Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on City injury latest and Southampton
25/10/2024
CFGA, Manchester, UK
25/10/2024
CFGA, Manchester, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Good evening, guys, hope you're well.
00:10Same process as ever with mics on either side.
00:12We'll come to as many of you as we can.
00:13We'll set an embargo for 10.30 this evening partway through.
00:16We'll start with Ian, please, at the top.
00:19Hello, Pep.
00:20Can I just check on the fitness of the squad to start with?
00:23Have you got any hope that Kevin De Bruyne or Kyle Walker
00:27or someone like that might be able to be involved?
00:29No, not yet.
00:30Both missing still.
00:32Just on Kevin, I know you spoke about it a little bit after the game the other night.
00:36How long do you think it will be?
00:38I don't know.
00:39You have no idea at all?
00:41How much of a concern is that, that you don't know when you're going to have him back?
00:45Yeah, of course, I prefer to have all the squad, with the amount of games,
00:48but it is what it is.
00:50So hopefully he'll come back soon, but I don't know yet.
00:53I would like to tell you, but I don't know.
00:55For him moving forward, is this a concern longer-term,
00:59that he's struggling to recover from this injury?
01:01I'm sorry, I don't know.
01:03I don't know, I'm sorry.
01:04Doku and Grealish?
01:05No.
01:06Southampton, then.
01:09You're welcome.
01:12In terms of their start to the season,
01:14obviously, points-wise, it's not gone great for them,
01:17they're struggling at the wrong end of the table,
01:19but Russell Martin has been absolutely steadfast in his belief
01:23that he will play the same way, he will stick to his principles.
01:26How much do you admire managers doing that,
01:28even when the results are not going the way that they should be?
01:31We have success.
01:33When that happens, always you have success, sooner or later.
01:37You start to change a lot your ideas or your thoughts.
01:40Normally, when you change your ideas or your thoughts,
01:42I'm not saying to adjust something,
01:44it's not about paying four in the back, five in the back,
01:46that is not the point.
01:48If you start to change your thoughts due to the results,
01:52the players will notice.
01:53They will know you are not a big believer.
01:55When that happens, sooner or later the results are bad,
01:59but they are coming.
02:02So, always they have bad results,
02:06the world will know what happened, how we struggled to win.
02:10Always they have a good momentum,
02:12so the games against Renfrew, against United,
02:15the first half an hour, against Leicester,
02:17it starts really, really good.
02:20They have good moments, they have the courage to play.
02:23The team I use as a keeper, like I use with Ramsdell right now,
02:26and use it with all the process, it's always difficult.
02:30After the Champions League,
02:32I prefer to play against the teams in bed at the table,
02:36because you are focused and the big mistake we can do
02:38is just watching the table.
02:41But this is what it is.
02:44I appreciate you've not had a period like Southampton
02:46have had at the bottom of the table,
02:48but when you've had moments in your career
02:50where the results have not gone the way that you would want,
02:53how difficult is it to be able to show everyone
02:56that you're not doubting what you're doing
02:58and you're sticking firmly to what you believe?
03:01It's one of our jobs.
03:04It's trying to convince the players that we are in a good way,
03:07and the reason why we don't win is this one or this one,
03:09and we'll fix it, we'll come back.
03:12So, it's impossible to convince the players,
03:14you try to show or try to tell them,
03:16or try to train them or whatever,
03:18where you don't believe in something.
03:19It's impossible.
03:20It's life itself.
03:26With them being second bottom of the league,
03:29without a win this season,
03:31everyone will have Manchester City as favourites.
03:33What makes Southampton difficult, Pep?
03:36I said, the plan is there and they want to try to do it,
03:42and at the same time, sometimes,
03:45to adapt to the Premier League in the beginning.
03:48Always I have a lot of respect for the teams,
03:50like it was in the Championship, we were promoted,
03:52the Champions League is never-ending.
03:54It looks like, I don't know how,
03:56we complain sometimes in the Premier League,
03:58you know how many games we have?
04:00The Championship is even worse.
04:02So, because we played there, the FA Cup and Carabao Cup,
04:06I had the feeling that if they do it,
04:09it's because they are good.
04:11They rely on the manager, they do it.
04:14I saw the games, Arsenal, Lesley and the other ones,
04:17they always had the moments.
04:19They always had the moments and they want to try to do it.
04:21They are courageous, brave,
04:23especially with the ball.
04:25Without the ball, I don't know what's going to happen.
04:27It depends on us if we defend deeper or not.
04:34We'll see.
