Guardiola on Bournemouth and trying to salvage Manchester City's disappointing season
28/03/2025
CGA, Manchester, UK
28/03/2025
CGA, Manchester, UK
Category
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00:00Hi Pep, I hope you had a good break. Earlier this season you were talking about Bournemouth
00:26and Brighton specifically and you said that modern football is not so much about positional
00:31play now and you have to ride the rhythm. Is that what you think of Bournemouth? People
00:38look at them as a kind of almost tactically chaotic kind of team?
00:42No, I would not say they are chaotic. I would say that they have a specific way to play
00:48like it works. They have done so far a really, really good season. The quality of the players
00:54they have, the ideas that they have. Of course, it will be boring football and all the teams
01:03can play in the same way in all the leagues. Every team plays in their beliefs, in a specific
01:09way and they do it really, really well. In our team the positional game will be there
01:14and the other ones will be completely different, more direct, more transitional, lose the ball,
01:19win the ball and run and run. Other teams more direct, other teams more crosses and
01:27you have to read the game tomorrow. We have experience that the game we play, first defeat
01:33in the Premier League this season and try to reach the semi-final.
01:37You obviously have achieved everything in the game but you often talk about learning
01:41from other managers. Is Iraiola someone you learn from?
01:46Yes, all of them, yes. There are many, there are many.
01:55Hi Pep, the international break has obviously been and gone. I think some of us were maybe
02:00expecting news over the charges during the international break. Are the players and you
02:07getting agitated that we haven't heard or do you just put it out of your mind?
02:11About?
02:11Are you getting agitated about the fact that we haven't heard about the charges yet?
02:15I don't know.
02:17You just carry on your day-to-day business?
02:19We are more than one year with that. Nothing changed, have one more week or two more weeks
02:25or three more weeks or four more weeks.
02:31Final charge now until the end of the season, what are the goals, what do you want to see
02:35from your side between now and May?
02:37Tomorrow reach the semi-final of the FA Cup for seven times in a row. This is the target
02:43and of course after that win games to qualify for the Champions League next season.
02:50Would you rather hit the top four or win the FA Cup?
02:56Win Bournemouth and after that prepare Leicester, this is the target.
03:02Hi Pep, just to check on the squad after the international break, has everyone come back
03:06fit and healthy?
03:07Yes, some of them are a little bit more tired but less recovered and the other ones good.
03:12And how is Ederson, he missed the Brighton game?
03:14Yes, good, he trained the last two days.
03:17I know Stefan frequently plays in the Cup games, is it one for him or will Ederson play?
03:21We'll see tomorrow.
03:29Pep, the international break sometimes gives you as a club an opportunity to think a bit
03:33about the future, make some plans. I just wondered, is there any update, have you had
03:36any discussions regarding Kevin De Bruyne's future?
03:41It's the club between the club and Kevin in his year.
03:44Do you expect him to stay and be part of your Club World Cup team?
03:48It's a question of the club and Kevin.
03:49Because obviously, I suppose there's more of a pressure isn't there, the news we got
03:54about the transfer window being split in theory, another club could try and almost take him
03:59before the Club World Cup, which would seem a bit crazy.
04:01I just want to say one thing, in the position that we are, I'm just concerned about the
04:03team, what's going to happen to finish the season the best as possible. The individual
04:07situation and every manager, me and the staff and the players, not even one second.
04:15We have to, everybody, think about what is the best for the club, for the team to achieve
04:20the targets that we have still ahead of us with the FA Cup, the Premier League and the World Cup.
04:25Can I assume just finally, as the coach though, you would like him to be at the
04:28Club World Cup playing for Manchester City?
04:31Who?
04:31Kevin.
04:33He's a player, yeah.
04:38Hi Pep, Phil Foden gave an interview during the international break in which he said that
04:42this season has made him appreciate all the difficulties this season,
04:46has made him appreciate all the success he's had here that much more because it's not normal.
