Guardiola on rediscovering City form ahead of Feyenoord
25/11/2024
CFGA, Manchester, UK
25/11/2024
CFGA, Manchester, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon everyone, hope you're well. Normal process with mics on either side of
00:10the room and we'll take a share of hands for questions. We'll take questions in English
00:14first followed by any questions in Dutch afterwards.
00:18Hi Pep, obviously we've been asking the same kind of questions for a few games now. What
00:28are you working on and what are you hoping to see tomorrow that's been different to the
00:33last few games?
00:34Prepare for the next game against Feyenoord and try to beat them in the way we believe
00:41we can do it. I don't know another way. The same way we were able to win some games in
00:47a row is thinking what's next, what do we have to do to beat them. It's the same.
00:51You don't feel as though you need to fundamentally change anything within the team?
00:58What should I change?
00:59Well sometimes people react to losing games.
01:04If I should change in the first season and everyone asks to change, we will not win seven
01:07Premier Leagues in eight years. Impossible. Now I'm not going to change that belief. The
01:14success we have and our big belief is in the process and the fundamentals that we have
01:19to do. What we have to believe is that the players that are injured come back in the
01:23best form, the players that play a lot of minutes for the reason they are injured, some
01:27rest to come back, get one good result to change our mind and believe completely deeply
01:35that when we are winning a lot, a lot, a lot, always I was thinking these two shall pass.
01:41And right now these two shall pass too. So nothing, anything is eternal. So the moment
01:47that we start to win again, that we were winning a lot of games, I was thinking we were going
01:51to lose games. It isn't usual. Basically because this team won a lot, a lot, a lot,
01:59for many, many, many years. And that's why when that happens, for all of us, me first,
02:06what's happened, and of course we are thinking. But I think in this situation we have to go
02:12more direct to our principles, don't change much, less than ever. There has to be certainty
02:18to the players that doing this is going to help, because at the end, we had 26 shoots
02:24against Spurs. We had more expecting goals than them. We created a lot of chances, a team that
02:30created few during the average, during the season. But there are departments that we are not strong
02:36enough, and that's why when we lose balls in certain positions, and when the transitions,
02:41we don't win the duels, on the long balls, we don't win the duels, or in one against one,
02:45because they are stronger than us. We have to run. We have to run backwards,
02:51because our four central defenders are not there, and not still ready, ready, ready,
02:55because they were injured. And our main player for these transitions, the player Rodri, is not there.
03:01We can't survive, because with four central defenders, I put Manuel and John holding
03:04midfielders, right? With Ruben behind, with Nathan, with Josco. We'll be stable, we'll be
03:10strong in that box, but we don't have it. I had to play with Gundo, he's attacking midfield,
03:14our best guy to arrive into the box, but I had to play holding midfielder, because the other
03:18holding midfielder is injured, it's Koba, like it's another player can do it. And it has to be
03:21alongside Enrico to have us a lot of passes, a lot of controls to do it. And when it happens,
03:26you have to adapt. And it's not because they won, it's not because they are soft, it's not because
03:30they don't want it, it's not because they are lazy, because we had 26 shooting targets, and
03:34clear, clear chances. Clear ones, in front of the keeper, Vicari was exceptional. But what you have
03:39to do? Insist. Create more. 26, not enough? More. Try to concede less. And one day we are going to
03:46win a game, we are going to have our mind clear. It will be Tuesday, tomorrow, I hope so. If not,
03:51next Sunday. If not, next. But the desire is there to change it, and we are going to try.
04:00You talked about, after the game against Tottenham, that they are struggling a little
04:03to score goals at the moment, in this run of form at the moment. Of course, in the beginning of the
04:07season, Erling was scoring a lot of the goals, and now that he's not finding the target so
04:14frequently as he did in the beginning of the season. No, he finds the target. Sometimes the
04:17keeper saves it. No, that's true. I know what you were talking about. I would think the reason is
04:22not Erling. Without Erling, it would be more trouble. But of course, our wingers, we have
04:29four or five wingers, so we have just one available. Of course, we lack the goals for
04:34that position, because maybe it's not his speciality, maybe because there are no wingers.
