- 12/02/2024
Pep Guardiola on Haaland form and City looking for progress in Copenhagen
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00:00 Yes, please.
00:02 Evening, guys, same again, if you can raise your hands we'll come to as many of you as we can.
00:11 Somewhere to start, please? We'll start with John.
00:14 Pep, just simply, what are your feelings going into this stage,
00:18 given the year that you've just had in this competition?
00:22 Well, good evening to everyone.
00:25 Yeah, happy to be there, we did our job in the group stage.
00:30 Back to the business, this competition and the first game in the last 16,
00:35 the way is always...
00:37 Maybe you don't have mentally the rhythm for the Champions League,
00:41 and huge respect for the opponent.
00:43 We have seen in the last weeks what they did in the group stage,
00:47 knock out Bayern Munich, Man United and Galatasaray.
00:53 It was not really an easy group, and they did it really well in all the games.
00:59 Yeah, we have to...
01:02 We will not find tomorrow a good result to try to finish the job in Manchester.
01:08 And what sort of factor is it that Copenhagen have not played competitively since then?
01:13 Well, I don't know, I've never been there in this situation.
01:17 I would say that they are starving to compete, and hungry,
01:21 and full of energy, fresh in legs, fresh in mind,
01:24 and at the same time I don't know the rhythm.
01:27 But they have prepared many, many times to prepare the game,
01:31 so I don't know.
01:33 Hopefully we can be in a good level to compete
01:37 in what this competition deserves to play.
01:40 Hi Pep, at the weekend you talked about body language of the players in the first half.
01:47 How important is good body language, a good mood, a good environment,
01:52 all the trophies you've won since you arrived?
01:55 Body language is everything in life.
01:58 You cannot be happy doing your job, you cannot improve.
02:02 If you are not positive in your mind, you accept that you can make mistakes,
02:07 and how you react to that, how your mate can make mistakes, how you help.
02:13 These kind of things that are far away from the tactics,
02:17 or beyond for people, that is everything.
02:21 It's everything in life.
02:23 If you don't train with a big smile, in terms of 'I want to do better, I want to help',
02:28 you cannot improve.
02:31 But during the season there are moments like that,
02:34 people have frustration when it doesn't go well.
02:37 People understand that sometimes the game doesn't work,
02:41 it's not a big problem, it's how you face that problem to overcome it immediately,
02:46 before the game is over.
02:48 This is the point, and of course there are always gaps and margins to improve.
02:52 How does a football club and you as a manager build that kind of environment
02:56 where the mood is good?
02:58 And when it is good, is it difficult to keep it good season after season?
03:03 Yeah, that is a challenge for ourselves,
03:05 a challenge for the opponents, they still want it to beat you.
03:08 We feel it in the Premier League more than ever this season,
03:11 but it's normal in the Champions League,
03:14 we won it last season and they want to do it again.
03:17 But I think the mentality, we have good characters, good personalities in the team,
03:23 how they react in the bad moments.
03:26 Yes, I had the feeling when I arrived eight years ago,
03:30 this competition was a little bit like, 'Wow, maybe it's too much for us'.
03:35 Our defeats and our bad moments and our steps to grow up
03:39 help us to be in the position that we are,
03:42 two Champions League and one semi-final,
03:44 two Champions League finals and one semi-final in the last three years.
03:47 Now we have the awareness, all the club is saying,
03:51 'OK, we can go everywhere to try to be ourselves'.
03:53 Before I felt, 'OK, let's go'.
03:56 'Are you sure, Pep, that we are ready to do it?'
04:00 Now I think all the organisation, all the club believe that we can do it,
04:04 and this is the best legacy that we give to the club, to the team,
04:10 that now, OK, Man City can compete, that is so good.
04:14 Do you think that's a completely different attitude to this time last year,
04:19 given the experience you went through last year?
04:21 No. I think when we lost the final against Chelsea, the group stage,
04:25 I think we lost one game in all competitions.
