players, how is their behaviour,
05:08 how are our standards, if we can keep it, and the players follow you.
05:15 I'm tired, not tired, so many things are involved,
05:17 and that is not the same when you extend after two years than after nine.
05:21 So it's completely different.
05:23 But still, I'm here sitting and I'm OK.
05:29 Can Erling start tomorrow or does he have to come off the bench after an injury?
05:34 I want to see the training session.
05:40 And still I didn't think much about the team selection a little bit,
05:45 but I have to see something because Bini makes different shapes
05:50 and I have to reflect a little bit more.
05:54 The injury itself, it was clearly worse than you first thought when it happened.
06:01 Did the injury for Norway, when he was on international duty earlier in the season,
06:08 was that part of this injury?
06:09 No.
06:10 And just in general, did you see...
06:13 I think it happened against Aston Villa, he didn't feel good,
06:15 and apparently it was less, but at the end it's a bone,
06:20 the stress of a little bit of a fracture, and he needs his time.
06:24 So now he feels better, he doesn't have pain,
06:27 he's had three, four, five, six training sessions in a row,
06:30 and he feels good, that is the best news.
06:33 Because it's not the muscle, it's the bone, the pain is good.
06:38 But of course, it's been two months out, and the rhythm and everything,
06:44 but maybe it's good from the beginning,
06:46 maybe for the last minute, so we'll see.
06:49 Do you sense he's been very frustrated and been waiting to...
06:52 He's been boring, yeah.
06:54 He's been boring!
06:55 Definitely.
06:56 So these guys want to play, and at the same time he refreshed his mind
07:02 when he came back from the summer time.
07:06 He was a little bit tired, for the first season in his life he played this amount of games,
07:12 he never played this amount, and the tension for the finals we had in the FA Cup,
07:17 Premier League, Champions League, he was a little bit tired mentally.
07:22 And I think maybe it helps to be fresh, and now he's, "Wow, I want to play,
07:26 I want to help the team and score goals",
07:29 so that's why maybe for the last part of the season he will help us.
07:33 So hopefully it's going to happen.
07:35 You're talking about this is your eighth year, it's probably going to be a ninth,
07:40 you look as energetic as you ever have done as City manager, you do.
07:45 Me?
07:46 What do you put that down to, still having that energy after so long?
07:51 I don't know.
07:54 I don't know.
07:56 I do the normal things, I try to have incredible staff that support me,
08:00 and do the job that sometimes I'm tired to do after many years.
08:03 I am more a quality manager in terms of...
08:10 I select better the timing to work, the timing to disconnect a little bit.
08:16 And the passion, still we are there, in three competitions,
08:23 we won two titles this season, still we are in three competitions more.
08:27 So winning games helps you to have energy,
08:31 when you are losing games, losing games, you are more tired.
08:35 To see the team getting better and playing against difficult opponents,
08:41 like Goodison Park after the World Cup, or Newcastle away,
08:45 Spurs away, and see how the team behave,
08:49 gives me... wow, the team is still... we are together, we are in the same path.
08:54 That gives you energy, energy is not switch on, switch off,
08:57 you have to reinstall and be energetic every day,
09:01 what you see, what you live, in your personal life and many things.
09:05 And this is what we are living now, that's why I said one year and a half is a lot of time,
09:10 maybe you are going down, maybe you have lost the team, or the team is struggling.
09:16 That's why you have time to sit and talk, and we see how we feel both sides.
09:23 We are so clear between the club and I think myself in that terms.
09:29 It will not be a problem if we have to continue or we don't have to.
09:34 Did you have to teach yourself how to switch off?
09:37 Because I remember when you came here everyone said you are completely obsessed,
09:42 you live it 24/7.
09:44 Before, when I started in Barcelona it was like that,
09:46 now I am able to stay in the sofa watching something on TV and not think about football,
09:53 and that helps me, because after I have more desire to reconnect.
09:59 I think I learned that before it was all the time thinking,
10:04 because I think I am missing something or I am not professional enough.
10:08 And I think I understood that is a mistake and it is better to have the quality,
10:15 what you have to do.
10:17 And sometimes I rely on my people that help me to see these kind of things,
10:23 or the other things, and make me feel more comfortable,
10:27 and arrive in the right moment, at the end of the training session,
10:30 or when you are in front of the players, completely fresh,
10:33 completely know exactly what you have to do.
10:35 I think this is a key point as a manager, when you play every three days, four days.
10:39 When you play one game a week it's not a problem, but we have three.
10:43 For this for many, many years, it's not a problem one season, it's many, many years,
10:47 you have to know yourself better and you have to adjust better what you have to do.
10:51 And I think in that terms I learned.
10:57 Simple as that, I learned.
10:58 It's normal, it's the process, it's normal.
11:02 Just on that Pep, what prompted you to make that change,
11:04 to become less emotionally attached, to be more detached from the squad,
11:09 and not become as invested in every game,
11:14 and take everything so personally if you lost?
11:17 No, that doesn't mean I prepare, the players know that.
11:22 We prepare the game incredibly focused,
11:28 what you have to do depends on the opponents.
11:30 Burnley attacked differently against Spurs for example,
11:32 so that's why you have to defend differently.
11:35 So, and this is the point what we have to find.
11:40 So, I take seriously, really, really seriously,
11:43 I don't want to disappoint my players,
11:44 I don't want to disappoint of course our fans, our people support us,
11:49 my people that trust me, and that fact that I don't want to disappoint them,
11:53 makes me feel I'm there.
11:56 But before I did like 24 hours, 24 hours,
11:59 now I don't need 24 hours to prepare the games,
12:02 because I arrive better at the right moment to be in front of the players.
12:08 OK, thank you.
12:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]