Guardiola on title hopes, consistency and West Ham (Full Presser)
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on their hopes of winning the Premier League title, consistency and West Ham
CGA, Manchester, UK
CGA, Manchester, UK
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00:00 Good morning. Afternoon guys, same process as everyone, mics on either side. Just bear
00:22 in mind it's a busy open section, we've only got as much time as we would normally have,
00:26 so don't hog on to the microphone. And we'll set down by the end for 10.30 on Saturday
00:31 evening.
00:32 Hi Pep, you've spoken a couple of times about how historic it would be if you were to get
00:42 the win on Sunday and win four titles in a row, which clearly nobody has ever done before.
00:48 You also know what the reaction from some people is likely to be to that. Do you think
00:54 you and your team will get the credit they deserve for the achievement they might create?
01:03 I think so. In the world of football for sure, I think so.
01:08 Do things like that bother you? Do you think that players should be acknowledged for winning
01:16 four in a row?
01:17 Even if we don't win it, it has been so fine this period, still we are here together. Nothing
01:28 is going to change. For the fact that we win four in a row or Arsenal win the Premier League,
01:35 how good has it been or is doing?
01:39 Do you think people like your football team?
01:42 Fuck. I don't know. Do you like it? Sometimes. I don't know. So when people sometimes ask
01:56 me, what do you think people think about any subject? I don't know what people think. I
02:02 don't go and knock on the door and ask every person, how do you think about it? It doesn't
02:09 matter how we play. I don't know, honestly. I don't know. But the fact is that if you
02:17 ask all the Premier League teams when we start the season, what would be the better position
02:22 in the last game of the season? We are in the best position. That's for sure. One game
02:27 left, destiny in our hands to win one game to be champion. Everything would like to be
02:33 in our position, that's for sure. At the same time, will it be easy? Absolutely not. I have
02:39 the feeling it will be an Aston Villa game. We would like to be in after 10 minutes 3-0
02:43 up, but it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. I saw enough games in three
02:49 or four days, there were some, in the few months ago, a few weeks ago, in the last game.
03:00 They have a few things you have to control, otherwise it will be difficult. But two days
03:08 to prepare for the last game and we are ready.
03:11 Just for the record, I do like how you play in your team.
03:16 Thank you. You are so kind.
03:19 It is West Ham. Just a few words, please, on them as a team and their departing manager
03:25 David Moyes, and your thoughts on him as a Premier League coach.
03:29 Well, this type of personality in English football, I think he is not going to retire.
03:39 So he will be back, this is my feeling. But at his age and his experience, he is still
03:44 involved because he cannot be at home. And he will be back. But it's curious. The first
03:50 game was against Sunderland and David Moyes was there, my first game in the Premier League.
03:54 And now, you know, an important game, he will be there. It is always an honour to see him.
04:01 When I am there, he is always so kind. He is a lovely person, experienced, speaks for
04:04 himself. But he will do. He will do everything to beat us. It happened in Aston Villa, it
04:11 will happen in QPR with Sergio Aguero moment, or Zeko moment, because everybody talks about
04:19 Sergio, but without the corner from David and Zeko scored the 2-2, it would not happen,
04:24 it would happen later. So, yeah, I am ready to be a tough, tough game. I want to put in
04:33 the minds of the players that Luca Tottenham, how they fight every ball, how they struggle.
04:40 It was incredible, the aggressivity and commitment the Spurs had. I didn't have any doubts about
04:47 it. The surrounding outside, I don't care. I don't care the 11 players, the 11 players
04:53 that came, they will be ready to beat us. That happened in Aston Villa, the same position,
04:58 they didn't play for anything two seasons ago. And I know what happened, and it is going
05:04 to happen the same. So, ourselves and our people have to come here to be ready. To be
05:09 ready for the first minute, to support us, to be with us, to be with us, to be with us,
05:13 to do it together.
05:16 If all goes to plan and you get the historic fourth title, is there an extra sense of satisfaction
05:22 with this one because of what you have had to deal with? With Liverpool and Arsenal externally,
05:27 but internally, key injuries, you have had months without Kevin De Bruyne, months without
05:31 Haaland, it is a big, big achievement if you do it.
05:35 Don't ask me about which is more important, because every one has been so important. Don't
05:41 ask me to choose the three or the five Premier Leagues we won. All of them were so, so difficult
05:49 and so a lot of effort behind. And after the game, on Sunday, they asked me what are my
05:57 feelings. My feelings now are just focused on what we have to do. There is not any contamination
06:03 in my brain, thinking about anything else than what we have to do to win West Ham. It
06:12 is only what I have in my mind since the day after the game against Spurs.
06:21 Given how competitive the Premier League is, did you ever think you would be one game away
06:26 from winning four in a row? Did you ever think that kind of record was possible in England?
06:32 Only I had the feeling that we have done, before that game we have done. It is so difficult.
06:43 And to arrive here, I said many times, it is a little bit unexpected, but at the same
06:48 time knowing the players, I knew that they would never, never give up. We didn't see
06:53 them since the day after Spurs. We see today how my vibe is seeing the players, but I have
07:03 the feeling that they are there to try it again. That is my feeling.
07:11 When Liverpool got 97 points and didn't win the Premier League, and then 92 points and
07:17 didn't win the Premier League, and Arsenal might get 89 and even then might not be the
07:22 winners, what does it say about your team?
