Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola states Man City's preseason is now over as they prepare for games 3 days a week
31/08/2024
London Stadium, London, UK
31/08/2024
London Stadium, London, UK
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00:00Adam, another hat-trick for Erling of course, but the total package that he brings to the build-up and with every action that he has, is he becoming the complete team for you now?
00:30He was involved with the game today, we didn't lose one ball. I think he played an unbelievable game, not just with the goals, but defensively and offensively, in terms of giving an extra pass.
00:46I'm really pleased for him, but now officially the pre-season is over, because the international break starts the real season, every three days, so we'll see how he recovers for this amount of games.
01:01I'm really pleased to have one title already and nine points. I've never seen how many points after ten or eleven fixtures the season starts, but of course it's important for us after the short-short preparation for most of the players.
01:20After winning the Premier League last season, we still see each other and we're still there. They want to compete, they want to play good, and every time they win they stand better in the process. I'm really pleased.
01:33When you talked about how you feel so much better after the pre-season, the power, as you say, is going to be with the international break ten hours after he comes back and there are games every week or days. What is the plan to keep him fresh?
02:04We're playing the same team, more or less, for many reasons, because there are late people, for form, because Rico deserves to play, for example, Kovacic deserves to play, but from now on everyone is going to play, because you cannot sustain that rhythm and these actions every three or four days or in eleven months.
02:22But everyone will be fit. I know the players look today, Mateus, McAnussis, like Kevin De Bruyne could have signed. Everyone has played really good and we have to continue that way.
02:35Can I ask you about Jack Green? It's been a difficult few weeks and months for him, but in the space of three days he's got back into the England squad and then did a performance like that. How pleased are you?
02:44That's good. That's really good. He was aggressive with the ball, especially with the ball I wanted. He was aggressive against Wan-Fisaka and the rest and made good actions. Hopefully he can come back fit and better that he finished the game today.
03:01Are you pleased that he's in the England squad?
03:03Yes, absolutely. All my English players, I would like to go to the national team when they are fit and the other nationalities are the same, so I know how important it is. It's just I don't like when they are not fit completely, whenever I go to the national team, I don't like it.
03:17But the power to have the national team, we don't have anything to say. So they come and you have to accept it.
03:25With the goals that Erling scored today and last week, do you think the goals he's scored this year so far have been more crisp?
03:38No, it's better. He's playing much better and everything. He feels that. Very detailed. I said at the press conference, finish the training session, stay half an hour, 20 minutes, half an hour before to finishing, short shots, first controls and feed to the keeper.
03:53Last season, Neriwan Wants was there. He didn't feel good, he was tired, he didn't feel niggles most of the season. Even with that, he was there. And at the end, he's so smart, he needs the team.
04:07And what we're going to do is triple better and better to give more balls in this final third. And I think with Rico, with Gundo, with Kevin, with Bernardo, with Makati, we're going to play, we're going to create that situation.
04:18They move really well in small spaces. Because the transition, the last goal, for example, or the first goal, Bernardo, win the ball, pass the ball and finish, or the third goal, with the space behind, it's unstoppable.
04:29There's no central defender. Not even with, I don't know, with a gun. It's impossible. It's so fast, so powerful. But in small spaces, it happens quite often against us.
04:40We need players with these small, good crosses, for example. Still, we are not so clever. So, Jeremy arriving in the final third, we are not precise enough, like Jack sometimes, too.
04:53But in small spaces, when we create and we improve in that department, he will be able to have more chances. And after that, we know how clinical it is. So, everybody knows it.
05:04Can you talk about the ball-wrapping that Jens was talking about before? There were a couple of things in the first half where he came back into the field and turned West Ham over and won you the ball back before a counter-attack.
05:15And then one where you lost the ball from a corner and he came back 70 yards to go in and put the ball out for throwing. These are the sort of things that we've not seen before.
05:24No. Normally, when he's happy, he scores one goal. And after he does, he's pressing, he's high, he's more intense. But this is the team. Always you have a rule. When you have to go backwards, nobody asks who has to run.
05:36Everybody is going to run. They want to recover the ball. We're going to ask who should have run. And I think Erling is a perfect example of that.
05:47And we have to do it every time, in every single game, and everyone. There are players sometimes who have the transition quick or long distance and have a little problem.
05:56But this is the way that I think defines this team for many, many years. Without the ball, here you have to help each other. It's not a team like run five or six for these three or four biggest stars.
06:08You see the biggest stars that we have up front, and always they run backwards because the team, especially West Ham, West Ham always has the feeling that the danger is there.
06:19You can control, but when Kudus can run, Antonio, Bowen or Paquetá contact with them, the sense of danger in your box is scary because they are really, really, really good.
06:33That's why at half-time I said it looks like we are good, we are playing good, but this team, for nothing, look at the end with 2-1, we have a chance to score, and the transition Kudus in the post.
06:42For nothing, three or four seconds. They have this incredible ability, talent, quality. It's not just right there. Otherwise, they are good. They are good players.
06:52But in general, I said, for the time we are playing this season, our level is, I think, unexpected for me. It's quite high.