Pep Guardiola and Rico Lewis on Manchester City - Sparta Prague
21/10/2024
uefa24
CFGA, Manchester, UK
21/10/2024
uefa24
CFGA, Manchester, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, guys, hope you're well.
00:10We've got the same process everywhere, microphones on either side.
00:13Do we have any Czech media in the room?
00:15I don't think we do, so we'll just take questions in English.
00:18If we can have someone to start, please.
00:20Anyone?
00:26Hi, Pep.
00:27Could you give us an update on the fitness of your squad
00:31in terms of availability for selection for the game tomorrow?
00:36Well, except, as you know, Rodri and Oscar.
00:41The other ones are training and getting better.
00:44The guys are still not completely fit, like Kevin, for example.
00:49On Kevin, how close is he?
00:52When would you expect him to be available for selection?
00:54I cannot tell you, I don't know.
00:56So does that mean it's still some time away?
00:58Yeah.
00:59And Kyle, is he OK?
01:01Oh, Kyle as well, yeah.
01:03Kyle, I think, is not ready.
01:05So again...
01:06As a national team, he didn't come well.
01:10What's the issue with Kyle?
01:11Knee.
01:13And do you expect him to be out for a little while as well?
01:16I don't know.
01:18OK.
01:22A bit of a short press conference, guys.
01:24Rob, thank you.
01:26Hi, Pep.
01:27You've got games in three different competitions in this next little block
01:30between the next international break.
01:32I just wondered how you felt the squad has been coping with this schedule,
01:36their fitness, their sharpness?
01:41Well, I would say they are really good.
01:45Of course, we prefer to be all together
01:48because you have four important absences right now
01:51with Kevin, Kyle, Rodri and Oscar.
01:54Two of them, hopefully, they come back close.
01:57Oscar, I think, January, February will be ready.
02:00November, January, I think so.
02:02And Rodri, we know, will be missed a lot until the end of the season.
02:06Without them, of course, we need them.
02:09But I think all the teams, all the clubs around the world,
02:12in Europe, they have similarly...
02:15The teams that play three competitions, especially in Europe,
02:19they have quite similar problems.
02:23Just in terms of the mood around the training ground,
02:25obviously you'd like to win games without needing last-minute winners,
02:28but when you do have a last-minute winner,
02:30do you feel a lift in the group for the next couple of days
02:33just because of the manner in which you've won that game?
02:35Well, it always helps us in the right moment, the day after.
02:38But when you play a lot of competition every three days,
02:41we are able to forget.
02:43I think the team, the group, show it many times.
02:45We are ready to forget, I would say, the good and bad moments quick
02:50and be ready for the next Champions League,
02:53that have the same points as us.
02:57And the game they play in Germany against Stuttgart,
03:00one of the places with more attractive football in Germany
03:03for the way they play, they create a lot of problems.
03:09I didn't know Sparta Prague since the last day, two days.
03:13I started to watch them and I have a good impression.
03:16Pep, could you just ask about Phil Foden,
03:19about where he is in terms of getting back to 100% again after his problem?
03:23Because obviously he made a great contribution to our score.
03:27He feels much better.
03:29The minutes he played in the last game, for example.
03:33Phil, you realise immediately when he's happy and fit
03:38and mentally in the right moment,
03:43you realise immediately he's getting better and better.
03:46Hi Pep, can I go back to Kevin?
03:48Has he had a setback on his injury at all?
03:50Because a couple of weeks ago you said you didn't think it was going to be a long one.
03:54No, it's not a big issue, but he doesn't feel completely fine.
03:59And Kevin is not 22 years old anymore, he has to be fit for his football.
04:06He has to be completely fit and he doesn't feel comfortable at all.
04:11So he cannot express his incredible potential at his best.
04:16So that's why he's training a little bit better, but he still doesn't feel it.
04:21He said to me, I still don't feel good.
04:24So don't feel good, take your time.
04:27Will you wait until he's 100% ready before throwing him back in?
04:31He has to, yeah.
04:34Hi Pep, I think it's four or five games since Rodri got injured.
04:37How do you feel so far your team, or you, are solving
04:40his absence, are you happy?
04:42More than happy.
04:44There are many, many things I like a lot.
04:46In the bad moments we understand what they're doing.
04:49Not good, what you have to improve.
04:54And still we are there.
04:58Do you have to talk about that every game?
05:03You're saying the way in which they're solving it is good.
