Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on their FA Cup 5th round tie with Luton
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00:00 Liverpool win a trophy yesterday, obviously Jurgen Klopp is the manager,
00:05 and he's leaving. With him leaving, does it make you feel like you could go on longer here?
00:09 Because I know you often beat Liverpool, your Manchester City team,
00:13 but obviously he's a very good manager, if he's out the way it might be a little bit easier for your team?
00:18 No.
00:19 Of course Liverpool will hire a pretty good manager, but lose an exceptional manager,
00:25 so the influence in Liverpool's organisation and the team is obvious, so it is there.
00:35 But I see Arsenal and I see what's going to happen when United and Tottenham will be stronger,
00:44 Aston Villa, it will happen in Newcastle, next season will be better because they will learn,
00:50 I'm pretty sure, what happened, what does it mean to play every three days during
00:53 11 months, that they were not using the pass the first time and you had to
00:57 learn this experience and the decision making, so absolutely not, every season is tougher,
01:05 and I think next season will be tougher.
01:07 United fell apart after Sir Alex Ferguson left though, so it could happen at Liverpool,
01:12 because it's so difficult to replace these big managers?
01:15 I have no idea, honestly.
01:17 My other question is, is Kevin De Bruyne OK to start games?
01:22 He hasn't featured, is it a little bit of a concern considering how long he was out?
01:25 No, no, in the beginning we started completely different, with Erling that needed time,
01:30 it was a bone, he had a muscular fine mount injury and we started to make minutes and minutes,
01:37 the first two or three days, and after playing two or three in two maybe,
01:40 I don't know exactly, from the beginning, and after he made a little setback for the
01:45 niggles, he said I didn't feel comfortable with the knock and had something in the muscular,
01:50 and that's why, and the game we played against Worms, for the way they play,
01:54 I decided maybe I'll stay on the bench and go to the second half, we'll see tomorrow.
01:58 But it's fine.
01:58 Will it be possible for Jack Grealish to start this game?
02:10 Yeah, it's possible.
02:12 Normally when we play Saturday to Tuesday, with the demanding schedule in the past,
02:19 I don't decide the line-up and everything, I'm in the seat,
02:23 to work today, training, ice, talk a little bit with them, feeling, to line up.
02:29 Since then I don't take decisions, never ever.
02:31 Before he got injured, what did you make of Jack the few weeks before that, because he hadn't
02:36 played a great deal, had he, and you mentioned that maybe he hadn't trained as well as you,
02:40 you would have liked him to.
02:42 He started a little bit late, but the last month Jack is back in terms of many things,
02:50 and that's why he's playing an important game in the Champions League in Copenhagen.
02:54 Otherwise, playing in the Champions League, when you make a bad minute, you can be out.
03:00 But unfortunately he was set back for 10-15 minutes, but he recovered quick and he's back.
03:11 Pep, you've won more games away from home this season already than you did the whole of last season.
03:16 Is there anything you put that down to?
03:19 I don't know why. We tried to do the same last season as this season.
03:23 In the games we dropped points here, we deserved to win.
03:27 Most of them, in Seaston, Liverpool and Crystal Palace, we were outstanding all three games,
03:35 and we couldn't win, so maybe we missed these points.
03:40 For example, in Bournemouth, in the second half, they were lucky they could draw,
03:43 so sometimes the balance of the Premier League and the long leagues
03:47 is always they give you the position that you deserve.
03:48 The fact that you were able to hang on in Bournemouth and win,
03:52 and you've been to Luton and all these places to keep going,
03:56 does that tell you that the players are still motivated?
04:01 Absolutely. I told you many times, I think from the beginning,
04:05 September, people say we are not consistent enough, we are not doing that,
04:11 and I completely disagree. They can do it, because I enjoy a lot being here in front of you,
04:18 defending my players when I see what they do.
04:20 For me, they can do it to me. To me personally, I proved it many years ago.
04:26 I'm going to change the way you play because you are in England,
04:29 when the first season we didn't win.
04:30 What happened that, that to me, is not a problem.
04:33 But when I see the players playing that way and say,
04:36 'No, they are inconsistent in the beginning, they are already there',
04:38 I say, 'No, it's not true, it's not true'.
04:41 And they prove it again.
04:42 So that doesn't mean it's going to win. Who knows that?
04:45 Look at the quality of our opponents here in Europe.
04:48 Look at Inter Milan now, they are flying in England,
04:51 I'm in Italy, sorry, and last season Inter Milan in the Champions League.
04:56 We knew how tough it was.
04:57 Look at now, it's going to win the Italian League.
04:59 There's nothing wrong, it's going to happen.
05:02 Next time it's going to win three or four goals a game in the Champions League.