07:27 That they deserve it. Liverpool deserve in the past. The margins in that moment are,
07:32 I have said many times, so tight, I don't make a judgement about the fact that the team
07:42 that don't win is not good. It is completely the opposite. We are arriving at the stages
07:46 with the chance to win. Heads up for Liverpool in the past, for ourselves, for Arsenal this
07:51 season. My analysis in this situation, in the modern sports, not just in football, when
07:58 you arrive at the last stages, being there, it is because you have been magnificent. That
08:01 has not changed one second. But of course, the books, the satisfaction for the day after,
08:07 the team who wins or doesn't win, is a big, big gap. So we want to experience again.
08:11 All I say is you have to perform. Everyone says, 'I want to win it every time, I want
08:16 to win it.' No, you have to do something to do it. How you are going to perform, how
08:20 you are going to be resilient in the bad moments that happen in Aston Villa or in the Espurs
08:27 de la Viente, to put two examples. This is my feeling. Not the consequences, don't talk
08:34 about nothing else, but what you have to do to win in the bad moments. What you have to
08:39 do to control them, the transitions, the Kudos, the Bowe, the Antonio, the Paqueta, the set-pieces
08:45 with long balls with no Sozek and the other ones. How defend every single ball when the
08:52 ball is in the goal kicks, in the throw-ins, in the free kicks, in the corners, how you
08:57 control Antonio, the channels. A lot of stuff that West Ham always demanding what you have
09:03 to do with every single inch, every single minute, every single second, do it perfect.
09:08 This is only in my mind. The rest, I don't want to play the game thinking of consequences,
09:14 thinking what is going to happen if. This is a problem in this type of games, you have
09:19 to be more than ever focused. What you have to do to score goals, how to break the pressing
09:25 when it happens, how to break when they are deep, how many people arrive in the box, where
09:30 are the gaps, how is the player, the ball driven to score a goal. In the bad moments,
09:36 you always feel the support of people. This is what you have to think about. The rest,
09:43 the rest later.
09:44 Pep, do you ever allow yourself to look back on that first season when there was a criticism
09:53 of your style and how people said that you wouldn't be able to win the Premier League
09:58 play in the way you want to play, obviously you've then gone on to do what you do and
10:02 create history on Sunday. Do you ever reflect on that first year?
10:06 No, no. In my biography after that, yes, I will write about that. I thought it after
10:12 when I did the first Premier League, 100 points, I remember a little bit about the tackles,
10:16 that you can win the Premier League without tackles, these kind of things, but not now.
10:20 Since then, I forgot it's part of the process, I understand. That made me the energy. In
10:26 football, in sports, you have to live these kind of situations to give you the energy
10:31 inside to say, 'OK, we're going to prove it, we're going to prove it, we're going to prove
10:34 you are wrong'. It's necessary, otherwise you are flat, otherwise you are comfortable,
10:40 otherwise you are a lot of compliments and compliments you take out the energy, the necessary
10:46 energy to compete every single week to win it. Since then, no one second.
10:52 Hi Pep, obviously a lot of your answers today have been about just focusing on the match
11:01 itself on Sunday. How much of that is from your own playing career when you were at Barcelona,
11:06 the titles that you won with maybe Real Madrid losing on the last day, maybe unexpectedly,
11:11 and then you could take advantage? How much of what you tell your players now is from
11:15 your own experience 34 years ago?
11:17 What I said to the players in the last two or three games is that the chances that one
11:24 weekend Aston Villa winning in Emirates against Arsenal in the Crystal Palace in Liverpool
11:30 is not going to happen again. So they give us that certain moment that destiny is in
11:35 our hands. If you are waiting that they are going to drop to be champions, you are wrong.
11:40 If you are thinking Arsenal is going to lose or drop points in Old Trafford, forget about
11:48 it. Forget about it. If you are thinking Everton tomorrow is going to do something, forget
11:53 about it. So the chance they give us, expected maybe earlier, they give us. Now it's our
12:01 point. So sometimes I won my career in the league and they lost the game and give us
12:07 the chance to be champions and be at home. But this season, like it happened with Liverpool
12:11 in the past, this is not going to happen. I saw Arsenal all season. It's like Liverpool,
12:17 it wasn't expected to drop points, but the two happened and we did it. We did it in Crystal
12:25 Palace, we did it against Wolves, we did it against Fulham and Spurs and we have the last.
12:32 So they know it's win or win, otherwise Arsenal will be champions. It's not more complicated
12:39 than that.
12:40 Hi Pep, you've already mentioned the Sergio Aguero moment and the Aston Villa game when
12:48 Ilkay Gundogan had his Aguero moment. Will you be telling your players they have the
12:53 chance to have that moment themselves and make their mark in the club's history?
12:58 I think the fact that they lived it not long ago, some of the players, a lot of players
13:05 are still here, I think they felt it. That's why I saw perfectly their reaction in the
13:10 locker room a few days ago after the game. They were relieved, they were 'wow', but they
13:19 were not extra celebration or something like that. They were happy, but incredible calm.
13:26 It was nothing more than a special than any other game in the Premier League. It's like,
13:32 'OK, we give them the chance for the last game of the season'. But they know there is
13:37 a lot of work to do. And today they will feel it. When I'm going to show them, they will
13:40 feel it, that still there is a lot of work to do.
13:44 Is Kevin De Bruyne going to be OK to play on Sunday?
13:53 We'll see today. Yesterday he was off and today he went to training.
13:58 Did you just say you've got something planned for the players this afternoon? Any details
14:03 you can share?
14:04 No.
14:05 A video?
14:06 No.
14:07 There is something that belongs to us. I'm going to show them how good they are and what
14:15 we have to do. It's as simple as that. Nothing special.
14:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]