05:06Do you talk to them about it every game?
05:08Or is it sort of in training?
05:10How do you have to address it?
05:12No, in training we cannot.
05:13Has it been forgotten about maybe?
05:14Just get on with it?
05:17You have to understand for the FAGO we have done in the past,
05:20even last season, we didn't play 11 months in our level.
05:23But I would like to play the games I play against Wolves,
05:26every single game.
05:28They make four or five touches in our box,
05:30and we create a lot, a lot, and be in there many, many times.
05:33No, it is not easy.
05:34We need a little bit of composure in the final third,
05:36but when players, 10, 11 players are in the ATR box,
05:39it's not easy for anyone.
05:40But we concede a goal in a brilliant action of them.
05:44We concede a counter-attack.
05:47We were not good in our transition.
05:53But the rest, I'm pleased.
05:55I'm delighted.
05:57We didn't last 30 minutes against Fulham.
06:00I didn't recognise my team in many things,
06:02but always I give credit to Fulham.
06:05But the rest of the games,
06:08I'm quite knowing that some absences are important.
06:13I know the effort that the guys are doing,
06:15and we are fine.
06:17We cannot forget in the last, I don't know, 10 years, 11 years,
06:21all the teams that I repeat many times,
06:23we don't forget exactly what these guys are doing.
06:25The last 8, 9 or 10 or 11 years,
06:27the team who won the Premier League,
06:29the year after, didn't qualify for the Champions League.
06:32That means how they handled the success was not good.
06:35And we are able in every single season,
06:37still we are there.
06:38I don't know if it's going to happen,
06:40but still after winning the Premier League,
06:42we are there.
06:43We won again.
06:44We won again.
06:45We won again.
06:46Six in seven.
06:47And still we are there, close to the top of the league.
06:50And it's happened because still the team,
06:53I like the way you can say,
06:55OK, we won the four Premier Leagues,
06:57we won in the last minutes.
06:58Of course, the celebration is so important,
07:00but the way they celebrate and win that way,
07:03I know it's common.
07:04But the way they celebrate the team,
07:07I have incredible respect for the quality for the ball team.
07:10I know what they have done against Liverpool and Chelsea,
07:12for example, how good they play.
07:14And they were not able to do it against us
07:16what they have done against them.
07:18I know what I'm talking about because I saw the games.
07:21And how we celebrate when a team now is in the position in the bottom,
07:25how we celebrate in October,
07:28not in May or April like it's happened.
07:30Still, I feel the team still has the passion.
07:33How we celebrate in the locker room,
07:35I still feel, OK, still they want it, still we are there.
07:38And that means a lot to me, a lot.
07:41So what you talk about there,
07:42is that maybe one of the most important things about your team?
07:45You have this sort of champion or killer desire to always try.
07:50Absolutely.
07:51It's a more incredible value that displays.
07:54This one and the previous ones,
07:56for the mentality the club has,
08:00absolutely this is the most.
08:03They know the team, how difficult it is to be consistent for six, seven years.
08:09You can be consistent for a month, for a season,
08:11but six, seven years and still now we are there.
08:14All the teams go down.
08:16Still, we are in that position.
08:19And the proof that the runners from Mateus,
08:23they recover the ball, they help us to make three corners,
08:26and at the end we did it.
08:29It means that is the reality of our team.
08:31We have to continue with that.
08:33The fact we improved the skills, improved way to better,
08:35that's normal.
08:37I never had one season here where everything started perfect.
08:40Maybe the year for the 100 points that we started,
08:43we were unstoppable in the Premier League.
08:46In the other sense, we always have moments of ups and downs,
08:49but our moments decrease a little bit.
08:52We talk, we correct, and immediately we sit back
08:55and we come back in our rhythm.
08:57And that is not different.
09:01Was it frustrating that Kyle Walker comes back from England with an injury?
09:06It's what it is.
09:09We spoke to John Stones during England,
09:12and he said when he was injured in March for England,
09:16he comes back and he said,
09:18the manager, you're as angry as the players are.
09:21Is that fair?
09:23I never was so angry like that moment.
09:27Never before I was so disappointed.
09:31It was a friendly game.
09:33We were playing qualifiers against Madrid in the Premier League to win it.
09:37For a friendly game, to come back and play as injured...
09:41I didn't like it at all.
09:44Is Erling Haaland 100 per cent fit?
09:47Yeah.
09:49Just the list that you mentioned earlier, he's completely fine?
