Pep Guardiola has addressed the media on a multitude of subjects ahead of Manchester City’s return to Premier League action following a fourth successive defeat.
The reigning Premier League champions come into the midweek contest off the back of a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool that has now left them 11 points adrift of the top-flight summit, and many doubts over whether they can still claim a fifth consecutive title.
Defeat on Merseyside also meant Manchester City were now seven games across all competitions without a victory, with their last win coming over a month ago courtesy of a single Erling Haaland goal against Southampton in the Premier league.
However, the desire to bounce back and put together a solid run of form will never fade from a side coached by the relentless Pep Guardiola, and the 53-year-old was as determined as ever when he returned to media duties this week.
Following part two of Guardiola’s address to reporters at the City Football Academy on Tuesday afternoon, here is every single word from the Manchester City manager prior to their meeting with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night!
On whether everything that has happened is what he expected at the start of the season
“Well I would say that the beginning of the season was not tough, I expected it would be tougher. But it was completely the opposite. It’s now when the central defenders fell down, and started to not get results, we lack our consistency, and after the results were not good.
“But at the beginning of the season it was really good, we won the Community Shield, we won at Stamford Bridge, we were solid in most of the games except Fulham, and after when we started to lose the games in Bournemouth and after for the problems that we had, and it got worse and worse, and we have to find a solution, I have to find a solution to bring stability to the team through our game to win games.”
On Arne Slot’s comments about Manchester City’s 115 charges
“It was a joke. He said it was a joke, right? It was a joke.”
On whether the ‘six’ gesture at Anfield shows he is losing his cool
“I was never cool. Do you know why I was cool? Because I won, we won. The people who won are so cool, so handsome, so nice. And when you don’t win it’s completely the opposite, but it’s the same.”
On comparisons to Jose Mourinho’s gesture of ‘three’ towards his Premier League titles, and that being the beginning of the end for him at Manchester United
“I hope not in my case! At the end maybe we are quite similar like Jose, but he won three, I won six! But it’s the same, so we are together, in that situation. It’s just to make our fans feel that we are much, much better than the people can think about that.
“What we have done has been extraordinary, and in a place that is exceptional for many, many reasons, I want to prove that we are an incredible football club. Apparently it doesn’t look like. Sooner or later it’s going to be the end, James (Jamie Jackson), you know that. Absolutely it will happen, but I will try to extend as much as possible for the best of my club. (I hope you do!)
“I don’t think so, you can think about it, but it’s OK, thank you for your kind words. It’s so boring nine years the same guy, you know? So sooner or later they are going to, you know, they will be more attractive.”
On whether Manchester City’s players are still knocking on his door, desperate to play
“I don’t remember much people coming to knock on my door saying they want to play. It’s not necessary to knock the door to know that they can do it. Of course, they want to play, especially when they are fit and they want to prove it. I don’t have doubts about that.
“They proved it, I’m sorry. I know the vision is so short, one month, and this position is there, but I have to make the spectrum a little bit wider and wider means eight years, and most of them, maybe there are seven, eight, nine players and figures that have been together for eight, nine years. This is the spectrum that I see.
“I’m not going to judge them for this month or month-and-a-half. I know the real moment is like that, I understand completely, but I have to push them, I want to push them but at the same time I want to be more closer to them than ever. Because what they have done is unique, and I know we can do it again. I know it.
“And now it’s difficult for many other reasons, but that is what it is. We have to, you know, in that moment prove how good we are, and how positive we are for the club.”
On the difficulty of knowing when to be close to the players, and when to stand off them
“As much as I have their commitment, as much as they want to do it, it’s not a problem. Maybe the mistakes are a little bit more often for the circumstances, but I can understand it. As much as they are there and they want to do it, the rest can happen, I can understand it.
“I’ve been here in that position as a football player sometimes, and always I have to be there, knowing what we are playing for, making a step, don’t stay behind-the-scenes, you have to make a step forward. And this is what I want to try to do.”