04:37The field was so, so productive in the last season, but this season has struggled in the
04:43beginning of the season for some N'Goles, the Ninjas, and everyone. That makes an influence.
04:49Of course, after Erling, you have Josko, John, Kovac, our top scorers. That is not normal.
04:54We need more players than attacking midfielders. Kevin has been injured two months.
04:59That is the reality, and you have to adapt. Without them, you have to survive. You have to,
05:05as I said, create more chances than being there. But we are lucky that we have Erling.
05:11You know that? Every game, every game, every game, we have three or four chances to clear,
05:16and that makes me feel this is what I want my team. To help him to be there,
05:21and one day we'll score. We'll score two or three like I've done since three years ago.
05:27But does it feel like, in this situation, that you're a little too dependent on Erling
05:32scoring the goals, if you're going to get goals at all, in this moment?
05:36Tell me one team with Erling should play, we will not be depending.
05:40Good point.
05:41Yeah, fair enough, I would say.
05:47Norway is depending on Erling to score goals?
05:49Norway, yes.
05:49With Sorlos as well, I know.
05:51OK.
05:53Hi Pep, you mentioned the other day that the squad had 12 players in it who were
05:5829 or over. Five who were 30 or over started the other day against Tottenham.
06:04Clearly these players have done great things for you and for the team. Does there come a
06:09point where there's a danger that the team is getting a bit too old?
06:13No, it depends on the performance. There are players who are 30,
06:16and more than 30, and perform incredibly well. It depends on that.
06:22So there are players with 23 that perform not good.
06:25So it depends on the performance. I don't see the age. We have the reality.
06:30But I think all the teams have players with certain ages and the other one youngest.
06:35But the analysis is not, from my point of view right now, is for the fact that
06:39we are not getting results because we have the 12 players. Because a few months ago,
06:44FIBA, they were the same age. They won the Premier League, FA Cup final,
06:49and we lost the competition qualifying against Real Madrid, performing maybe at our best.
06:54So it's not, I would say, a big difference.
06:58So when you're analysing things, and you've given some of the reasons, it's...
07:01At the end of the season, yeah. At the end of the season, during the season, I analysed it, OK.
07:08We see, it always depends on the performance.
07:11I said before, I'm here because I'm here. But if I don't perform well, I will not be here.
07:17So here you have to... Our standards are there, you have to continue to be there.
07:22And of course you can drop. Tell me one team in the world that cannot drop a little bit after,
07:27you know, being beyond exceptional for many, many years.
07:32I'm sorry, I wanted to defend what we have done because I know these guys.
07:35I don't want to... A few times, maybe never, I never blame one player here.
07:41I have to tell them the reality. They are not stupid. They know exactly our reality.
07:45But I'm not here to say the reason why is this or this one.
07:47There are a lot of factors, minimum factors that make an influence.
07:51I will be able to make a diagnosis and say the reason why is this reason.
07:56I will take it. I will take it immediately.
07:59But it's not about that. It's not as simple as that.
08:01So there are many, many factors.
08:03Now the most important thing is not the tactics.
08:05It's the, OK, you have to win a game in terms of desire.
08:08And after what happened, everything will be, you know, will be better.
08:13Just following on from what you're saying there,
08:16to win and keep winning and win as much as these players have done isn't normal.
08:21There's a lot of players that can't do that.
08:23And there will come a point where, I'm sure you asked that, can they keep doing,
08:28do they have that desire and motivation to continually keep, you know, pushing themselves?
08:34And I think you often say in the past that you need to season,
08:36that my players still have that.
08:39Do you sense with some of them that there is, even if it's just a tiny bit,
08:45there's been that little, they've won so much.
08:48Now it's easy to say because we lost five games and say now we decrease.
08:52It's easy for the manager to blame, yeah, the mentality is not there and they don't want it.
08:59It's because we don't run.
09:00I don't believe in that.
09:01I don't, I don't.
09:03So I learned from my period when these kind of situations become, don't take to my analysis.
09:09So, because we'll be wrong.