09:52Yeah.
09:55Sorry.
09:58Hi Pep, two games into this new Champions League,
10:01just wondered if you had any more thoughts about the new format,
10:04are you more comfortable now with what is needed to qualify and get over the line?
10:09The truth is, every week there are incredible,
10:13say Tuesday, Wednesday, there are incredible games.
10:18Is it true that it was Man City, Inter, Milan,
10:24Wednesday will be Barcelona, Bayern Munich,
10:27there are a lot of games.
10:31We have, I don't know, how many teams?
10:3430, more than 30?
10:36Just eight qualify.
10:38I'm pretty sure they will be a top, top team,
10:40there will have to be extra games to qualify for the first 24 or something like that.
10:47I'm pretty sure if we don't close the games at home,
10:50after our draw against Inter and Milan,
10:52we have three incredible away in Lisbon against Sporting,
10:57they went 7-7 in the Portuguese league,
11:00and Juventus, Turin, PSG away,
11:03I would say it's not easy.
11:05The games we have at home, we have to close it,
11:07otherwise it will be so difficult to finish in the first eight.
11:12That is the target we want to achieve.
11:15Hi Pep, the last two games, Wolves and Fulham,
11:18have been two more where you've conceded first
11:20and then mounted comebacks to come on and win,
11:23which is obviously very encouraging in one respect,
11:25but is there also the message that if you carry on going behind,
11:29that maybe sooner or later it will catch up with you?
11:32Yeah, that's true.
11:33Before it didn't happen, we were not able to come back,
11:35now we've improved many times, we can do it,
11:37but it's not the ideal situation.
11:39I prefer to go 2-0 up, not going down.
11:44But sometimes I listen,
11:47this cannot happen, of course it can happen.
11:51This cannot happen again, of course it can happen again.
11:53The football is like that.
11:56But the way we play against Wolves I like a lot,
11:59so the first action, you can see the goal,
12:01we have to try to board it, we want to work and board it,
12:03it's better, but it's football.
12:05So the first action at Brentford, long balls,
12:07and score one goal in the first minute.
12:09But Brentford have done it in three or four in a row,
12:11and scored the first beamer.
12:13Yeah, we have to try because it's more difficult.
12:15It's more difficult.
12:19This is not something I'm concerned about a lot.
12:28Just going back to what you were saying about the Stones injury last year,
12:32when that sort of thing happens, do you contact the FA, the manager?
12:37Never.
12:39Before, when I was a football player,
12:41the national teams called the managers from the clubs.
12:44Now nobody could talk.
12:46How they feel, how they are.
12:48Maybe the officials talk, but the managers never.
12:52In the beginning, first season, second with Gareth, yeah?
12:55But no.
12:57But it stopped after that?
12:59Yeah.
13:02Sometimes Ronald Koeman, because he's a friend of mine,
13:06I know they don't want to get injured, you know that?
13:10I always encourage them to go to the national team.
13:12It's a pleasure.
13:14When it's a friendly game, you cannot come back injured.
13:16I'm sorry.
13:18You are focused.
13:20In a friendly game, you cannot come back injured
13:22when you're playing for the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
13:25Because they are a lot of work behind.
13:27They are the first to make a lot of work behind,
13:30to arrive in the last stages of the season with the chance to win the titles.
13:35We are well paid here.
13:37The club pays us, not the national teams.
13:40So you have to respect the club.
13:42In friendly games, you cannot be injured.
13:44You can play, absolutely, but you cannot come back injured.
13:47You are here, you cannot come back.
13:50Just to ask about Stones this season.
13:53How important is it for you to be able to reintegrate him into the starting XI
13:59probably more regularly than he has been?
14:02Is he the missing link in a build-up in the midfield and things like that?
14:06John looks like he was my son, honestly.
14:10So I know his body language, I know everything of him.
14:13He's one of the most adorable professionals and lovely persons.
14:17He's not a person I want more than best than him.
14:20So the only reason maybe not regularly,
14:22because Ruben and Manu were an incredible top four.
14:25It's no other secret.
14:27It's not a lack of confidence, it's not a lack of bad form or whatever.
14:31He knows when he's fine and when he's not.
14:36You know how many meetings and games and training sessions have been together?
14:42So it's not about that.
14:44But sometimes Ruben gives you something, Manu gives you something.
14:47You are unbelievably strong.