04:28 We lost one, it wasn't the final.
04:31 And after that, when we lost in the semi-final against Madrid,
04:36 always we compete, it's not different, I don't think so.
04:39 In how you compete now, winning all the games in group stage,
04:43 I don't think so.
04:46 Maybe I'm surprised, maybe tomorrow we don't play a good game
04:49 and we behave not good, I don't know.
04:52 I never know, but I don't have the feeling that winning or not winning,
04:55 we behave differently the last three, four years.
04:57 Always we were like that.
04:58 People talk about the crowd at this stadium,
05:02 it's obviously had a massive bearing on the Man Utd result.
05:05 You were here last year, what did you take away from that night
05:09 and what did you deal well with and maybe not so well with?
05:12 Well, the group stage was the second game I think we were qualified,
05:17 I think so, when we were here.
05:19 But I've been here with the national team against Denmark,
05:23 and some games, and always it was really, really tough.
05:26 The stadium is so closed, the crowd, and I imagine two months without games,
05:30 everyone is desperate to watch football.
05:33 Huge respect, that's what I feel.
05:37 Normally I have a huge respect for the opponents,
05:39 but when I saw what they have done, this group stage against these opponents,
05:44 I said to the players this morning,
05:48 "You have to prepare mentally, the game plan will be as always,
05:54 "but mentally you have to be ready to suffer,
05:57 "tomorrow will be a tight, tight game, 100 per cent."
06:00 I feel it.
06:01 And normally my gut doesn't lie to me.
06:04 Pep, just going back to the body language issue,
06:08 you mentioned to Scandinavian TV that you had a word with Erling at half-time
06:14 about his body language, what was it that you saw that you felt he needed to improve?
06:19 Because obviously he responded in the second half with two goals.
06:23 Erling, first of all, is young.
06:25 He's playing in a position that's the most difficult position on the pitch.
06:28 With a striker he's surrounded by four or five players, spaces are minor.
06:32 So in the first half maybe you have a special delivery of players,
06:36 a talent like Kevin, for example, you can find him.
06:38 In that moment, because he's so young, in that moment he's being positive,
06:41 he'll come, "I have to score a goal and I have to react."
06:44 He doesn't need to score a goal, he helped us for many, many things for us,
06:47 many, many, it's not just a score a goal.
06:49 Of course, he defined for the goals, but it's not just that.
06:56 As much as he smiles, as much as so many games,
06:59 how he's doing in clapping, encouraging his mate in the first intensity pressure,
07:03 this is what we need from Erling.
07:05 But we cannot forget, having been two months out, it's a lot of time,
07:10 with a guy so tall, back to dynamic is not easy, I would say.
07:17 And he's a huge competitor, "I want to score goals."
07:22 OK, I know that, we know that, so relax.
07:25 If we don't score today, in ten minutes we'll score it in the next ten minutes,
07:29 it's not the second half.
07:31 But in that process, being like what I said before with the first question,
07:35 it's straight to be, "OK, let's go."
07:39 Because the team's always winning when overcoming the bad, bad, bad moments.
07:44 In this competition, there are a lot, a lot.
07:47 I don't expect 90 minutes to be comfortable,
07:49 we're going to have moments where we're going to suffer.
07:51 In the moments we're going to be sad, depressed, or how we react.
07:55 Because we have to understand that the opponents, every player,
07:59 has a mama and papa.
08:01 So they deserve to play good.
08:03 And they deserve to have good moments.
08:05 They deserve it.
08:07 So not because we are a champion or because we are Man City.
08:10 And how you handle that moment is what defines a big, big team.
08:16 And we have done it in the past, but we have to do it again.
08:19 Guys, if I can limit you to one each,
08:24 just so I can try and get through as many on the list as I can.
08:26 Hi, Pep, you said a few minutes ago that the first leg of the last 16 ties
08:29 is always tricky because of the amount of time between the last games.
08:33 How would you combat that as a coach,
08:35 to make sure that players are on it from the first minute?