On whether he has to be mindful as a manager of when he needs to have a little shout, or when he must allow them to stay together as themselves
“Always I am so constructive in my behaviour with my players. Even if I shout or don’t shout, always I am constructive. If after many years they don’t understand my message, by being nice or being more rough, it’s always to be better next time. And next time, it’s because still they are wrong, or still they don’t know me.
“There are no managers to blame, always you have to do it and you have to tell something, you have to say something since I arrived in my managerial career. It’s just so, next time, get better. If something is not going well or what you need, I have to tell them. If they accept it, it’s fine. If they don’t accept it, there’s problems. But I have to do my job.
“It would be easy for me to say, ‘Guys everything is perfect’, or that we have to do this, or we have to do that – and there are moments in many, many games that we have been close to doing many, many good things, and sometimes now for reasons it doesn’t happen. But we have another opportunity tomorrow.”
On whether he is entering a phase now where some adaptations are needed. Such as Sterling/Sane or flying wingers, false-nines, the arrival of Erling Haaland
“Always I have been (working on that) for the players I have at my disposal, I adapt for that, yeah.”
On whether he is limited to what adaptations he can make due to the injuries
“The adaptations will be for the players I have at my disposal, the limitations I have in certain departments, the adaptations to that, but the central defenders are back, the wingers are back, we have a struggle in the position in the middle. But the team is good, so I said over the last month, obviously we have a problem but we will have less problems and we have to survive with that.
“So at the end, we should have got results even with the problems that we have, because the problems we’ve had, we’ve had for a long time, I know that, but we have to find a way. But always the adaptations of playing with this player or another player, for the opponents, always we have to relate it to the players I have. Always it has been like that, since the beginning.”
On whether the players start to feel as though the era of success is over the longer the run continues
“I don’t know. I cannot answer this question because I don’t know. We will try to extend as much as possible. Still I said we are in November, many competitions to play, still many games in the Premier League to play, a lot of things still.
“So when it’s going to finish, it’s going to finish, but when we were two, three years ago, when we were celebrating the Treble or the Quadruple, or whatever, I said it’s going to finish, it’s going to end. But I have to try to continue, to push my players, and the players responded unbelievably well, and this season again, for little, little circumstances that are not necessary to announce, everything dropped, and the rise of the opponents.
“But we started really well in terms of results, we were stable in many, many things, but at the end we are not and we have to continue. But if this is the end or not, the time will dictate, it will see.”
On whether he senses Manchester City’s players feel they can come back in the Premier League
“It’s words. It’s just words, I don’t know. That only happens when you win games. I say yeah they want it, I know they want it, they want it every single day, I don’t have any doubts about that. But we are not getting results and you have to get results. And this is the reality.
“They are not going to come to me and say, ‘No I don’t believe anymore, I don’t believe anymore, I don’t believe in what we have done anymore’. That doesn’t happen, this will not happen. I would like to help them to find the way to be consistent and win games, and this is what we have to do. And what’s going to happen is going to happen. But still…
“Otherwise I would not decide that I want to be with these players longer. I had in my head my destiny, and if I want to extend it’s because I believe I want to continue doing that. But of course the results, all the managers, we are in that situation.
“It’s the first time in my career, but what can I do? I accept it, like a challenge, a big, big proof of myself that I can, we can help them. And the players know it; we talk about that. I want to be here, and if they want me, fine. If they don’t, they have to fight.”
On why Manchester has been the best in his managerial career (4 minutes 47 seconds)
“Well obviously for the fact that I have been here nine years already, otherwise we would not be here. Of course Barcelona was special because I started from a ballboy there, and was a player there, and after being a manager. It’s the club of my heart, and Barcelona is always completely incomparable to another things.
“And being a manager of a giant that is Bayern Munich in Germany, like they prove it in their structure and the city and the mentality of that club, how competitive they are in all departments. It was a big, big lesson for me.
“But if I’ve been nine years here it’s because I found an ecosystem or many, many things that made me feel good as a manager being here. But the reason why I’ve been here so long, I think nobody here is stupid to know the reason why I’m here; it’s because we won a lot.