14:49And it's not about he gave us one point against Arsenal
14:54or two more points against Wolves for the goal that is so important.
15:00Have a sense of goal, incredible in the box.
15:03It's not about that.
15:05So John appreciates the incredible amount of things that he does to us.
15:13I'm so happy to have him still with us.
15:15I love him.
15:17There are a lot of these guys that I still manage to hear.
15:22So I like to be with them.
15:24And also I want to try to help them.
15:26I know his body language when his feet are ready.
15:31And of course we need him.
15:32I need Nathan.
15:33I need all the players.
15:35I need also Nathan injured for the national team the last two times.
15:40And it's happened.
15:41I know it's happened.
15:42But Josco cannot play all the minutes, all the games every three days.
15:45We need Nathan.
15:46Otherwise we cannot compete until the end.
15:49So today in the modern football, I think in the teams
15:51the most important thing is not training sessions.
15:53The most important thing is not practice things.
15:55The most important thing is be fit.
15:57No injury.
15:59If you're injured, you lose eight games.
16:03Muscular.
16:04Not the injuries like Oscar, for example, or Roderick.
16:06No.
16:07The injuries are muscular.
16:08You lose eight, ten games.
16:09So it's better.
16:10No injury is the only reason why you can arrive until the end of the season.
16:15So that's why the doctors, the medical department, the physio,
16:17the amount of training, the intensity you have to do.
16:20You have to be so careful.
16:21So careful.
16:23Because the travels, the trips, and everything with national teams.
16:26And here, and the game, three days, three days, three days, three days.
16:30So be fit.
16:31Only I pray for that.
16:33The rest perform.
16:35Ten, nine years will come.
16:36What you have to do is just talk a little bit.
16:38Guys who have to come back to do this or that, they get it.
16:41They try to do it.
16:42It's not a problem.
16:43The problem is how we can do it if they are one month and a half out.
16:50No solution for that.
16:52Thank you, guys.
17:02Afternoon.
17:04Same again, guys.
17:05Just a show of hands, please.
17:06We'll start with Ben in the middle.
17:10Hi, Rico.
17:13Your manager has spoken very highly of you this season in particular.
17:16People outside of Manchester City talking about this being your breakout season.
17:21How do you see it from the player sat there in front of us today?
17:26I think it's difficult to say.
17:27It's like a breakout season because obviously I've been with them already for two years.
17:31But it feels to myself that there's more trust in the manager there for me.
17:35There's more playing time for me there as well.
17:39In terms of playing more games, yes, it does feel like that.
17:42I think that's only helped with my confidence and being able to develop more as a player as well.
17:49You obviously get asked to do a lot of different roles in the team.
17:53In Rodri's absence, that might have changed slightly.
17:55But I just wonder, as a group of players,
17:57how much are you talking amongst yourselves to come up with solutions?
18:02And how much are you looking to the manager to give you the solutions to play in his absence?
18:06Because obviously he's such a hugely important player.
18:09I mean, everyone knows how important he is.
18:12And that's been seen over the last two, three seasons of how big of a player he is.
18:18I think it's more the manager coming up with solutions
18:21and then we've just got to figure out on the day, in the game, on the pitch,
18:26how to execute them, more so than us trying to figure it out ourselves.
18:31I think Kovacic has done such a good job of doing that already in the recent games.
18:40But yes, I think even though he's such an important player,
18:43us as players have to come together and say,
18:45we've got to do it this season without him.
18:49Ariko, you basically played every game for City this season,
18:53every three days, and then you've been away with the national team.
18:56Have you had to change the way you work to be fit enough for that?
19:01I wouldn't say drastically, because I've always been the person to be as fit as possible and be available.
19:07But I think playing so many games already this season,
19:10I almost appreciate more the players that have done it the last season and the season before,
19:16because it's so difficult.
19:18No game is easy, especially for us.
19:22I think it's difficult to switch into that so quickly,
19:26to adjust to playing so many games when I'm not playing that many games on the bounce.
19:32But I'm enjoying it, and that's the thing that pushes me through the tiredness.
19:39All I want to do is play football, especially for this club,
19:42so I think that's the main thing that pushes me through it.
19:45I know you said when you were first starting out,
19:48it felt like opposition teams were targeting you a bit on the pitch.
19:52Is that getting less and less now that you're playing more regularly?
19:57I don't know, I don't remember saying that.
20:02I don't know, there's certain games where that will happen,
20:06certain games where it might not happen,
20:08and that's what football is, it's so different.
