Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on their final trip to Goodison Park to face Everton
Etihad Training Campus, Manchester, UK
Etihad Training Campus, Manchester, UK
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00:00As high as it has ever been in terms of a manager, does it never kind of waver despite the results?
00:08That is different when you play for the titles, but we play next Saturday for one title to reach another final.
00:15Yeah, energy is still good.
00:17With long weeks, you have, you know, when you have every three days, you don't have much time to disconnect.
00:23Important when that happens is at the moment the training be good, relax the players,
00:27and the moment of the game tomorrow at 3 p.m. is the key.
00:32If it's top five, obviously, sixth, if you were to finish, if you were to play in the Europa League, what kind of impact?
00:40I will let you know.
00:42What impact?
00:43I will let you know if you need six or seven.
00:46I will let you know.
00:46Now I don't know.
00:47You asked me for the feelings, what I have to feel in one moment time, so I don't know.
00:52I will let you know.
00:53Of course, for all the clubs, it's better to be in Champions League than in Europa League.
00:56But that's for sure.
00:58And you have to win it.
00:59So we have to, you know, nothing in this world gives you the things for granted.
01:05So you have to do the things to deserve to play next season.
01:10Mike's just taking my question there.
01:12But in terms of the top five, we've seen big teams who haven't qualified for the Champions League
01:17take time to get back into it.
01:19Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, United.
01:21So in that context, how much of a setback?
01:24I know you're not thinking this way.
01:25If you win all your remaining games, you're in the Champions League.
01:28But how much of a setback would it be for this club, given you've been in it for 14 years in a row?
01:34If we are not in the...
01:35Yeah.
01:35As I said, it was not good, of course.
01:39Tell me if the teams are involved, right?
01:42Because Liverpool and Arsenal are already done.
01:46But for Nottingham Forest, for Newcastle, Aston Villa, you know, Chelsea, ourselves.
01:52Ask them.
01:54How is the difference?
01:54Play Champions League or not Champions League?
01:56Of course it's important.
01:57But what will we do?
01:59I guess the club move forward, continue.
02:02So this is the idea.
02:04In your experience, when players are looking to move in the summer, players come into a different club,
02:12is the fact of them being in the Champions League a big factor for them?
02:16Or do you think that City, whether you're in the Champions League or the Europa League,
02:18will still be able to attract the same level of players simply because you're such a big club?
02:23It's a good question.
02:24It depends on the player we wanted.
02:25They just want to move on from the AR and just have one option.
02:31So it's easier.
02:32But you have many.
02:33I'm pretty sure the players take a look to win the Champions League, of course.
02:37And so when you're having those conversations with Hugo or Chiqui,
02:40have you got two separate lists, essentially, of players who it's just a set list of targets?
02:48For the conversation they have for the club,
02:50the club don't have one list for Champions League or one list for relegation battle.
02:56Is it a concern if you didn't have Champions League football that there were players who you or Chiqui would quite like
03:00who may say, I'm going to go and sign for a club that are in the Champions League?
03:03Sorry.
03:04Is it a concern that there are players who you may like or may want to sign in the summer?
03:08If you're not in the Champions League, they may say, well, no, because I'm going to...
03:11But I don't know.
03:12But there are players who maybe come anyway.
03:15And there are other ones who don't want to go because you want to do the Champions League.
03:18So I don't know.
03:21Like I didn't speak with one player, potential for the next season.
03:24Just to follow from that, with the players who you have already, could Champions League qualification
03:31maybe prompt them to come and say, I want to leave if they're not playing in the Champions League?
03:38They have contracts, except Kevin, all the others have contracts in the club.
03:42And his agent decided who's the best.
03:44So now I'm not...
03:47I'm so concerned about the club is working, of course, behind the scenes, what they have to do.
03:51But I'm concerned about yes or yes and these fast-six games and FA Cup.
03:56And after that, one week, ten days off, 5th of July, June, June.
04:02Start again, you know, for seven days before, fly to a new state and prepare the World Cup.
04:10Can I just ask about that first game at Goodison Park where the result wasn't good?
04:15And I think after the game you said, we're not going to win the title.
04:17And a lot of those players then moved on in the summer.
04:20Was it that game that sort of prompted you to...
04:24Never is a game like dictate who we are, what do you have to do.
04:28Never.
04:29The decisions have been made in the training session, in the dressing room,
04:32in the games and games and games.
04:35Not the specific game, but in that game we lost it.
04:38But we don't lose much in the Premier League these years.
04:41But sometimes we lose games.
04:43And it's a good lesson.
04:45I know how difficult it was Ronald Koeman make in that moment.
04:48I remember it was there.
04:49Lukaku make a good game.
04:50So, with some part, it was always difficult.
04:52Hi, Pep.
04:58Just going back to that Bournemouth stuff we talked about recently and the spirit being back,
05:03what was it that you noticed?
05:05When you looked at that game from November, it sounded like you went,
05:08oh, okay, that's it.
05:09That's what we've been missing.
05:11What was that process?
05:13What was it that you saw that you needed more of?
05:16And how did it kind of feel?
05:18Was that it?
05:19Was that the moment where you thought, oh, okay, this is the moment we've worked it out?
05:22No, the post-game game with Premier League were nowhere near the minimum standards
05:26that we have done in the last year.
05:30Apart from the injuries and apart from the mentally we're not there, it's simple.
05:35In the process as a team, there are moments that you drop.
05:38And it happened that season in a few parts.
