Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has completed his media duties ahead of the club’s Premier League showdown with Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.
The reigning Premier League champions will be looking to open up a five-point gap on their most serious challengers for the top-flight crown this weekend, as they pursue a fifth successive title this season.
City come into the clash off the back of winning all of their opening four Premier League matches this season, with lead striker Erling Haaland having scored nine goals across those outings, featuring successive hat-tricks.
A 0-0 draw at the hands of Inter Milan on the opening matchday of the revamped UEFA Champions League halted Manchester City in their tracks somewhat, in a scoreline that was matched by Arsenal away at Atalanta in Bergamo.
Speaking during part two of his pre-match media duties at the City Football Academy on Friday afternoon, Pep Guardiola discussed the subject of City’s pragmatic approach to football, the continued rise of Rico Lewis, and hopes of an Etihad Stadium relegation.
Here is every single word from the embargoed section of Pep Guardiola’s pre-match press conference ahead of the meeting with Arsenal at the Etihad on Sunday afternoon!
On Rico Lewis’ development and future
“He can play in every position. He’s so smart. I’ve said many times, when you ask 20 players, ‘What is your position?’, ‘No I play holding midfielder’, ‘No I play winger’ – Rico plays football. If you put him in one position, he knows exactly what he has to do. He’s so intelligent.
“And he’s playing because he’s playing really good. The game against Inter again, the game against Chelsea we played, all the games he has played so far, always has been really, really, really good. So that’s why, honestly, I think he deserves the minutes that he has.”
On whether the ideal is for Rico Lewis to play everywhere
“I would like to have him a little bit taller, but his mum and dad didn’t give him this attribute. But he solves it with other aspects; he always wants the ball, he’s so intelligent defensively, he’s aggressive one-against-one.
“And he’s played against one of the best wingers in the league, in Europe, and always has played at a high level. Of course, for the conditions, for the physicality, he could play more in the central positions, the midfield players, for his dynamic, intelligence, arriving in the final third – for many things! But defensively, always, he’s a really, really good defender.”
On how many of the top matches he goes into thinking about playing pragmatically
“All the time! We are so pragmatic as a team, look at the results. The people think we have build-up, a lot of passes, or maybe not good with long balls or transitions, and we are not pragmatic. Pragmatic? We are the best team in the world being pragmatic, in the numbers.
“We won a lot. No? Because at the end being pragmatic, what does it mean? It’s translated in results, right? Not in, ‘Ah how beautiful football’, and this kind of stuff. I don’t believe in that. I believe in being pragmatic.
“And we believe that in the way we play we are unbelievably pragmatic – the best, I would say, I’m sorry. That is the truth.”
On Manchester City stopping dramatic defeats at home, such as Leicester, Wolves, United
“Maybe you’re right, maybe it’s not going to happen on Sunday but you’re right; the game against Inter, sometimes in the previous seasons to create crazy to score, score and at the end the chances we have in the last minute we were quite solid.
“Inter Milan, I faced a team like I’ve never faced in many, many years, being so, so deep, and they were able to make transitions. When we are so deep, it’s so difficult to make transitions, because we are so deep. It’s impossible for a long ball to run 40 metres; this is not a counter-attack.
“There have to be previous passes, previous dribblings, when they are there and you press in transition in two seconds or three seconds. They were able to with (Nicolo) Barella, (Hakan) Calhanoglu to have the ball, to make tak-tak, dribble dribble, (Allesandro) Bastoni, and after they run!
“I’ve never seen a team like that, and made us suffer, being good and we were good, and we set to avoid these transitions but they were able… That’s why sometimes I say when that happens, give the credit to Inter Milan because we were wrong.
“And you are right that sometimes when we are there, we became crazy, lose control, lose the transitions and lose 0-1, or 0-2. The games against Leicester, when it happened 2-6 or 1-6, I don’t remember, or 2-5, and the others ones was in the early moments of the season.
“Normally when you arrive in January or February, I think we know what we were playing for. I think sometimes it happened in the beginning of the season, because we were still coming from the holidays, still we were sometimes a little bit naive.
“Our expected goals against Inter was much, much higher than them. Of course, they have good transitions but more the quality they have I’m concerned at how we can do better, create more chances, when teams defend so, so deep. This is always my dream, my target.
“So defending eight or nine players in the 18-yard box, OK, how do we have to do it? What way to find little spaces to do it, and avoid the transitions? Because with bigger spaces, everyone has spaces. Big spaces if the space is there and legs, and this everyone can do it.
“But when we defend so deep because we are good in the build-up and they defend away it’s because the opponents defend, for example like Madrid last season, Inter Milan, the way. If we arrive in the final against Madrid and we were not able to go to the penalties, we were not good enough to attack against that team so deep.
“Against Inter, not good enough, we have to create more. And this is what we are looking for, and I think on Sunday in some moments, it’s going to happen, how good can we be? That’s why in football always you have the chance to get better, to get better, to do better.
“Analyse Inter to get better for Arsenal, and analyse Arsenal to get better for Newcastle, or Watford to Newcastle, because this is what football provides us – always you can do better. And that’s why we are still here. Apart from the titles, we are here because always we can do better, and better.”
