Guardiola digging deep as Manchester City look to find form against Juventus and avoid UCL play-off

NicheSportMedia

Guardiola digging deep as Manchester City look to find form against Juventus and avoid UCL play-off  10/12/2024  Uefa24

Transcript

00:00Good evening, guys. I think we have microphones on either side. We'll take questions from

00:16English-speaking media first, please, and then we'll take some in Italian after that.

00:20Hi Pep, Phil Foden and Matteo Kovacic were back in training this morning. Are they available

00:34for tomorrow night?

00:35I don't think so. Maybe a few minutes, but I don't think so. But it's nice to have them

00:45back here to the team in the training sessions and, of course, travel with us.

00:51Questions, please, guys?

00:55Hi Pep, are you able to say about Nathan Akin and Akanji when they might be available again?

01:03I don't know yet. Nathan will be longer than Manuel, but I don't know.

01:06Is it weeks maybe then, rather than a couple of games? So what challenges will that give

01:11you yet again in your defence?

01:13The same like we had in the last month. Nothing changed.

01:16You're very good at reading your team and your players and how they're doing. Are you

01:20happy with where they're at in terms of their attitude and the approach and how they're

01:24playing?

01:25Yeah, I love them. We can be better. We can do better, obviously, in terms of results.

01:32We have to find something inside of all of us to get the results, but I'm not the right

01:39person to say any wrong words about the team for what they helped us to experience for

01:46many years. But, of course, we have to perform well, do it well again. And these next few

01:52weeks is really, really important.

01:56Pep, so what do you feel about the state of play in the group? What do you think you

02:03will need? Is it possible that you might need to win all three, do you think?

02:07I know what I'm thinking. I said many times last days we are not in the position when

02:12you had the results the last seven, eight games to talk about win games and win games

02:18in plural. So we have to win games and not to see what happens in the next one. But,

02:23of course, we are in a position like we don't win against Feyenoord, especially, of course,

02:28the first game against Inter. We played to win the game for the chances that we had.

02:34Unfortunately, it was a draw. And with these four points that we don't have, we have two

02:38difficult games in Turin, in Paris and the last game at home. And we have to take points

02:44to qualify. And after we see.

02:47What do you make of Juventus, who've obviously had difficulties of their own this season?

02:53Well, Juve is Juve. In Italy, the best team, historical team. They used to play with a

03:05lot of pressure and the quality is there. Thiago, you see what he's trying to do. You

03:13see where he's going to go, make an incredible job in Bologna. It's a question of time, but

03:20they have incredible variations in his play, the mindset or the way they want to play is

03:24there. But, of course, all the managers need time to settle. Hopefully, the Juventus board

03:31can give it to him this time to create what you want to do. And, yeah, we'll be happy

03:36to see him tomorrow.

03:41Hi, Pep. Obviously, it's been a difficult few weeks. Can you see a change in fortunes

03:48coming in results? Or is that purely because of the injuries? Can you see things getting

03:54any better in the next few weeks?

03:56No, no. The team is good. Of course, we have injuries for the problem, to rotate the team,

04:00to give rest. That is a problem. The problem, especially, is we had most important injuries

04:05in the same department. Departure, the department is in the same position, the central defenders,

04:11that is sometimes difficult. But the team is good. So, at the end, we punish ourselves

04:17for many games. We make mistakes and we have to avoid it. So, I don't blame the situation.

04:24But life is like this. We have to do better with the players that we have in terms of

04:29results. Because, at the end, we concede, not in particular, a play that would be easy.

04:35It's a group. It's in general that we miss a lot of things that didn't help us to get

04:42the results.

04:44You said about the punishing yourselves there. With the mistakes, are those just unexplainable

04:50mistakes, the sort of things that just happen in football?

04:53What we have to do is come back. What will save us is the way we play. Mistakes is consequences

04:58because we are not playing in the way we have to play. And the way we have to play is so

05:01simple. We have to play so simple. Our strength is the ball. Our strength in this success

05:08eight, nine years is we run like a desperate team. When we don't have the ball, we don't

05:15have the ball. And with the ball, it's being incredibly patient. Let them run and run and

05:21don't make an incredible recovery. Now, we are in a moment that we attack so quick and

05:27we do a lot of things not in the right tempo that we lose the balls and have to concede

05:31a lot of transitions. And with that, any team is better than us. It's better. So, we have

05:36to be so simple and basic to what we are as a team. We are built and that confidence that

05:42is come back for the simple things. It's have the ball and pass the ball in the easy mate,

05:48in the right feet, in the right foot, in the right tempo. The simple things do it better.

05:53And after that, you will get the confidence because you cannot imagine how you regain

05:58the confidence when you make an extra thousand million passes and you are involved in the

06:03game, you are involved together. That helps us to be who we are. And of course, we adjust

06:09some things mentally now how to do it, but the way we want to play is not going to be

06:13changed for obvious reasons, because our success was there. And I know when we are able to

06:18do it, we are able to play good, even in the situation that we have in the last month.

06:25Hi Pep, on that, you've got a lot of players who are probably being forced to play a bit

06:30more than you would like. Is it just that there are players being overworked at the

06:33same time and maybe it's a mental thing as well?

06:35No, no, it's not a mental thing. It's about to do the simple things better. It's not a

06:41mental thing, they are professionals. Always I will not forget that period when Rico has

06:45done for us, like Josco has done for us, like Bernardo Gundogan and Erling Haaland. So playing

06:55all the minutes during the toughest period and the strength and going there. This I will

07:01not forget, because they are there. And I admire them and I appreciate them a lot. And

07:08now it's step by step, the other guys come back a little bit and join the team. And as

07:15much as we are all together, we will be a stronger team.

