Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on ending 2024 with a much needed 2-0 victory
29/12/2024
King Power Stadium, Leicester, UK
29/12/2024
King Power Stadium, Leicester, UK
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00:00Good evening, I've said many times, there's no doubt about Kevin, when Kevin is fit, Kevin
00:24is Kevin, most impact, one of the most impact players in all history for Man City and Premier
00:30League history, but sometimes they're not, he didn't feel well in the past, the recent
00:36past and sometimes when he didn't feel well because he's a guy who needs the physicality
00:40to feel good, like everyone, especially Kevin, but of course he's a player since the minute
00:46one and he has done it and of course we need him, I'm so pleased that he, especially the
00:53performance he has done.
01:03Yeah I think it's the right word to use, more than happiness, it's the relief, as a performance
01:12side has not been the best, I could not expect differently, Leicester was better in the last
01:1910-15 minutes for half, in the 50-20 in the second, the game was tight and expecting goals
01:24in many things, but today the coin came, we had to improve a lot, but of course we will
01:33improve and the results will improve, that's for sure, we will see we are better and winning
01:39games sometimes and we are able to do every three days during many, many years, the best
01:45of us, we will come back, that's for sure and of course the result helped us a lot.
01:59Yeah of course it's better, it's better, of course it's a lot of games, I'm so pleased
02:04and I said to the players and staff, share it with them, the staff and players have been
02:10since day one until now, it's a lot, I know the last 30-40 games have not been really,
02:18really good, but comparing 34 for 500, so I have to be, we have to be so pleased and
02:25so happy what we have done together, it's a lot, a lot of games, I could not expect when
02:31I land in this country and we have done, thank you, a lot of things that will be a memory,
02:39will be forever and maybe that period, that month and a half, two months, that looks like
02:45500 months, will make you realise how nice it was and hopefully we can come back,
02:53maybe not be what we were, but more closer than now.
02:57Do you feel that you have played more today than you did in the past?
03:02A lot, no, it's not a doubt, no, because today we played, but in the past,
03:11I've been, listen, there are things that sometimes don't feel that it's been being
03:15unfair, sometimes in the situation that we are living, always you have the feeling,
03:20okay give the responsibility to the senior players, not the young ones, but sometimes
03:23the senior players have more pressure than the young ones and don't have anything to defend,
03:27just they want to conquer the world, to conquer his space in the world of football and I had
03:33the feeling in the beginning, before the game, I said if today I had to make a substitution,
03:37the first one will be James, I felt it, it doesn't matter, I can play in the wingers,
03:43I can play in the pockets, I can play in the striker, I can play in few positions at the top
03:47and where I'm pleased the most and every action he has done has been good, he didn't make one
03:53wrong action and in the position that they were defensively, I think, grew up a lot,
04:00grew up a lot in Sheffield, that period there, making him so mature, even a struggle at the
04:06end to take minutes there as well, but he's a player with a group of generation that we had
04:11in Man City that have been unbelievable, you know, when you see Romelu Lavia, Cole Palmer,
04:17Morgan Roger, Maka, Liam Delabre, there are Taylor Bailey's, there are incredible, incredible
04:26players come from there and Maka is one of this generation, he was captain of this generation,
04:30so that's why when I said to Chiqui, I know it's unfair to say because you asked to stay
04:36and after you didn't give him the minutes deserved, yeah, it's fair, it's fair enough,
04:39it's right, but also I had the feeling that the guy could play with us, you know, could play
04:44and I'm very pleased for him because he's an incredible, lovely guy and trained really good,
04:50never won bad phase and he won his minutes space, so it's simple, so all the players I said many
04:59times, when you want to add something, on the green, on the green is the best place to show
05:04and Maka today proved it.
05:18And now today?
05:24Well, the experience is what I thought, always I thought that could happen, always I thought
05:31that the football is unpredictable and don't rely much about, take the things for granted,
05:39that's why when people say in the beginning of the season, I said he's going to win, never,
05:42never take seriously this kind of comment, but never ever, even knowing that, expect
05:49this amount of games that we were never to win and that's for sure and there are a lot of factors,
05:54some of them and some of them, everybody knows the ninjas and sometimes, sometimes a manager has to
06:04deal about the tactics, the relations, the medias and whatever and there are things,
06:09I had the feeling that they should have reacted differently that I've done time ago, but
06:15it's incredible learning and yeah, it's just one game, so and we'll see what happens on 4th of
06:21and we'll see what happens on 4th of January with West Ham.