05:05 Be the tough, tough, incredible, tough opponent like Atletico Madrid in the first leg.
05:09 So everything is more really, really difficult.
05:14 That is why all my messages I want to say, don't take for granted.
05:17 Don't listen to people saying, 'No, City is going in September, October,
05:21 now it's going to win for easy'.
05:22 Don't take for granted these comments.
05:24 Don't believe them.
05:24 They are not here.
05:26 So it's so difficult to continue to be up there.
05:31 And that's why yesterday I saw the incredible final of Carabao.
05:34 Congratulations to both teams, it was an incredible game, a transitional game.
05:38 Chances for both teams, incredible spirit.
05:42 I remember when I arrived, Brian Kidd told me, 'Carabao Cup',
05:47 'Don't pay attention, play the young players, nobody cares, Carabao Cup'.
05:54 Saras Ferguson always said, 'It doesn't matter'.
06:00 I don't know what happened last year.
06:01 It was like the final, I don't know which competition.
06:04 This is the truth.
06:05 Today everyone, every team, play for win, win and win.
06:09 It's really, really tough to continue to be there.
06:12 And we're going to continue one more month.
06:15 We'll see after Lillia.
06:16 You all seem to like proving people wrong.
06:20 Sort of you and the players.
06:22 I love it.
06:23 As much as they doubt, it will be better for us.
06:27 We need that.
06:29 Just back on Jack Grealish again, what kind of impact can he have if he's fully fit and fully focused?
06:35 Hopefully the impact I had last season depends on him.
06:39 Depends on him.
06:41 And all of them.
06:43 I try to be fair in my decisions, being mistaken.
06:48 So if he played a lot of minutes last season, and this season he'll be less in the beginning,
06:55 he's the same player.
06:57 He's the same player, same manager, same way we want to play.
07:00 The same, nothing changed.
07:02 It's just how you perform, that's the difference.
07:05 And we need him.
07:06 I said from day one, we need him.
07:08 Have a special quality for our team.
07:10 We need him.
07:10 Depends on him.
07:11 Hopefully he can do a good thing like last month.
07:14 Obviously he's had an up and down season in terms of form and injuries.
07:19 Is he a kind of player who needs to play three or four matches on the road to get the best rhythm out of him?
07:25 But everyone, I cannot give three or four games in order to take the rhythm.
07:29 They have to take the rhythm to play 20 minutes, 90 minutes.
07:31 In the high level, the people, the team, non-managers, the team don't wait
07:36 to be fit.
07:38 It's in up and downs.
07:39 Why last season was all the time up and this time up and down?
07:42 There's a reason.
07:44 So you cannot wait, OK, I'm going to give you three, four, you be fit.
07:49 And the other 70 players, and the other 10 players don't play, they don't deserve the
07:54 three or four players to get the same.
07:55 Of course they deserve it.
07:57 But it's not that it works.
07:59 You have to see in the training session and every moment and how you, in every detail,
08:05 and after you will be the same person, the same lovely person, lovely guy, same qualities,
08:13 skills.
08:14 Even more years you improve more what we want, what we need.
08:18 So the players, they don't have to convince me.
08:23 They have to convince themselves that they deserve to play.
08:25 They have to do.
08:26 You mentioned just then about how desperate the top clubs are to win a trophy every year.
08:32 Given that you can drop points in the Premier League and the Champions League and still
08:35 go on to win the tournament, but the FA Cup, the minute that you play poorly for one game
08:39 you're out, how tough is it, a competition to win?
08:41 A lot.
08:42 Every time when we win a trophy, how difficult it is.
08:47 Start again and do it again.
08:49 Not even the single one.
08:52 Every, every, every.
08:53 Today in the modern sport, not football, modern sport, to win something is really difficult.
09:00 Look at the opponents, how they're well prepared, how they're in bed, how everything.
09:04 How well prepared in all departments.
09:07 So the demanding is miles away from when I was, for example, a football player in the
09:14 beginning.
09:14 It's tough, really, really tough.
09:17 Jack?
09:18 How do you compare the team this month to the team in February last year?
09:24 I don't remember, Jack.
09:27 There's been like a defeat at Tottenham in a couple of draws.
09:30 I don't think anyone really...
09:31 Last season?
09:32 Yeah.
09:33 I don't think anyone really saw the treble coming, but you managed to then go on an amazing
09:38 run. I just wonder whether you had any comparisons between the two seasons.
09:41 I don't remember.
09:42 I know a few days ago we had one more point than last season in the Premier League right
09:47 now.
09:48 We had one more point.
09:48 But Liverpool had more, many.
09:51 It was seven last season in the States, and now it's top of the league.
09:54 And Arsenal have, I don't know, five or six or seven more points than it has been now.