08:39 It's from my experience, so maybe I'm wrong.
08:42 The exceptional was against Sporting Lisbon.
08:46 We won 0-5, 0-6, but we scored six goals.
08:50 That is an exception.
08:53 But I remember in Barcelona the first two years,
08:55 with that team that was really unbelievable, these type of players.
09:00 The first was in Lyon, and the second I think was in Leverkusen,
09:04 or something in Germany.
09:07 No, you are not in Barcelona.
09:10 Oh, Barcelona, sorry.
09:13 And honestly, the first half was 3-0 for them.
09:17 3-0.
09:19 We survived, and at home we beat them.
09:22 So I always had that feeling, I remember,
09:24 that first game in the last 16, because we were not...
09:26 Because now in the Champions League, second leg,
09:28 you go through in two weeks, quarter-finals,
09:30 already we are there.
09:32 Last month, dream, OK, semi-finals maybe.
09:36 And now we are still not.
09:39 And I always have a huge respect for the first leg in the last 16, always.
09:44 You say you expect the team to suffer tomorrow.
09:52 Obviously you come into this game ten wins in a row.
09:55 Was the problem earlier in the season that they were suffering too much
09:59 and weren't able to get over mentally some games?
10:03 No, I didn't see a problem, a mental problem.
10:06 With the team, completely the opposite.
10:08 Otherwise we would not be like we are after a Chiefs.
10:11 I said in the beginning, in the summertime,
10:13 how we will react to travel, how we will react after winning the two titles,
10:16 especially the first one against Sevilla, early one.
10:18 How we will react, we will be naive, we will be a little lazy,
10:21 we will be a little bit...
10:23 Believe who? Really, really, we are not...
10:25 I didn't have that feeling for the day one.
10:27 I didn't have it.
10:29 So we dropped games, yeah, we lost games, yeah.
10:31 That's part of the football, but the behaviours,
10:33 and I said last press conference, in the training pitch,
10:36 how they listen to me, how we communicate with each other,
10:40 how they react in the bad moments, how many games.
10:43 Maybe it's the season we come back coming from the losing positions.
10:48 We were not a good team doing that in the past, never.
10:52 Always when we conceded a goal, like it was at the end of the world,
10:55 we were not able to do that.
10:57 In that moment, many, many games, many.
11:00 So you cannot do it if you are not still.
11:03 We want to do it.
11:05 And that's why, yeah, once we are here,
11:08 we are going to try to do a good game tomorrow.
11:11 Hello, Pep. Probably the last question is about the body language,
11:15 but Erling, does he like that you put out that message
11:20 that he needs to improve in that area?
11:23 It looks like I'm complaining about that, I know the players.
11:26 It was a general situation.
11:29 So how many games did they play last season, Erling, with us?
11:32 How many goals did they score?
11:34 It's not a problem with the language.
11:36 He came for the second month, had the rhythm,
11:38 and sometimes it's not Erling that game.
11:40 It's just sometimes when you score goals, OK, you score goals,
11:43 you will score, it's not a problem.
11:45 So if you don't score tomorrow, we score the day after tomorrow.
11:48 If not, next week.
11:50 It's not a big, big issue.
11:52 It's just, OK, let's do it again, him and everyone.
11:57 This is what I admire the most, the teams,
11:59 in the bad moments how you react.
12:01 Define the big teams in the bad moments.
12:04 Not when we are 3-0 or 4-0.
12:06 The problems they have in the competition during the 11th month,
12:09 how you overcome that situation.
12:12 This is how you define it, and this is what we still want to improve.
12:17 What do you see as the biggest quality of the Copenhagen team?
12:26 I think he's...
12:29 I would say they define pretty well the way they defend in a high pressing,
12:33 and when they drop a little bit.
12:35 The quality of the both central defenders and the keeper.
12:39 They can put the ball wherever they want.
12:41 In the long balls, it's not the long balls,
12:43 they pass to long distances, to the full-backs.