04:35Speaking to Phil Foden on Wednesday after the game,
04:39who kind of said that he felt he was back,
04:42that he was over this bump in the road that he'd had.
04:45Do you get that impression and perhaps how far off is he
04:48from the Phil we know of last season?
04:51I'm not concerned at all about how far it is,
04:54because I know when he is fine, he will get it.
04:57It's a natural talent, he will get it.
05:00The first goal against Sparta Prague,
05:03to find a little bit Phil is an incredible talent
05:06to solve the game for himself.
05:08But in a career when you are many, many years,
05:11already Phil is many, many years,
05:12you have these bumps that you say,
05:14up and downs a little bit.
05:15Try to reduce these short setbacks as quick as possible.
05:20They are human beings.
05:22I'll be patient, let them feel that this type of place
05:26and this type of moment that we are there
05:28and everything is going well.
05:30Sooner or later I'm happy to hear that he feels good,
05:33because at the end it depends on himself.
05:36Finally from me, there's some data released this week
05:39that suggests that referees are perhaps less lenient
05:44to Manchester City in fouls and awarding bookings
05:46than other teams, than Arsenal and Spurs for example.
05:49Do you get that impression that you're treated more harshly?
05:55I didn't pay attention to these kind of things, I'm sorry.
05:58Normally when you have 60-70% of the balls,
06:01it's normal that you should less reward,
06:09but you have the ball.
06:10Normally the fouls are being committed
06:12when you don't have the ball.
06:13Normally it doesn't happen in our team,
06:15not now, for many, many years.
06:17Always have been, our teams for many years
06:20have been good that sense,
06:24but listen, I don't pay attention.
06:26It's what it is and that's all.
06:31Pep, what is it about the home form
06:34and the importance of that to you?
06:35If you avoid defeat tomorrow, so you win or draw,
06:39it will be more than two years
06:41since you last lost a game at the Etihad.
06:44Why is that so important to you?
06:45It's an incredible run.
06:47That's a question I don't like.
06:52It's good, it's really good.
06:56That means it's consistent,
06:57otherwise you don't win for the Premier League.
06:58You don't have this type of result,
06:59like in the Champions League or other stages,
07:0226 games unbeaten.
07:05It's because we are consistent.
07:07If we are not, we don't win the Premier League
07:09for many, many years.
07:10That is the reason why.
07:11Away at home, especially at home,
07:14we do our job every single time.
07:19You've spoken a lot in recent weeks
07:20about teams coming to play you with a low block
07:23and putting 11 men in the box at times.
07:26Southampton haven't really done that much this season.
07:29Are you expecting them to come and be a little bit more open?
07:31It depends on us.
07:32Sometimes it happens and we bring them there.
07:36When you make good processes, long balls
07:38and this kind of stuff,
07:40at the end they don't defend deep.
07:42But if you have a good process,
07:44it happens to us.
07:45When a team makes a good process,
07:46we defend in the box.
07:48So how long they stay there, I don't know.
07:50I don't know the players.
07:51I know, for example, I'm pretty sure against Spurs
07:54in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday,
07:56it's not going to happen.
07:58Against Bournemouth, it's not going to happen.
08:01Sporting Lisboa, I don't know.
08:03Yet against Brighton away,
08:05I think it's not going to happen.
08:06So it depends on the clubs.
08:09And you have to adapt.
08:10Because sometimes you see a team,
08:12oh, these teams, they don't do that.
08:15But at the end, against us, they happen.
08:18OK, it's fine.
08:19We have to break them down.
08:24Can I just finish by asking about Savinio?
08:26I know you spoke a little bit about him
08:27after the game in midweek,
08:28about how well he's settled in.
08:30What is it about his game
08:32that you've really been impressed with this season?
08:35And what is it that will take him to that next level?
08:37Getting the goals, for example,
08:38that you spoke about in midweek?
08:39He's so young, he's 20, 21 years old.
08:41What I like about Savinio is the fact that
08:45I have the feeling that he wants to be the best.
08:48He wants to be the best player on the pitch.
08:50He wants to try things.
08:51He participates in everything.
08:54He's got the ball and tries again.
08:57He's not scoring goals,
08:59but he tries and shoots.
09:01And in the last game against Wolves,
09:02there's a free kick.
09:03I want to take it.
09:05He's a young guy,
09:08he has the feeling that
09:09he's here to become a good, good player.
09:12And that defines the really, really good players.
09:16He's on the perch,
09:18with consistency and ambition.
09:21Yeah, he will get it.