Pep Guardiola on Manchester city injury latest with Manuel Akanji ruled out ahead of tricky test against Newcastle
14/02/2025
CFG, Manchester, UK
14/02/2025
CFG, Manchester, UK
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00:00We'll set an embargo part-way through for 10 per cent this season.
00:02Is that all right, Mike, please?
00:04Afternoon, Ben.
00:06How's the squad, how's the mood been after Tuesday's defeat?
00:11Rigoureux.
00:13Move forward.
00:15Is that easy to do? Is it becoming harder to pick them up after every defeat or every time they suffer late defeats or late comebacks?
00:26No, next hour is difficult, next day as well, but the day after is better.
00:31Today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today.
00:36How's Manuel Akanji?
00:38Surgery on Saturday.
00:40Eight, ten weeks out.
00:43What is the injury?
00:47Abductor, I think so.
00:50Broken.
00:52Given you've had defensive issues all season in terms of getting players back and then they're injured again and it keeps happening, how frustrating has it become?
01:00Only with the best recovery from Manuel for the speedy because the effort that he has done this season has been unbelievable because him and Nathan as well played in difficult conditions, not being on top and to have the team in an emergency position that we had
01:20and lack of players in that position and at the end the body said enough is enough.
01:27Finally for me, Newcastle, second of four big games in a row with Real Madrid and Liverpool as well, how dangerous are Newcastle going to be on Saturday?
01:36I don't know how it's been since Eddie Howe took over, especially in the last years, good form, unbelievable speed and everything, so credit to them, but we know the league can make a step forward in all the teams and we make some steps backwards in terms of how we were comparing to previous seasons, but yeah, play at home, our people and try to do it.
02:05Hello Pep, can I ask you about Jack Grealish as well, another player who was injured the other night, what's his situation?
02:10Yeah, it's not as poorly right now, it's not as tough like Manuel has done, but I don't know if tomorrow we'll be ready, I don't think so, but we'll see, we'll assess next hours.
02:23Nico Gonzalez obviously had that difficult start at Leighton Orient and then wasn't used against Real Madrid in the week, how is he after that first appearance and how confident would you be now to use him moving forward?
02:36Well, it's not a difficult start, he just was injured, so a difficult start is when you play bad, that was not the case for the 20 minutes he played, but of course it was a setback when he arrived with delusions, so having a little pain, especially when Madrid still was not fully fit, day by day it's getting better, and like I said before with Jack, we'll assess in a few hours.
03:02A victory against Newcastle this weekend, how much of a difference would it make to everyone around the club, for the confidence of the team at the moment, for the belief going to Madrid as well, how much of a boost would it be to get a big result against a opponent like that?
03:14Every time we get a result, the mood is better in everyone, but at the same time prudent, because the season will be like it has been, and you have to try to get results more often, but of course when you are in that position, the results help us a lot for the next games.
03:39Pep, amongst the many Newcastle threats, can I just ask you to assess Bruno's season, he's their captain now and he seems to have stepped up even further?
03:52There are a lot of threats, a lot of positive things, Bruno is one of them, so it's not the season, so I think he's been playing already 2 or 3 or 4 seasons on a high level since he arrived from France, so he can play in a position more advanced, before he was holding midfielder, now he's in a position to arrive more, Tonali makes more in that position the central role, but both can do it, so physicality they have, the speed, the long balls, the set-pieces, experienced team.
04:22It's a solid team already, so he's playing, of course he was congratulated for the Carabao Cup final, but apart of that, playing one game a week, not playing in Europe, and when that happens it's unbelievably dangerous, because we saw the year that Newcastle played just in a Premier League, not playing in Europe, qualified for the Champions League, the year we qualified for the Champions League had a lot of injuries, didn't qualify for the Champions League next season, so we'll be a contender to top 4, top 5 until the end.
04:52And about your problems, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first time in your career you have so many problems at the same time, how much of your day do you spend thinking of solutions, and how much do they depend on you the most?
05:07I said already lately, a little bit more, it's obvious when the situation got... like I've done last season, everyone knows, the starting XI was more or less in some parts of the season more clear, this season for the injuries and many problems we couldn't do it, and of course you think a lot, but can you help the team, you talk more with the players, can you do better with this and that, so yeah, we try it,
05:33and why in the last minutes again we cannot close the games, everything you try to help, so that is our job, it's normal, and all the managers I think happen, so it's not because of us or because of me, it's because it's normal.
05:50Is it more on the ball or without the ball?
05:53It's everything, it's not one, if it was one subject it would be easy to solve it, so the truth is that we... there's one reality, always we have been so comfortable with the ball, and now we are not as much comfortable when we have the ball, and after when we don't have it we have to make use of our physicality, and our physicality is not like other teams.
06:17Eddie Howe has spoken about this period for his team being potentially seasoned, defining these next run of games, is it a similar situation for you and your squad?
06:27Well, 14 games still, so 42 points, so a lot of games still to play.
06:34Does this game take on extra significance this season, this meeting with Newcastle, because of where you both are on the table, obviously you're both fighting very close to each other, both fighting to get into that top four?
06:46Yeah, it will be the same for every game, it's not just for Newcastle of course, Newcastle is important, like what happened against Chelsea a few weeks ago, it's a team like we are, quite similar in terms of points, but we have 13 games left after Newcastle and many, many points still to play.
07:08And what about the two strikers we're going to see on the pitch at the weekend, Erling Haaland on one, on your side obviously, Alexander Isak, both having fantastic seasons as well, how do you rank their seasons, I mean I guess they're two of the outstanding strikers, are they in Europe at the moment?
07:22Excellent, so Erling is at a level in the first season, second season the numbers were really good, but maybe it was not in the consistency that this season have proven, and Isak every season by season, I knew it a little bit because I follow, for obvious reasons, the Spanish league and Real Sociedad already had the impact to start to do it, and he proved when he can run and the finishing, he's a fantastic player.
07:50Jürgen, back of 10.30 this evening?