06:40Wow, if we turn in terms of results, it has been an unbelievable season,
06:4412 months is 12 months, it's not one month and a half or 14 games,
06:50so international break in the middle, it has been an unbelievable season,
06:55we arrived the final, the FA Cup final, we won the Premier League four in a row and we won
06:59the Champions League, performing really, really good, so but the reality is that as you leave
07:08today and tomorrow and the players, the people come to the stadium, our fans come here,
07:13thank you for coming to Leicester in this period, to see today, know what they have done,
07:18you know, they've done when we were retired, it's fine, but now we have to perform and we have not
07:21done it for many reasons and now I'm sad, the performance is better, against Everton was better,
07:28by far, miles away was better than today, but today we won and this is what we need,
07:33to clean a little bit of our minds, our souls and see, okay, we can win games,
07:40never could thought that was so difficult to win one single game,
07:43that's now we felt it and maybe it's good to give, but if you say, no, you have to win again,
07:49to come back, to do what we are going to do, no, no, no, it's give that period help us to do what
07:56we have done and that made me reflect how difficult it was, because what I said to Ian,
08:02so at the end, football you say, no, no, everything is under control, there are not
08:08chairmen, managers, CEOs, sport directors, that believe that with my decisions, everything is
08:13going to be fine, it's going to always, you have to have the warnings, that when people say, no,
08:19it's impossible to do worse, no, can't get worse, don't tell me why, but can't get worse
08:25and they prove it that time and you tell in one people in England, that we could live that period,
08:32no one would say it's impossible, me the first, I said that we're going to drop,
08:36we're going to lose games and after we lift again, we'll be there, expect to do, no chance,
08:42it happened, football is this, people say, no, I have the right things to do, we're going to win,
08:49no one, all the clubs around the world, all the managers, all the players,
08:53live this kind of situation, maybe it wasn't expected and yeah, hopefully, the most important,
09:01that hopefully, we can go to the games with another face.
09:17I changed a bit Everton today, I didn't change anything, what they have done,
09:21there's one thing I reflect, so have to change a lot in that period or change less, I don't know,
09:28so no, today was quite similar, what they have done in the past, but still, we are a way,
09:35what we will have to be as a team, but Xabio make an incredible performance again, like the day
09:40against Everton, he's a guy can play on both sides, today finally scored a goal, the chances
09:45they had all the season, Jarling again, he break a little, this bad momentum of scoring goals,
09:51carrying back, so yeah, step by step, hopefully, we can come back,
09:57players back and back to playing our best.
10:05No, I changed, I thought a lot to change, yeah, I thought, but the alternative was not as good,
10:12I thought with this 500 games, so that's why I didn't change much, it was more the players to
10:18get calm and players back and have the players fit, this is at the end the most important thing
10:26that we didn't have, but at the end, it was not the reason why, only the reason, because
10:32this start 11 today was really good, against Everton was really good, against Aston Villa
10:37was really good, it was more in here, in our mind, intervening in our minds of the players
10:42was not easy, it was a good, tough job.
11:04Sabino has an incredible ability and quality, he proved in that period, arrived here in the
11:09sixth month, the team is not in the best moment that maybe he expected, comparing with what was
11:17in the past, he made one action fine, second action fine, the third missed it, the fourth
11:22mistake, the fifth mistake, the sixth try again, and try again, and try again, and until the end
11:28he tried, defensively so smart, he's not incredibly strong in the one against one duels defensively,
11:35but his work rate is impressive, and he's so aggressive in both sides, and to make a goal,
11:43he had a lot of chances this season, he always spoke, the moment you score one or two,
11:47you will score a lot, you will know, and I'm really, really pleased for him, for the game,
11:53for the goal, for the assist from Merlin, because playing in the left side, you can make that
11:58crosses, like typical before, crosses in the same side, and it was really good, the game he played.
12:10Thank you, happy new year for everyone.