09:11Sometimes in my experience of managing defeats,
09:13I shout to the team after the game.
09:15And after that, the day after, that night,
09:18right after the game, early morning with my coffee, I say, why you talk with the players?
09:23Why should I say that?
09:24So relax.
09:25Sometimes you have to be more, have to be cold, you know, to see, not the performance,
09:29you see arriving time, how they care, how they are here, what they do for the team.
09:36There are many, many, many things.
09:38It's not for the, we win or we lose.
09:40And that is not about, it's, I would say it's quite normal after, again,
09:45because what happened in the past make an influence in our lives, right?
09:50In the right moment.
09:51And we won a lot in the beginning of the season, the influence can be,
09:54you know, but in the beginning of the season, we're top of the league.
09:56Still, we are second.
09:57If we start to lose games or continue to lose games again and again,
10:01we'll finish eighth or ninth in the table because it's so tight.
10:03But what will happen, we are second in the table.
10:05Of course, one team is performing incredible in terms of results.
10:08And that's why they take a gap right now.
10:12But still, we are there.
10:13But it's not about that.
10:14It's not about the results.
10:15It's not about, of course, it's at the end.
10:17But right now, it's about the performance.
10:21In the beginning of the season, it was really, really good.
10:23Except Bournemouth's game, I said many times,
10:25the other games we performed well.
10:26But we are not consistent enough.
10:28We are not solid in every aspect.
10:30From my point of view, maybe I'm wrong for the incredible amount,
10:33amount, amount of absence.
10:36So with just one, you can handle it too.
10:38But there's a lot in an important, important position.
10:41I said, now, John Stone, for example, now I can play.
10:44I can play for five minutes.
10:45After one week, 10 days without training, you need the rhythm.
10:47And there are many aspects that are involved in that position.
10:51But when I said the last press conference, sooner or later, it should happen.
10:55Maybe I didn't expect to lose five in a row, but it should happen.
10:58If the winner should happen, a little bit drop after the success that we had.
11:02It's normal.
11:03But the analysis will be in December if we have to do something.
11:06And of course, in the end of the year, the season, I said, OK,
11:10what we have done this season, what do we have to do to, of course,
11:13to be more solid, to be more solid next season.
11:16But these guys gave us a lot.
11:18And these guys will give us a lot.
11:20I had the feeling that this season will do very, very good things.
11:24I don't give up.
11:26And I have the feeling that it will be there.
11:28And it's happened, it's happened.
11:29Because the human beings can happen.
11:30We've got lots of hands, so just one question, please.
11:33Jamie at the front.
11:34Hi, Pep.
11:36Kevin De Bruyne, obviously, since the Champions League final, you won.
11:40And he went off in that game.
11:41He has struggled with injury, hasn't he?
11:43I know you've missed him a lot.
11:45He's obviously getting close to fitness now.
11:47Can he be the factor that gets you back to winning ways
11:51because of that extra quality that he can bring to a team?
11:55Of course, all of us.
11:56He, first, is fighting and training more than ever.
12:00He's fighting to come back to his best.
12:02Of course, he's not 24, 25, 26 or 27 when he's at his best.
12:07Now he's at a certain age.
12:08And now, of course, last season was five months out.
12:10This season he played in the first game.
12:13And the last game before the Spurs, he came to me and said,
12:20it's the first day I didn't feel anything.
12:23You know, I feel I have pain.
12:25The first time until the last two months.
12:29And that is the point.
12:30The other point is you are ready for 90 minutes.
12:32The rhythm that we play in that, of course, we will need time.
12:34It's like the season when we come back after five months,
12:36play 30 minutes, 45, 35 minutes, 40.
12:39All I ask for Kevin, what he's looking for is, I don't have pain.
12:45Pain in terms of everyone in that stage has pain.
12:47But I can play or I can train in a good...
12:51And after that, Kevin will give us something like he's unique.
12:54You know, of course we need him.
12:56Will be, you know, no, no, will be no sense if I would say the opposite.
13:04Hi Pep.
13:05You often say, and I think people understand why,
13:07that you can't predict if your team is going to go on another long winning run.