05:41And that game expressed perfectly what we were not in the last seven years.
05:46Giving absolutely credit for Bournemouth.
05:49Don't misunderstand me.
05:50But, of course, to compete against the teams in that league,
05:53you have to be a minimum.
05:54And we are not.
05:55And just realize, as I said in the last press conference,
05:58realize what we are, what we were, what we want to be.
06:03And as much as you realize and you turn around or you do it, it's not a problem.
06:08Was it difficult to realize that in between?
06:11So, November, December, January, all this period.
06:14Did you almost need that time to step back and look at it again?
06:18No, no, I realized that.
06:19I realized in that moment that we are not, you know, nothing.
06:22And after that, I remember we went to, we went to Lisboa to play against Champions League.
06:28And we played really good the first half.
06:30And after one or two minutes, second half, we were losing one, three.
06:33We didn't shoot two shoots and target.
06:35So, and after, sometimes you want it, but the energy cannot because we have 13, 14 players in that moment.
06:42So, we could not train in.
06:44We could not recover.
06:45Now we have 23 training in the training.
06:49In that moment, we have 12, 13 players.
06:52And in that moment, the day after, we have one player for the training recovery.
06:55And now we have eight, nine, ten players.
06:57So, the players can train, can practice, can do it.
07:00Oh, no, what, three days later, four days later, three days later, important game, Champions League.
07:05Because it was the period the Champions League would happen.
07:08So, yeah, it happened.
07:09I have a lot of problems in that.
07:11We have enough energy to rotate, energy to be consistent in 90 minutes.
07:15Because most of the games, after 65, 70 minutes, we were there.
07:20Brighton away.
07:22Even sports here.
07:24We have energy for a certain moment, but not for 90.
07:30Hi, Pep.
07:31You've always had a philosophy of working with a very small squad.
07:34You don't like players sitting around and not playing.
07:36I just wonder if anything that's happened this season has made you change that philosophy.
07:40And obviously, you said you had a very busy January.
07:43And you said you brought a lot of transfer business forward, in a way, from the summer.
07:47Do you still expect a busy summer and a big squad next season, kind of?
07:51Continuous.
07:52I don't like a big squad.
07:53Now I'm giving one or two players who not even can travel to Woodistron Park.
07:57And that is terrible.
07:59It's awful.
08:00No sense for that players.
08:04Not even go to the bench.
08:05Stay at home.
08:06They go home and say, what am I doing here?
08:09You know?
08:11They cannot do their job.
08:12And the most important is to analyze who will be more reliable than the other ones.
08:18This is important.
08:20The player can be reliable.
08:21Okay.
08:22We don't need more.
08:23The players will be like this season, like the previous seasons, like play just 20% of the game, 25% of the game.
08:29If he stays, maybe we'll have another player in that position because he's not reliable.
08:33I think more than the quality because I don't have any doubts.
08:37So if you ask me how is the squad, this season, there's exception.
08:41Exception.
08:43I don't have any complaints about the club.
08:46I've never done where I've been, but it's exception.
08:49The problem is we didn't have it.
08:50If you tell me, analyze the players' old feet, Roderys and Jones and Nathans and Manus and now Erling, six weeks off, and all of them fit.
09:02The team is exception, but unfortunately during the season we didn't have that.
09:07The question is next season.
09:09If we have the players that are not reliable and they want to stay here, we have to make a longer squad.
09:17But that is the balance that we have to find, talking and talking and talking.
09:23Going back to last weekend and James McAtee's performance, did he give you anything that you hadn't seen this season?
09:33Anything new going forward?
09:34No, we have this season because I didn't allow him to play minutes.
09:39So I cannot ask anything for this type of players that play a lot, a lot of minutes.
09:45They could do better.
09:46No.
09:47So in the sport, for example, was maybe the first games I played in the Carabao Cup, played really good.
09:53In the games I played, McAtee has this quality.
09:57Who could score four goals?
09:58You know, has the ability to create the chances.
10:04You know, it's there.
10:05Of course the game was better in Crystal Palace.
10:08And like you play better, the chances come for itself.
10:11So I remember the whole city for the fact that we score five goals.
10:15You have four or five more clear, clear chances.
10:18In this season, we want to remember against Leicester 0-2 and we have two shoots and targets.
10:25So that wasn't a team like it was in eight, nine years.
10:28So it's a team, like I said, okay, the opponent scored one goal, yeah.
10:32The scorer scored two goals, yeah.
10:33But we create eight, nine, ten chances.
10:36This season, this team scored one or two goals, but we didn't create much.
10:41And McAtee, when he lives close to the box, he's quite similar from Phil.
10:49They are there.
10:50A sense, you know, it's difficult to train.
10:52A sense of, I make that movement because the ball is coming here.
10:56And after he didn't score, it's fine.
10:59As much minutes he plays, he will score more.
11:01And he's, obviously, you've had him here for 12 months.
11:06You've seen him every day now after two years on loan.
11:09He's only got 12 months left on his contract.
11:11Is he someone that you want to stay within the squad and sort of someone that you can rely on for the next few years?
11:19For the age I like, I would like to stay.
11:21I understand the players have, they want more minutes.
11:26I understand them.
11:27So I would like to stay because I think he's a player for the academy.
11:30He knows the patterns.
11:31He's a lovely person, a lovely guy.
11:35He trained really good.
11:37I'm playing different positions.
11:38I like him, but I don't know, like I said before, the squad, how we finish, how we end.
11:44We'll see.
11:46Thank you, guys.