20:10Every game is so different, and that's why I enjoy it so much,
20:13because you can never say that two games are the same.
20:18Hi, Rico.
20:19Last season, in season four, you were in and out,
20:22played a couple of games, went out,
20:24now I think you've played as many games as anyone in this team this season.
20:27Do you feel more trusted by Pep in general now,
20:31and what has that done for your confidence as a player?
20:34Yeah, he definitely feels it, because obviously I'm playing on the pitch.
20:37That's not to say that he didn't trust me when I wasn't playing as well,
20:41but the last season we've had so many good players
20:44that can play in so many different positions
20:46where it's difficult to fit everyone in at once.
20:49But in terms of my confidence, it's massive for it.
20:54To be able to have a manager like that that can play you
20:57and feel like they can play you in most games is amazing for me.
21:01You played right back this season, left back, midfield,
21:04played a couple of different roles in midfield.
21:06Are you enjoying playing in different roles every week?
21:10Is that an enjoyable aspect for you at the moment,
21:12or do you want to maybe try and nail down one position?
21:16I've not really had too much thought about it,
21:18about nailing down a position.
21:20I think the more positions I can play,
21:23the bigger chance it gives me of playing.
21:26If I was nailed down then I wouldn't play as many games as I have this season.
21:30So I think there's both ways to think about it,
21:32but right now that's not what I'm thinking about,
21:34it's just playing as best as I can and working as hard as I can as well.
21:38Just following on from that, I'm guessing you're happy to play any position,
21:41but what do you enjoy about playing football?
21:46What aspects? Is it the creative side, being a midfielder?
21:50How do you see yourself?
21:51I think it's just everything.
21:53Like I said before, no two games are the same,
21:56and there's so many different scenarios that can happen from it,
21:59and I think I enjoy the defensive side, I enjoy attacking.
22:03Especially with how we're playing at the moment,
22:05most teams play against us in a low block,
22:07and it's the little small details that can win you a game,
22:11and stuff like that, creating chances.
22:14I think we're all looking to go for one goal, which is to win the game,
22:18and it's not that easy, there's so many little details of it.
22:22But I think that's the thing I enjoy,
22:24the little details and the things that I can do to help win games.
22:29When you were coming through here as a kid growing up,
22:32did you play all positions? Were you a striker, number 10, central midfielder?
22:35Where did you play most?
22:37When I first came in I was a midfielder,
22:40but about two weeks in they put me at right-back,
22:43because I wasn't as good as everyone else in midfield.
22:47But since then I've played everywhere, right-back, left-back,
22:50I think there was a season where I played centre-back when I was a bit younger,
22:53so I think that's definitely helped me,
22:55in terms of the mental side of knowing other people's positions
23:00and appreciating what your team-mates are doing for you.
23:03But, yes, like I say, I'm enjoying the football right now,
23:06and I think the more positions I can play right now,
23:10the more games I can play, which is what I want.
23:13Hi, Rico. If I could just ask with your England hat on,
23:16how much are you looking forward to the prospect of working with Thomas Tuchel?
23:19Yes, it's something that was unexpected at the time,
23:22but I think it's also something that's exciting.
23:25It's a new manager, it's a new era,
23:28it's a chance to go and win something.
23:31We don't know what he's going to do,
23:33we don't know what his system is,
23:35everything's going to be new for everyone,
23:37so it's an exciting time.
23:40Hi, Rico.
23:41Obviously, Pep's had a massive influence on the first team
23:44with the trophies that the first team have won,
23:46but it also feels like he's had quite a big influence
23:48on the way the academy has organised,
23:50the type of football that is played in the academy now.
23:52As someone who's come through that pathway,
23:54has that prepared you quite well for making that step
23:57from academy football to the first team?
23:59Yes, I'd say definitely.
24:01Obviously, it's difficult going from academy to first team anywhere,
24:05but I think the values of him have been instilled throughout the academy,
24:09from when we moved here especially.
24:11That's when we felt it.
24:13The patterns and pitches that we did when we were in the youth teams,
24:17we tried to mirror the first team,
24:19and obviously you can't exactly do it
24:21because you don't get the quality of players when you're that young,
24:23but I think just the little details that we do learn from being young
24:28massively helps when you get older
24:30and start to understand the patterns that he wants to do as well.
24:35OK.
24:36Thank you, guys.
24:37Thank you very much.