13:12You always say you never know if that's going to happen.
13:14But is it going to need that now from your team at some point?
13:18To make a run of victories? No.
13:20In the league maybe?
13:20No. It's just one.
13:24You have to win one.
13:26But I mean, in order to claw back on Liverpool and sort of...
13:29Yeah, but in the position that we are, we're playing results.
13:32Are you thinking we're going to ready to win the Premier League?
13:35I won't be surprised.
13:37No. We have to win one game.
13:39And after, see, win the next one.
13:42And learn for this one to get better.
13:45This is the mindset that we have to have.
13:48So we have to have the mindset, oh, we'll be...
13:51But if we don't win, we don't win.
13:54So I want the players to perform well.
13:56I want the players in certain departments more focused.
14:00More do we have to do.
14:01And step by step, we'll come back.
14:05This too shall pass.
14:06Life is like that.
14:07When you think it's perfect, you are wrong.
14:10It's going to rain tomorrow.
14:13So it's life.
14:17Hi, Pep.
14:17Just back on to Kevin.
14:19He's coming in here shortly.
14:20He's out of contract in the summer.
14:22What do you see as his sort of long-term future?
14:23Do you see it being here or...?
14:25I don't know.
14:26How long can he go on at this level, do you think?
14:29I don't know. I don't know.
14:30Kevin, I'm pretty sure, will be honest.
14:32So he wants to finish here with this season, or next one, or next one, being at his best.
14:39I think he will not be here when he believes, for the reason of the last part,
14:44he doesn't feel, I can be...
14:48That Kevin, I can produce and I can help the team like he has done in the last decade.
14:53He's the only player to stay.
14:54So I'm pretty sure of that.
14:56And in this kind of situation, like David Silva was, like many cases, he will decide.
15:01He will decide for the best for him, of course, for the team,
15:04because I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be in the position that cannot be...
15:09I'm not saying playing every three days during 11 months.
15:13I'm not saying that.
15:13But when he performs, when I have to play, I'm the best Kevin as possible.
15:18And unfortunately, for the reasons, just injuries could not deliver.
15:27Obviously, five defeats brings with it quite a lot of questions.
15:29But do you get the impression that it would only take one performance, one win,
15:33to repair a lot of that?
15:35And particularly in this week, when you've got a little pull at the end of it,
15:37that we could be talking on Monday in a completely different way
15:40if you've won these next two games?
15:44Yeah, but listen, I didn't expect, never, ever...
15:47I want to be honest, I never expect for the fact that we won,
15:50I want to convince the audience, the beautiful audience,
15:52or the fans, or the other ones, that what we have done is what we are right to have to do.
15:55Never, ever.
15:57So I knew if we don't lose, everything is in doubt.
16:00It's our business.
16:01So we have to win games.
16:03We have a big compliment, we have a good contract,
16:06the people want to continue, it's because we win.
16:09Not because we do something special.
16:12We don't win, we need to do tackles again.
16:14When we don't win, we have to change the way we approach.
16:17Because they know, the people don't know the way we want to do it.
16:21And we have to win games, so it's nothing changed.
16:24We can win games in the next games, we can win,
16:27but if we perform well, not well, we're going to be down.
16:30But of course now, we have to change the dynamic.
16:33Winning games is...
16:34Football is a place, it's a sense of confidence.
16:37And the fact when you win games, what they give you is massive.
16:41And that is what you have to try to do.
16:44In this kind of situation, when you've had a few poor results,
16:47do you find yourself talking to the players more,
16:50to try and lift their mood, or do you leave it to...
16:52Sometimes.
16:53When I feel it, yes.
16:54When I don't feel it, no.
16:55Sometimes individually, yes.
16:58Sometimes in the group, when I feel it.
17:01I don't have a programme, no.
17:02Have you done that recently, over the last couple of weeks?
17:06No, not much.
17:08Not much.
17:10Nine years, I know them quite well, most of them.
17:13And some of them spoke a lot, and now it's not necessary to speak more.
17:16And some of them speak now more, so it depends.
17:20It depends what I feel.
