Guardiola: City are only team who can fail to win Premier League title
Guardiola: City are only team who can fail to win Premier League title
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00:00 Many times during your time at the club you've chased teams down,
00:05 there's been gaps with Liverpool, there's been gaps with Arsenal,
00:08 there's been a change in the squad last summer,
00:12 three or four players left, three or four new players came in,
00:14 do you think you've still got that ability to be able to chase teams down?
00:20 Has this squad got what it takes to do that?
00:22 - To keep them on myself. - Both?
00:24 No.
00:25 I'm here with them.
00:29 I'm a lot of stress on myself, I'm sorry.
00:31 So, yeah, I will help the team.
00:35 I don't know how, but I will help the team to come back in our position.
00:39 And the team, absolutely.
00:41 Absolutely.
00:42 Will it be enough? I don't know.
00:44 But the contenders are so strong.
00:46 The consistency of Arsenal for two years has been amazing.
00:49 Liverpool is back, I knew it from day one,
00:51 for many reasons, the character is still there,
00:55 because being with Jurgen it always happened that,
00:57 and look at all the other teams, we saw the quality.
01:02 But look at the results, Aston Villa were much better than us,
01:08 they should have lost in Bournemouth.
01:11 I saw the game before Aston Villa, they should have lost, yes or yes.
01:15 And they drew in the 91-92 minutes, so this is the competition.
01:20 Look at Tottenham, yesterday they didn't win the game,
01:22 but last night they were at home.
01:26 Many things are going to happen, that's why you have to be ready.
01:28 And I have to have the feeling, I want that for my team,
01:31 we are able to win in Luton, people have to be incredible happy,
01:37 to realise how difficult it is.
01:41 So I have to come back, to go, 'FA Cup here, I have this feeling,
01:43 we are able to win it in January', I have to celebrate it.
01:46 And internally say, 'Wow, we did it'.
01:49 And when you win a lot, it's 'Oh, another macaroni pasta to eat'.
01:55 The last six months, just macaroni, macaroni.
01:59 You have to realise now, it's difficult, it's difficult.
02:03 And when you realise Luton won, wow, that is what's in the good way.
02:07 And give credit to that.
02:09 There's no need just to win the Champions League, to be, 'Oh, how good we are'.
02:13 No, no, no.
02:15 Now in that moment, it's what we have done all the time,
02:17 give credit to every game and every game satisfaction, we have done it.
02:19 And we have to recover that, we have to recover.
02:23 Never mind the players, with your answer there,
02:26 you seem to be suggesting that it's giving you a kick up the backside.
02:31 Giving me?
02:33 Giving you a kick up the backside that maybe you need to...
02:37 They have it.
02:38 Have it?
02:40 I said before, I need that.
02:44 Also, I won a lot personally with the team, a lot, a lot, and I need that.
02:49 I need to step back to realise, 'Oh, Pep, come on, wake up, something's wrong'.
02:53 Make good analysis with your people, 'What happened?
02:56 'Why were we not able to win four games?
02:58 'Even worse than now, we were able to win games.
03:01 'Come on.'
03:03 So, always myself, I have to realise.
03:07 Yes, it's a good warning for me as a manager.
03:10 I would not be able to do it.
03:12 The club will decide what you have to do.
03:14 Here you have to get results.
03:16 But I never think about it, all my career, my eight seasons,
03:20 every season is exceptional and perfect,
03:21 I win all the games, I win the travels, and travels, and travels.
03:25 I said many times, before was the exception.
03:29 And now everyone has to realise it, this business is so difficult,
03:33 because the competition is so high, that's why it's the best league in the world.
03:36 Look at Sky, the new deals with the clubs, the broadcasters, how much money is it?
03:40 They go to the clubs, and the clubs only want to spend money with good players,
03:43 and every season will be better and better.
03:45 That's why it's so fascinating.
03:48 That's why we are here, because it's nice.
03:51 But these results, if you don't get results, you have to reflect.
03:53 You know what's happened with the players, with the managers, with people.
03:57 But still, we didn't lose competitions, except the Carabao Cup, we won one title,
04:02 already this season, we are going in the birds to fight for another title,
04:06 and the competition, we are there.
04:08 It's not lost, six points, OK, it's...
04:11 The consistency has started to be a worry, but it's not the end of the world.
04:16 That's why, be positive in our minds, and show me, really,
04:19 we want to accept the challenge, if we embrace the challenge.
04:22 This is what I want to see, with myself, with the club, with the team,
04:26 if we are ready to embrace.
04:28 And I said to them many times, you expect in that moment,
04:31 ten points ahead after the travel, with the change we had,
04:33 especially in the core of the team, in the midfield,
04:35 that we have a more proper holding midfield,
04:37 that's the midfield that now have more to strike us.
04:39 When we play with Julian and fill in those positions,
04:41 it's not about what's going to happen, the midfield players have another type.
04:45 So that means it's time.
04:47 I knew it. So if you think we're going to be 50, 60, 70 points behind the second one,
04:53 not even for one second.
04:56 So that is the reality, how we react on that.
04:58 How? Me first, and then the other, how we react?
05:01 How? How?
05:03 "We're going to lose."
05:04 This is the way, I said, "OK, let's go."
05:08 This is what I want to see with my team.
05:10 And I don't know, because so far, especially the last game, we were not able to do it.