10:00 And look how they are playing.
10:02 So that's why sometimes it's up and downs, you know, the seasons.
10:06 But we are in quite similar.
10:08 We are in the Champions League, we are there, and the FA Cup, the quarterfinals, a tough
10:16 draw away against Luton, my feeling.
10:18 For the way we play against United, the way we play against Chelsea, the way we play against
10:22 Arsenal, against us, against Liverpool, the way we won, you know, for Netherlands.
10:28 But in the Premier League, like we won last season, we have one more point right now.
10:32 So we are the same, you know, quite similar last season.
10:36 You say February, I don't remember February how it was.
10:39 I think we were five or six points behind Arsenal in that period, that time.
10:44 And yeah, I was thinking I'd be there because they have to come at home and, you know, maybe
10:52 at home we can...
10:53 They didn't take the reason that they take the first half of the season, make 50 points.
10:59 Otherwise, not even playing incredible, we could catch them.
11:02 So now we are three teams and Aston Villa is there, I don't know, Spurs in the game
11:08 at hand.
11:09 So three teams and they are all of them, one point.
11:14 So everything can happen.
11:16 Can I just ask a quick one about Oscar Bob?
11:19 He's about to sign a new contract.
11:21 Yeah, deserve it, very happy.
11:23 What's been the most impressive thing about him this season?
11:26 Has it been his performance, his application in training?
11:29 Application, yeah.
11:30 Another application would not be here, his commitment and work ethic.
11:33 And yeah, the most difficult part is now for Oscar.
11:38 Arrive, make an impact and play there, it's the easiest one.
11:42 The really difficult one is to stay there for a long time and the minutes you play,
11:47 being performed well, to earn more money, more minutes, money as well, more minutes.
11:52 And that is the part, most difficult.
11:57 So for a young player to arrive and do some appearances, millions of players can't do it.
12:04 To be in the Premier League in Man City, playing there for many, many years,
12:08 this is the most difficult thing.
12:11 Kevin De Bruyne, probably not surprisingly, is one of the latest players to be linked
12:17 with the Saudi Arabia Pro League.
12:20 Does that worry you?
12:21 Is that a concern for you, that he might be tempted?
12:27 It's a question for him, I would love his stays, but...
12:31 I don't know.
12:34 I listen from some links, but I don't know his offer, I don't know if Saudi Arabia wants him.
12:45 I would love to stay here.
12:47 You would love him to stay here.
12:48 Yeah, of course.
12:49 But everyone is everyone.
12:54 Just one on Xabi Alonso, a Spanish compatriot of yours.
12:57 I just wondered what you think of the job he's doing in Germany,
13:01 and would he be a good fit for Liverpool?
13:03 It's a question for Liverpool, and of course I'm not going to answer,
13:09 because I don't know the ideas that they have, but if you ask me the job, what he is doing...
13:15 Honestly?
13:18 Wow.
13:22 So it's the only team in modern football that hasn't beaten in all competitions,
13:26 and fighting in the way, you know, with Bayern Munich there.
13:29 Now they have the most part of the season for them, you know,
13:37 so now he's in the position that they cannot win the Bundesliga,
13:42 they can lose the Bundesliga, but everybody thinks it's done.
13:45 And now it's the most difficult thing, it's not done until it's done.
13:49 But wow, not just the way they play, you know,
13:52 they didn't lose one game in the Europa League, in the Pokal in Germany, in the Bundesliga,
13:59 and the way they're playing.
14:02 I was incredibly fortunate to have him for one year and a half, two years, two seasons.
14:08 He's such an intelligent player.
14:11 So intelligent.
14:12 You could always see him being a manager, could you?
14:14 In that moment?
14:16 Yeah, yeah.
14:17 They're holding midfielders, when they ask you questions,
14:20 and how curious they are about the game, you realise that
14:23 this guy, if he's, he will retire, will be at home, will be annoyed,
14:29 nothing to do, and said, OK, I'm going to back my business, it's world football, and
14:34 normally holding midfielders like him, Macherano, Busquets,
14:38 the holding midfielders I had, Rodri, Without and Gundogan,
14:41 they will be involved in football for sure,
14:47 because they have a vision for the global, you know?
14:50 Perspective is different.
14:51 He was such an incredible top-class player,
14:54 otherwise you cannot play Liverpool, Madrid,
14:56 and after Bayern Munich, Paraguay, or something like that,
14:59 so you cannot play in these teams if you are not a top-class player,
15:04 intelligent ones, skills and so on, and look.
15:06 So he took good decisions, and I'm so happy for him, he deserves it.
15:11 He's a lovely, lovely guy.
15:12 OK, thank you.
15:14 Thank you.