“And that’s why the people trust me, because we won, and we continue and continue. People are not here just for the fact that what you have done in the past and forever. But that aside, I’m not surprised, I know even when the situation isn’t good, the people will…
“In sport, listen, when you are in 20 years time, you will remember that but the people want the facts today, today, today. People don’t think or don’t want to wait for what you have done yesterday or even last season, or two seasons ago, or even three seasons ago.
“It’s now when you have to do it, and now we are not delivering that. And this is what we have to do; deliver again that we can be a good team. This is our target. And now it’s not happening, and that’s why the memories… That’s why I’m not here to say, ‘Oh what we have done!’
“I remember the six Premier Leagues because it made me prove myself and our team how difficult is everything in life, and how complicated that was. But absolutely I feel sorry for myself and all the criticisms can be, and all the situations, all the doubts, that I knew it for a long period because I’ve been in that period in Barcelona as a football player and manager.
“I don’t expect any gratitude for what we have done. So we have to deliver today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, not yesterday or the days before, because the people don’t care. And at the end, I never felt different to all the managers that have had a problem with results, that were treated differently to how people can treat the teams or the managers in that moment, it’s quite normal.
“And I’ve said, if you don’t like that, you don’t accept that, you have to retire, and go to another job. But the job is here, is exposed in front, and in the good moments they say, ‘Oh how good is this manager’ and when it’s not how bad they are. And now it’s as simple as that.
“You want solutions, yes of course, because I have a lot of influence for the reasons why we are a little bit in that situations, I spoke in the last month many, many times. And I suggest with that, when Simon (Stone) made the first question, if I have all the squad ready – Oscar (Bobb), Rodri, and the other ones – of course we would be there. And John (Stones), and Manu (Akanji), and Nathan (Ake) not injured, and Kevin (De Bruyne).
“People say, ‘Ah Kevin, he has a problem with Kevin!’ Do you think I would not like to play Kevin?! Ah I don’t want Kevin to play… The guy who has the most talents in the final third and the other one, no, no I don’t want it. I have a personal problem with him. Nine years together, he delivered to me the big successes in this club.
“But I think it’s been five months injured, and two months injured, at 34-years-old, and he needs time to get to his best, and like last season having step by step to do it, and try to do it, and feel better. And I’m desperate to have him at his best, and I’m desperate to have goals and assists from Phil (Foden) that last season he had, and the goals and assists from Kevin, and the goals and assists from Jeremy (Doku), and the goals and assists, a little bit less, from Jack (Grealish) or from Savinho or from (Ilkay) Gundo – goals and assists from these four or five players, five. Not taking 20, 30, 40, no, no! Just five goals and assists from these four or five players. We would be top of the league.
“But why has it not happened? They were not here. They were injured. They were not ready. This is the bigger problem that I think I have. I can assure you 100 per cent we will be good, I don’t know because we will never know what is going to happen, but my feeling; of course we will be a good team.
“But we have to find a solution with these absences, I have to prove myself, I have to find a way with the problems that we’ve had and we have, that still we have to be now clean in our heads and try to win games and win games and win games, to not make the season tougher.”
On whether Kevin De Bruyne can get back to his top level
“I would love to have the Kevin in his prime at 25, 26, 27, 28 years-old. Of course I would love it. He will love it. But he does not have 23, 24, 25, 26 anymore. And he’s had injuries in the past, important ones, long ones, and he’s a guy who needs to be physically fit for his pace, his energy. But do you think I’m complaining for that? It’s nature, it’s normal, it’s happened, it’s this amount of schedules playing 10, 11 seasons, a lot, a lot of games.
“I know he’s desperate to help us, he’s going to give us a glimpse of brilliancy that only he can have. But always I’ve said the same; for himself, he will not solve our problems. Like Erling (Haaland) cannot solve our problems. Always we attack together, we defend together. It’s not, ‘OK these guys defend and these guys attack’ – the team was not like that.
“Today in modern football it’s not like that. And of course we want it that the best players are back, and hopefully step by step, because still we are in November, and he can have minutes and the confidence comes back and results will help us, he can give us the best of him and the best of all of us.”