07:21Last two in English, guys, before we take Italian. Simon?

07:24What have you learned about your players and what have you learned about yourself during

07:29this period?

07:30I'm trying to find the solutions in terms of getting results with the team. And as I

07:37ask him, it's give the players back. But in the meantime, I love to be in that position

07:45and I prefer not to be, but always I take that situation like it was perfect. It's like

07:52I always felt like a privilege. So that isn't real. You win six to seven Premier Leagues

07:57or Champions League or four in a row. That is not normal. It is exceptional. I take it

08:02that exceptional. I don't take it like how good we are or how good everything has happened.

08:07That is not about that. So we won that no team has done it. And many, many have. We

08:14have all the records in Everett. That is exceptional. So always it is exceptional as well as going

08:19to have to find the balance and come back on track. And track is win one game and another

08:24one and be competitive in many things and feel that it's not what I have to do, what

08:30I have to do to help the team to win games. And there is a lot of aspects of that. And

08:38I have full confidence. Even the results from now on in the future will be even worse. The

08:43confidence of my team is undeniable. Confidence of my team is always there because they give

08:50me the privilege after nine years sitting here, you know, being in this. They give us.

08:56And the problems are there. It's fine. Results, yeah. In the situations I'm comfortable, yeah.

09:01But it's not the first team in the world that have problems. The Ninjas are not the first

09:03team in the world that have bad periods. So, OK, we have to face the problems in terms

09:09of results and go for it.

09:12Hi Pep, you said a minute ago that your players are playing a lot of minutes, that the results

09:25have been up and down. How do you assess their own confidence levels at the moment, the players?

09:30The confidence to regain and pass the ball is a simple thing. Listen, confidence in a

09:34game is when you have one or two or three actions in one game and the actions are good.

09:39Then you have the confidence. Confidence is not, oh, you have to have confidence. It's

09:44not about that. If I have an action, defensive, offensive, I win that duel, I have the ball,

09:49simple things, two or three simple things, I do it. I have the confidence.

09:54So at the end, the people believe it's so difficult. No, it's not difficult. You have

09:59to do the simple things, go to there. You lose the ball, come back and the simple things

10:03you do it. I don't ask the actions from Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi. I don't ask these kind

10:06of actions. They are unique. They have to do what they are good at. And it is from here,

10:12even if it's in the bottom, from here we are going to build step by step like we want to

10:16do. We want to be as a team like we have been for many, many, many years in the last decade

10:23in England and in Europe.

10:25Someone start in Italian please, guys.

10:55I don't know what to say. Yes, it's true that we are fighting to be the team we have been

11:03but after eight years, nine years being up there, some period, a bad month, you can

11:10hold on to it. There is no doubt that we will be what we have been. I know that we have

11:15been judged in all the World Cups for the results but I know my people, the club and

11:23the fans will support us.

11:25I don't want to comment on the fact that Juventus are not playing. I am away and I have seen

11:32the last three or four games. I can see the meaning and the sign that they have it and

11:37I think that they are on the right track, for the time being. It is not easy to get to

11:44a place and to put all the new things in with the obligation that Juventus, Milan, Inter,

11:52Napoli, the teams that we all know from up there, will be able to do that immediately.

12:03Sometimes you need a bit more time. In my first year at Manchester, I didn't even win

12:08a title. They gave me patience and then the story is told on its own.

12:15Next question, guys.

12:17Good evening, Emanuele Gamba from La Repubblica. I wanted to ask you personally what does

12:22this period mean for you? You are used to teams that worked and won a lot. How are

12:27you living it and what are you learning from this, which is perhaps the most difficult

12:31period of your career as a coach?

12:37I prefer not to learn anything about these things. I prefer not to be here.

12:44As I said before to your English colleague, I take it as a normality that these things

12:53happen because the exceptional thing is to win 11 Champions League games in a coach's

13:00career. I would say that this is strange. Normally, sometimes you have five or six games

13:07a month and for different reasons it happens. I have said it many times in England that

13:16sooner or later this was going to happen. After winning four or six Champions League

13:22games in a row in England, sometimes these things can happen. You manage to get out

13:29of this situation as quickly as possible. Sometimes you need a bit more time, but

13:35tomorrow or the day after tomorrow it depends on the result. I am not in Manchester but

13:40I am in Turin and we have to move on. There is nothing else. I take it as an absolute

13:47normality that happens and all the teams with all the coaches and all the players in the

13:52world. The exceptional thing is the other thing. It seems that we have to win the title

13:57every year and this is not the case.

14:04Good evening, Filippo Cornacchia, La Gazzetta dello Sport. I wanted to ask you, in Italy

14:10despite the negative results of City, no-one trusts City and no-one trusts Guardiola.

14:14No-one trusts to find Pep Guardiola in trouble and no-one trusts Manchester City in trouble.

14:20Do you trust all these draws from Juventus?

14:24No, never. Even if I came here with ten wins in a row and Juventus were in a bad

14:29situation, I would never trust a team like Juventus or any other team. It is a match

14:35that you have to play and you have to know what they do and their potential. You have

14:40to know what we have to do and who we are. What I have learned and what I think is that

14:48as a coach, if I was a player for this team, I would only focus on us. I have a lot of

14:58respect for Juventus and I have to analyse it and I have to talk to the players that

15:02I think will do it. But this last week we have talked about us, us and us. It is the

15:10only way to get out of this situation. Now it is a matter of us, with all due respect

15:15to Juventus and all the teams that have beaten us in the past. We have to look at ourselves

15:22and what we have to do to beat Juventus and the teams that we have to play in the next

15:28few weeks.

Category

Transcript

Recommended