Guardiola: City are only team who can fail to win Premier League title

NicheSportMedia

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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.

11:25 (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

11:27 (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

11:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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