04:50That's something you've been saying to us for a while now, but can a season like this
04:55be a kind of reality check that the club needs, the players need, you need, and can you come
05:00back stronger from it? Will you benefit from this experience of this season of having all
05:04the difficulties that you've gone through?
05:06I will learn, yeah. In the good moments always you learn, in the bad moments as well we learn.
05:11Sometimes the experiences, you can happen many, many times and if you don't learn,
05:15we have the problems again and again. And of course, it's a good lesson for me personally
05:22and I learn a lot and hopefully for the club as well. When I said in the past and the people
05:30say that Gennaif is Pep and this kind of thing, it's a qualification for the Champions League,
05:34it's a huge success, the people didn't believe me, now they believe me.
05:47Hi Pep, just on Kusanov, it was a very difficult start against Chelsea but he seems to have
05:53bounced back and he's playing very regularly for you now. How are you seeing his development
05:59in terms of his playing and his adaptation to the squad as well?
06:03Well, it was not expected to play as many games but the situation that we have in the
06:08back four all the season, so we play a lot of games and he has a special quality, that's for
06:14sure, a really, really special one. He's so fast and he brings his passion, even his face I will
06:25see sometimes, but the language doesn't show, but he shows his passion in many, many actions
06:31and we are the light. In a short time, without training, without many, many things, so
06:38he has helped us a lot. And Victor, we have the same, the game we played in the FA Cup,
06:44in the previous round always he behaved really good. They are so young, it's not easy to
06:49start in the middle of the season, new players, new league and everything, but they are really
06:54good. They are so positive in their mindset, in their body shape.
06:58And he came in without speaking any English as well, so that shows even how
07:02hard it was for him, I guess, to settle in. Yeah, he understands, I would say, quite well,
07:07I hope so. But yeah, it's an aspect, of course, we push them to practice, learn, study English,
07:17communicate, because it's really important.
07:21Hi, Pep. Is there anything you can do over the next few weeks towards the end of the season,
07:27like looking ahead to next season tactically, and what you're doing with the players on them?
07:33Oh, not much. We just focus, as I said before, on the game against Bournemouth right now.
07:39So the best way is to have more time next week now, it will be three games in a week,
07:44but after that it will be long weeks, and of course we have to judge the players as they
07:47come back, but especially it's focused game by game, game by game, no more than that.
07:53Well, that's what I mean, if you've got longer weeks, are you not able to look at
07:59things that are a bit more long-term that you can implement for next year?
08:05No, I'm not thinking for the next year, implement for the next year, not at all.
08:10I know the players, we know each other, and next season will be next season, so
08:15I'm not going to practice or something for the next season,
08:17I'm going to practice for the game we're going to play next.
08:22Hi Pep, I think you're the last of the so-called big six teams left in this tournament,
08:27there's a lot of kind of unfamiliar names at this stage of it. Do you think it's healthy
08:31for the English game if we get some sort of new winners? I know you want to win everything,
08:35obviously, but do you think it's good for the game if you get teams outside of the big six
08:39winning big competitions?
08:40That proves how good they are. We see it every week in the Premier League, and
08:48it proves again in the FA Cup. Yeah, that's good. It's good for them, it always has been.
08:54I remember when I was in Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and in England the biggest topic is every team
09:01can beat every team. The difficulty that they play at home, especially away. And of course,
09:10I've been to teams, especially Liverpool, that have done amazingly in the Premier League.
09:17The rest of the teams, Arsenal as well, but the rest of the teams, everything can happen.
09:22And you obviously put a lot of story in the FA Cup, as you just mentioned earlier,
09:25this could be your seventh consecutive season in there. You always seem to put a lot of emphasis
09:30on it every season. Yeah, when we achieved the record last season, the sixth time in a
09:37row semi-final, and most of the time we played the semi-final with very, very bad conditions
09:41after the Champions League game. It was difficult to deal, but arriving there, that means
09:45how important is this competition. So, all one, it's so nice, the FA Cup. So,
09:53that's why we took it seriously, like we took in the past the Carabao Cup, winning four in a row,
09:59so it could not be otherwise. So, it's what you have to do. The results, we don't know,
10:05but taking it seriously is what you have to do, and of course, with the season we have,
10:10to come back to Wembley to play the semi-final, to try to reach the final, would be nice.