On whether he has ever set up a team for a 0-0 draw
“Sometimes, yeah… When you play s**t. Sometimes it’s a good result. When the opponent is better, sometimes it’s a good result. But I think there are a few managers in the top level, six or seven, that they go to the game thinking, ‘Go for 0-0!’ Because it doesn’t mean to be deep, or long balls, or being here that we’re going to play for a 0-0.
“Never, ever. I don’t think, and Mikel (Arteta) knows I’m not going to play for a 0-0, and I know he’s not going to play for a 0-0. But sometimes you defend deep because you are better, and sometimes you create a lot or concede a lot of chances because they are better. And it’s not much more complicated than that, and you accept it.
“It’s a good way to, as a club or as a team, grow up. For example, the people say we are going to play a game, and ‘Ah it’s been a disaster’. No! We are not a disaster. This day, at 4PM, at the start of the game, in 90 minutes the opponent was better. In that game.
“That means we are bad, that means if we win Arsenal is bad, because in that game we were better – it can happen! Sometimes it’s sun, sometimes it’s rain; it’s not a big issue. And during the season, it can be, ‘Oh it was a bad season, it was bad’.
“But the performances, some people say, ‘Ah it’s a disgrace, it is a disaster, it’s unacceptable’. No. During 90 minutes, one bad afternoon, they were better. But I would say, I’m sorry to be sometimes arrogant and I want to defend my club, especially in this modern day, like everyone is expecting us to be not relegated, but to disappear off the face of the earth, in the world, I would say that we have better afternoons than the opponents.
“We will have better, better days. Better days than the opponents, that’s why we win a lot. It’s not much more complicated to understand than that.”
On opponents looking at City to see if there is a lack of hunger, or satisfied with achievements
“The opponents know that still we are there. (Evidence in training?) I love the way that we run, and the pressing against Inter. Inter, they are unbelievable in the build-up, with (Alessandro) Bastoni, (Yann) Sommer. Sommer is a quality player with the feet like our keepers.
“He has unbelievable quality. It’s difficult to press with that, and we were SO good! And after when they link with (Marcus) Thuram, and (Mehdi) Taremi, and after with (Lautaro) Martinez it’s so difficult to win those balls, and Ruben (Dias) and Manu (Akanji), they were there unbelievably aggressive.
“And still I see the team, and I say these guys, they surprise me. I feel amazed with how they still, after many years, they do what still they are doing in every single minute of every single game. And after we have 25 or 23 minutes like Brentford destroyed us, and 70 per cent possession, and maybe it could be 0-2 or 0-3, the chances that they had.
“That could be a bad afternoon or a bad 20 to 30 minutes. But you can have 30 bad minutes, right? And after we made a good rest of the minutes, and the second-half was really brilliant against Brentford. It happens.
“That’s why I’m so optimistic, so pleased with the things I saw against Inter, seeing the game after and during the press conference. In the press conference after the game, sometimes when you are confused with the emotions, for what happened.
“And sometimes I make an analysis of the game and sometimes I’m wrong! But I didn’t have that feeling in that moment, and I don’t have that feeling right now.”
On what he defines as a City pragmatic performance
“From the start to 95 minutes, the defender or the opponent has to defend in their own box. This is what I want. Do you know why? Because the ball is far, far away from Ederson or Stefan (Ortega Moreno), and Scotty (Carson), our keepers.
“When the ball is closer to my goal, now I am trembling. And we can concede a counter-attack, yeah, it can happen. But I prefer when the ball is there for me, that is for me in terms of pragmatism.
“But I said many times after nine years here all together, I would believe to be against their centre-backs for a long, long, long time they’re there, and after they make one transition and score a goal, I swear to god I would do it! I want to win desperately!
“I live better, and everyone is happier, and everything is much, much better – I completely believe. When I defend deeper and deeper, long balls with (Kai) Havertz, we don’t win, and they attack quick, we have to defend deep. What can I say?
“Because he’s taller, the ball from (David) Raya is better, they win the second balls, they go to good second balls, and we have to defend deep. If we have to, we have to. I don’t want it, but we have to. The uncomfortable things you have to do it, but…
“When the people say, ‘No with Pep he just talks about beautiful (football)’, no, no! Not even in my periods in Barcelona, not at all! I can talk about that, being pragmatic, there is no manager better in being pragmatic than me! I’m sorry! We won more! We won more, being in that way.
“So why should I change? It’s difficult for me to change it because the results are there. For the money? Yeah of course. For many things, yeah of course. But the results are there. So that’s why we are continuing to do it, and try to in this idea getting better.
“Always we can do better, even in that way. Knowing that the opponents count. If you let them, if you let Arsenal play, they make a build-up. They have time with Timber, or Alex (Zinchenko), the players there, to make a structure in the middle, how they move good in the pockets.
“If they are pressing, long balls, and they will win second balls. They’ll drop you, and in the final third they have the ability to play one thousand million passes and find the pockets and find the right spaces.
“And they can run, they can run with (Gabriel) Martinelli, (Bukayo) Saka, (Martin) Odegaard, (Leandro) Trossard and whoever. So they are a top team because all the departments of the team has to be solid, and they do it. They do it.
“They are good in that, but at the same time we are good too. So we have to try to play to our strengths, do it, and create the weaknesses of the opponent.”
