Lots of teams not perfect to start season, players need rest - Guardiola
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said lots of teams won't be perfect to start the season and players need more rest ahead of their Premier League opener with Chelsea
Etihad training campus, Manchester, UK
Etihad training campus, Manchester, UK
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00:00Benardo said after the Community Shield that you'd been very generous with the time off
00:10that you'd given the players after the Euros, that Kyle and Phil and Roderick came back
00:15this week with Man Utd, obviously Man Utd came back early and started in that game.
00:19Does that perhaps mean that we're not going to see the best of City until later down the
00:23line, that you're prioritising rest now over form of the team in the hope that they'll
00:28be well rested for the future?
00:30Yeah, we prioritise the rest, absolutely.
00:33I would love to give even more time, that is what it is.
00:36But no, no, I demand the best from Sunday against Chelsea.
00:41So we know we have to take points as soon as possible and when the players are fitter
00:48and better in physical condition, they have to be ready.
00:53Because Eric Ten Hag, I don't know if you saw yesterday, he said that his players aren't
00:56ready to start the season tonight.
00:58So his players were back earlier than yours.
01:01Does that mean that your players are ready for Sunday?
01:04We have to.
01:05We have to.
01:06I don't know what's going to happen.
01:09Everybody knows we are not in the best conditions, but it doesn't matter, desire and trying to
01:15do well and here control absolutely everything of luck and the vibes of the team where it's
01:21strong and all together doing what you have to do.
01:24I don't think there are a lot of teams that right now are in the perfect.
01:29So what I'm pretty sure that I learned from my experience in the many years, the season
01:33is so long and the importance of the players being ready mentally especially and for that
01:40you need rest.
01:41And yeah, I could have called them before and arrived maybe in the community shield
01:46in better conditions, but I learned that it doesn't matter.
01:51So we try to do the best in the community shield.
01:54We did it for a certain moment, the other ones we suffered, could not but differently
01:57in these stages and will not be different on Sunday in Stamford Bridge, but the players
02:05that we are here have to do our best.