10:16Hi, Pep. We're nearly in April, it's about 10, 11 weeks until the Club World Cup,
10:21is there any chance Roderick could actually play in that tournament?
10:24I don't know. I wish, I hope, but...
10:30Is he sort of targeting that as a possibility, as an incentive maybe?
10:35Listen, it would be nice if he could play tomorrow, but don't do a wrong decision right now,
10:42and make a step back. He's injured for, the doctor said, seven months and a half, eight months,
10:48so right, six months, six and a half, so he's behaving really well on the pitch already, but
10:57competition is completely different, and we will see. Step by step, I rely a lot on his work,
11:03but what the doctor says, his physios say, and not to win one week or two weeks,
11:09or have to target World Cup, World Cup, and after we're going to lose it for many,
11:13many months again, so we have to be sure that he's fine, and after we'll start to be involved.
11:19Just with regard to the Club World Cup, I think the prize money was announced this week,
11:23I think if you win it, it might be the best part of 100 million, or maybe a little bit more,
11:28will you and the players be on a nice bonus if you win the competition maybe?
11:31We don't deserve it this season.
11:33If you win the Club World Cup?
11:34We don't deserve a bonus this season.
11:38So that's no?
11:40The bonus, if you win, I don't know how much you go there, it's for the club,
11:45managers, staff, backroom staff, players, we don't deserve. Not even a watch.
11:54This week, Jack Grealish, have you seen in training, obviously he wasn't in England,
11:59have you seen somebody in training really determined to finish the season strongly and
12:05win that, win his place back here and for England?
12:09I'm the first that I wish for.
12:14I want the best for all the players, with the team, with the national team.
12:18Never changed in the past when we're winning, and now, not even this season, never ever.
12:23I want the best for them, and the best performance.
12:26So did you say he's one of the best for England as well?
12:30Did you say he was one of the best?
12:31No, I want the best for him. First of all, for my concern, for Man City,
12:38and of course for the national team, for his country, of course.
12:42Can I just ask, with the FA Cup final last season,
12:46is that a game you've looked over again since?
12:51Did it really hurt to lose that final?
12:54Yeah, we were not, I would say, our best in that game.
13:01We made some changes, and yeah, we didn't perform our best.
13:08But the good moments, I don't remember much.
13:13It will be almost one year it happened, we lost the final against United,
13:17and that's all.
13:19It's not a topic, like I said, in my mind for a long time, I would say.
13:25Hi Pep, you went to Bournemouth at the start of November,
13:29just at the start of that difficult run.
13:31Do you feel like the problems that you were dealing with at that time,
13:34you've overcome them? Are you just coping with them better?
13:37Do you feel like you're a better team now than you were at the start of November,
13:40before that first game against Bournemouth?
13:43Well, we have a squad deeper.
13:46Yeah, maybe it's, yeah, start to, in that game especially,
13:57because the game before we lost in Carabao Cup against Spurs in London,
14:03but we were really good there.
14:04But that was the first game, like we were a little bit away
14:09that our standards require to be competitive, like with the season.
14:13And I think I could not turn around the symptoms at that game start,
14:19in terms of being present and more aggressive,
14:25and duels and disarmament aspects,
14:27that never we have been magnificent in those terms,
14:30but they have a minimum that we didn't have.
14:34You feel like you found the answer, you said you couldn't deal with the symptoms,
14:37or you couldn't turn around the symptoms from that day,
14:40do you feel like you have found the answers to it?
14:43I'm trying since I don't know how many months,
14:46it's not about, you know, I had the diagnosis, it can happen,
14:49sometimes you take more time, and this time it took more time.