12:47 When they let them to play, they drive, they commit,
12:50 and they link inside pretty, pretty well.
12:53 Of course, the runners.
12:55 Always the keeper, when under pressure,
12:57 they can link perfectly with the striker, he's strong.
13:00 And the physicality always they had here in this country.
13:05 Yeah, many, many, many things.
13:07 So the movements in behind, under pressure,
13:09 Lionuzi and the other guys, so...
13:11 Yeah, many good things, and after when defending, I love it.
13:14 I love how they move each other.
13:16 It's not my business, I'm going to defend that player.
13:18 No, everyone do respect for his mates,
13:22 and you still realise the manager works really, really well
13:25 when you see this kind of behaviours.
13:28 And I saw the game, you know, in Nallianz Arena,
13:31 when they need the result to go through,
13:34 the huge personality they play.
13:36 You know, for the back, and I was there as a manager,
13:39 and as an opponent, and play with this personality
13:41 in Nallianz Arena, it's not really easy.
13:44 And they did it, so that's why they deserve completely.
13:48 And also in Old Trafford, they missed a penalty in the last minutes.
13:54 Here, of course, they played the last minutes,
13:57 a lot of minutes with 10 against 11, against United,
13:59 it's not easy to play 10 against 11 here,
14:01 but they fought until the end, so yeah, many good things.
14:06 Pep, I can hear, of course, you have done your preparation
14:10 in terms of the Copenhagen squad.
14:12 Are there any players in particular that you see as particularly good?
14:17 Hopefully my colleague didn't pay much attention to Almancy,
14:20 that would be good.
14:22 I love both central defenders, especially Wawra,
14:26 I like the quality they have with the passes inside.
14:30 More than a specific player, I like the global,
14:40 I like to watch all the teams, especially, of course,
14:43 when you have a player with top, top quality,
14:45 because you have the players, but in general it's the quality they have as a team.
14:49 Erling has been honest about feeling the pressure when he came here last season,
14:58 he seems to cope really well, what do you think makes him so mentally strong?
15:02 Are you asking me if he's coping well this season?
15:06 No, I'm asking what do you think makes him so mentally fit?
15:09 He's so strong.
15:11 He comes from the nature, he's hungry.
15:15 Of course the players come, a team like the one in the two Premier Leagues before,
15:20 and of course I come here, but he adapts really well.
15:25 I think I have an incredible group of players,
15:28 the characters that embrace the new players when they come,
15:31 like Kovac, now Mateus, Jeremy, Josco.
15:36 It needs two days, one day, and they are part of the group.
15:42 That's helping, we have an incredible captain and people, staff.
15:46 Erling felt it, that he immediately arrived and said,
15:49 "I'm most proud of this."
15:51 And after that, just play.
15:53 You were starting in the beginning, we have time, it's 11 months,
15:57 you didn't come for a few days, you come for three years, four years,
16:01 it's five seasons, the contract he has, so do it.
16:05 And the rest, the team, we never put pressure on him,
16:08 "You have to score a goal for us."
16:10 No, be involved in what we have to do, and the rest will come naturally.
16:14 And he coped perfectly, because he's so strong.
16:17 Mentally he's always, "Score one goal, go another one,
16:20 second, third."
16:22 You see his numbers at his age, not in Champions League,
16:27 it's amazing, not even Messi, Cristiano, had this number at his age.
16:31 But everywhere, the numbers are unbelievable.
16:35 And this can happen because he scored goals with us,
16:38 in Salzburg, in BVB.
16:41 He scored goals everywhere, he scored everywhere all the time.
16:44 That helps, we have a special mentality and attributes as a football player,
16:48 and the skills.
16:50 And we are delighted to have him.
16:52 And of course delighted that now in Champions League he's back.
16:55 Two months is a long time, like Kevin, five months,
16:58 and they are back, and we are really, really pleased.
17:01 - Thank you, guys. - Thank you.
17:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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