05:15 Well, I bet you have a few new players this season
05:20 that have spent a lot of time when you've been winning games,
05:23 and you mentioned how the opposition have got hunger in their eyes,
05:26 and maybe they're not used to playing at this level with a team challenging for titles.
05:30 Is it an interesting period when you're learning about Nunes and Kovacic and Docker,
05:33 how they react to a little bit of adversity in the team,
05:35 and whether they want to be the players that stand up and make a difference?
05:37 No, man, those cases, they were injured for the last two, three, four weeks,
05:41 so it's not about that.
05:42 They behaved good, and Mateu, the first six, seven games they played,
05:45 were exceptional, the way he played.
05:48 Really, really good. And Mateu's first games, winning in Puck, were also incredible.
05:52 They will be important players for us, I'm pretty sure of that.
05:57 And of course we have to help him, and he has to give us that chance.
06:01 But always you have the tendency, I said, when we lose games,
06:04 it's a fight with Hungary, or the consistency, or they are not...
06:09 Still, they are a complacency. I don't believe one second of that.
06:13 For me as a manager, we said, "We lose the games, you don't run, you don't fight,
06:17 you have complacency, you don't have character." So simplistic.
06:21 There are many, many other reasons. I put that as one, because when that happens,
06:28 I have a real problem. I was not able to make them feel alive still in a football game to do it.
06:35 And I said many times, I never found a football player when they go out on the pitch,
06:39 they don't want to do it well, they don't want to run, they don't want to fight,
06:42 or they don't want to be positive for the team or for the success.
06:47 Never, never, ever found a player. Never.
06:50 They don't want to play in front of 60,000 people and play bad.
06:56 When you are thinking, "60,000 people, look at me, how bad I'm playing."
06:59 There's no one person in the world who can do that.
07:01 There's always many reasons. Never, ever is it for that...
07:05 I'm good. But sometimes, after winning, you want to try to do it,
07:09 but this extra, you don't do it for what? Because you won a lot.
07:12 And you need a punch in your face, you need it.
07:15 Now, OK, let's see.
07:21 And that, I'm telling you, will we be able to overcome the situation? I don't know.
07:26 When they say, "It's going to happen tomorrow after winning 12 games in a row."
07:30 I don't know. I don't know how they react, but that is a challenge to see the team.
07:33 And you have to find it. The right words, the right training, the right message,
07:36 the right selection, the right way we play, to do it.
07:39 Because I'm the boss. I'm the boss, I have to help them.
07:44 I have to help them. Now they need me. And I have to be there.
07:48 I have to be there. That's why it's a challenge for me. I needed that too.
07:52 I needed it too. Or maybe the complains were the manager, not the players. Why not?
07:57 Maybe the guy who relaxes is the manager, not the players. Why not?
08:03 So I have to also react myself. Four games, no win, never happened before.
08:08 Something wrong I've done. I don't know what, but something wrong I've done.
08:13 Last one on Russell, please, guys.
08:15 Hi, Pep. Jurgen Klopp said the other day that the thought of Manchester City struggling
08:21 was the biggest joke in football, because he obviously didn't believe it.
08:26 Amongst your opponents, amongst your critics, there's quite a thought of wishful thinking,
08:31 that the treble winners are wounded. What's your response to that?
08:38 Jurgen knows that what happened to us in this short period, in two or three weeks, can happen.
08:45 He knows that. Because Man City can have bad periods.
08:51 Also they had bad periods last season. But the mentality of the club Liverpool is there.
08:58 He knows it can happen. Because doing the same can happen.
09:01 The human being changes, the private life changes, the bad moments are there.
09:08 So I never believe in the big compliments, and never believe in the bad, bad, bad situations.
09:14 In football and sport, in life, the most difficult thing is when I say,
09:19 'No, they have to win and win and win and do it.' And we have done it.
09:22 Because for many years, we are the main favourites, the main candidates to win everything.
09:27 We were there. And when we were out for the semi-final champions, it was a big disaster.
09:31 A big chaos. This was our level.
09:34 So what they meant to us, they don't mean to the other ones, my friends. At all. At all.
09:41 The only team that is going to fail in the Premier League, it's us.
09:45 The rest is a big success. Anything. A big success.
09:49 And at the end, they don't win Arsenal, they don't win Liverpool, they don't win Chelsea,
09:52 they don't win everything. It's normal. City should win.
09:59 It's unfair, it's difficult to handle that.
10:01 And every week, every three days, during years and years...
10:07 There's an exception to the other ones. The other ones now...
10:11 So by that position, it's normal, my friends, it's normal.
10:14 In sport, you have a period, seasons, seasons, that can happen.
10:20 Just take a look at our contenders and our rivals.
10:25 So just win once. The important thing is to be there. We have been there, we have to continue that.
10:30 But the reality for us to handle that after winning, sometimes it's not easy.
10:34 With the problems we've had, with important players injured, with new players coming.
10:39 I want the Gundo to stay here. I want Real to stay here.
10:43 But they want to leave. For new challenges in life, for family issues, for whatever.
10:48 Thank you so much, guys. Because it never could have happened without you.
10:52 Never. Impossible. Impossible.
10:55 But...
10:57 People cannot imagine being in a bad position, like Jurgen said,
11:01 of course we can be there, of course we can lose games in competitions and Premier League.
11:06 But please, don't do it about the consistency, because they are relaxed,
11:11 they believe... Listen to us, the team is not there.
11:18 The team is not in that way. So, one has to do it every game.
11:23 - Thank you, guys. - Thank you.
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