17:22If I try someone in the corridor,
17:23OK, come here, I'm going to talk to you.
17:25It depends.
17:28Pep, you've talked about quite a lot of big-picture stuff today.
17:32What would a good season look like for you now, from this point on?
17:36By our standards?
17:39By our standards?
17:40It would be a bad season.
17:43Where do you come from?
17:45Tell me.
17:46Where do we come from?
17:47Me?
17:48No, where do we come from as a team?
17:51As a team.
17:52No, you don't play, Zac.
17:54Where do we come from as a team?
17:59It's always we lose.
18:01Future, we're going to lose in comparison, so we know that.
18:05But it's nice, you know, to rebuild the confidence of the team,
18:11and try to, you know, when everybody trusts, and do it.
18:14And I think we deserve it, right?
18:16Some patience.
18:17I said to the players, we deserve some patience at the lose games.
18:20Don't worry, guys.
18:21So, it will not be a big mess.
18:25You are defending a legacy, a tradition, and a success that is so difficult to handle.
18:30So, that's why I relax.
18:32If we don't do it, we don't do it.
18:33It's just to try to focus in the short period of time, and win the next games.
18:39So, what I want is a commitment.
18:41What I want is the commitment, the commitment, the commitment to the players.
18:46Still have what you have to do.
18:48I told them many times.
18:49We will congratulate them.
18:51Our team, the team that takes our crown, they deserve it.
18:56Not because we deliver them, we give them.
19:00And just one thing is not going to happen.
19:02It's be ourselves, and the commitment every day,
19:04in every training, in every game, to do what you have to do.
19:07This is the only way I know.
19:09Time for two questions in Dutch.
19:11What makes Feyenoord a tough opponent for tomorrow?
19:14Right now, every time it's tough for us.
19:16It doesn't matter which opponent is going to face.
19:19We will be tough, because the situation is the situation.
19:22But at the same time, they have a strength,
19:25and we are going to play good to discover their weaknesses.
19:29But of course, the Champions League team, a traditional team,
19:32alongside PSV and Ajax, Amsterdam, the best three teams in Holland.
19:35So, traditional football, especially quality, talent ones,
19:42and, yeah.
19:48Did you have contact with your Dutch friends?
19:50For example, Ronald Koeman?
19:52Sorry?
19:52Did you have contact with your Dutch friends, Ronald Koeman or something?
19:55What kind of influences from Dutch football do you bring here at Manchester?
19:59Because you like the philosophy from Johan Cruyff.
20:03You like to say that Holland created football here in England as well, right?
20:08Of course, there is influence from Johan Cruyff, absolutely.
20:11Everybody knows it.
20:12So, everybody knows it.
20:14But, you know, I would say that the success of this club
20:19belongs especially for the English football, you know?
20:23Because most of this club or this team has is for the English football.
20:29The earth, it's the air and the earth belongs to here.
20:32And we came here to be involved in that culture.
20:35Otherwise, I would train in Holland.
20:39Last question, please.
20:41Yes, hello, Dutch Television.
20:42Should Feyenoord be a bit worried?
20:45Because if Manchester City loses five in a row, which never happens,
20:48there's going to follow a response tomorrow.
20:51Should they be a bit worried?
20:53I don't know.
20:54I don't know.
20:54I have to ask his manager.
20:56So, I don't know.
20:57I'm allowed to think about, of course, only with Feyenoord to know.
21:00But always, I thought in this kind of periods,
21:04with defeats in a row, is to think more than ever in yourself.
21:09And our principles and what you have to do.
21:11This is my feeling.
21:13Can you share just a couple of words about Arne Slot,
21:15the work he's doing now in Liverpool, but also the work,
21:18how you follow that he did the past three seasons at Feyenoord in Rotterdam?
21:21Well, it's really good.
21:22So, arriving in the first season in a team like Liverpool,
21:28the highest expectations, I think the foundation of the team was there.
21:31But the results are there.
21:33So, in Champions League, in the Premier League,
21:35it's doing magnificent, magnificent.
21:37So, yeah.
21:38So, that proves the quality he has.
21:41Thank you, everyone.