- 2 days ago
Guardiola believes City can cope with injuries after last season's experience
06/01/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
06/01/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00End of the season, but is he almost a special case because he's played in two Champions League finals,
00:07he's won so much with you, is he somebody that you still want to have around even though he hasn't played
00:13as much as anybody wants him to?
00:15I think what happened in the last two seasons will be to find the decision at the end of the season.
00:21Is he close to coming back at all?
00:24Right now, I don't know. I would like to know the answer, but I don't know.
00:28He didn't train with us.
00:30So that's why when training, it's make training sessions.
00:32It's not like I'm ready, now I play.
00:35If you play, it's like one or two training sessions can play, and the other ones need a little bit longer.
00:41And John is one of the cases.
00:45Hi, Pat. With the injuries, are you having to look at alternatives of playing players out of position?
00:51And, you know, are you confident in the academy lads that are coming through?
00:54How are you looking at it?
00:55Are you more likely to go with the experienced players in different positions or not?
00:58I know, but Ruben, in the end of five, six weeks, we come back.
01:06Just unfortunately for the bone, it will be a little bit longer.
01:13That's what it is, but we have to find the solution.
01:15So Max is coming back and have alternatives.
01:17We thought about that.
01:18And we'll see game by game, and we'll see the market what's happened
01:21for this exceptional situation that happened last season.
01:24But, yeah, we'll have a long players as well, so we'll see.
01:28Do you like the challenge of when you're missing players of trying to correct it?
01:31I prefer to have that challenge, to be honest.
01:34That is where it is.
01:35So to fight for the content titles will be there.
01:39You need, you know, demanding schedules for every season.
01:43And unfortunately, last season happened in November.
01:48This season happened in January a little bit.
01:50But we'll have enough.
01:51We don't have much.
01:52We have first team 30, 40 players.
01:56But, yeah, some of them coming back and go for it.
02:01I know it's obviously a difficult situation at the moment with the injuries
02:10and maybe the last couple of results.
02:12But globally, overall, if you think back to maybe when you were in the summer
02:16about how the season would go, how do you think it's going
02:19in terms of the spirit among the squad, the playing style, the energy?
02:23How is it?
02:25Top, top, top.
02:26Top, I don't have any, any, any 0-0-0-0 complaining about my players.
02:32Completely the opposite.
02:33That's why what I said comparing the last season is completely, completely different.
02:37That's what I mean.
02:38Is it better maybe than you thought it would have been?
02:41I know.
02:42You know, when you play in Sunderland, you come back at 2.30.
02:44It's a demanding game.
02:45We know that we make an extraordinary second half.
02:48We make four or five really, honestly, chances in front of the six-yard buck
02:52in the area penalty spot.
02:54So, and we're going to score, come back at 2.30 here in less than three days,
03:00come back up against Chelsea.
03:02And we thought, okay, in the last 20 minutes, I know the fatigue,
03:06the few, few players that could not sustain the rhythm of the game
03:10like we could not do it because he's injured, just scored one substitution.
03:13After John Rubens, another substitution.
03:16We cannot make it two or three that we need to make it to refresh
03:19and control a little bit better the ball, yeah, sometimes happen.
03:24But that is not in the chances.
03:26We didn't have chances, but a lot of three against two,
03:28four against three, two against one, to a better pass,
03:31will be one against one against the keeper.
03:33We cannot finalize maybe for the fatigue.
03:36Sometimes the creativity players need to be fresh in the legs,
03:38fresh in the mind to take the right decisions.
03:41We cannot do it, but that is part of the game.
03:43So, in the certainty, but at the end of that,
03:46they did absolutely everything.
03:47That's why, so I know how good we have been in these last two games.
03:52I know it, and just to continue, knowing that, of course,
03:55to sustain for every three days, three days, three days, three days,
03:57three days, three days, a lot of games with a few players will be tough,
04:01but if the spirit is in the right spot, like we didn't have last season,
04:05we can have this season, we will be there.
04:07I know you talked about that earlier in the season.
04:10You know, the spirit was more important than working on the tactics.
04:12At what point did you feel like, okay, the spirit is actually, it's good, it's bad?
04:18It's been since day one, and we improved through this path, these journeys.
04:26But everything is important, not just that.
04:28The tactic is important, the spirit and everything is important.
04:32When you play bad, really, really bad, you say,
04:34yeah, the tactics, we have to improve.
04:35When you play incredible well, but we don't have a body language,
04:38the spirit has to, it's everything.
04:40Football is a package.
04:41It's not just one specific thing you have to fix.
04:45One day you don't know why, create a few, score a lot of goals,
04:48another one you don't score.
04:50It's happened.
04:51It's a package.
04:52It's how we behave, how Bernardo's feels, and Ryan's, and Erling's,
04:57and everyone, you know, how he fight and run and try it again and again and again.
05:03That made me so happy that last season we missed it,
05:05and this season we have it.
05:07That is not enough.
05:08We'll see.
05:09We'll see what happens until the end.
05:10And just a quick one on the defensive situation at the moment.
05:13Is there any chance of getting a Kanji back?
05:15No.
05:16No?
05:16Not possible?
05:17No.
05:20You said that last season at different points was a bit of a new experience for you
05:23because you had so few players at different points.
05:26I know this situation is not quite as bad as it was last year,
05:28but do you feel, having gone through what you did last year,
05:31a bit more equipped to deal with these next four or six weeks
05:34because you have that experience to kind of fall back on from last year?
05:37No, we came back in the bad moments of two months that we have really bad results
05:41if we lose what we have.
05:43Yeah, we lose what we have, we come in like season.
05:45This is the only thing you have to be careful.
05:48It doesn't matter.
05:48Sometimes I have seen moments that I win Premier Leagues and titles in other countries
05:53and here with a few, few players.
05:55But the spirit always was there.
05:56And this is where we can never lose.
05:59And with having that, we don't lose, I don't know.
06:03So if it's just a better simple passes in the final third in the last game,
06:09we have win.
06:11And at the end, for a little, little deflection for our central defender,
06:15we can see the goal.
06:16So the margins is sometimes, it happens.
06:19So, but I don't take for granted how difficult it's come back from Dunderland,
06:25arrive the game, how tough it was, arrive in that time.
06:29They have two days left, less than the opponent, and go there.
06:34And our schedule has been, so the situations that you cannot,
06:38of course I would like maybe to put more games, Kusa,
06:41not Ruben maybe in that position out of games.
06:44But he's not ready there.
06:45I want to be character players in the pitch.
06:48Ruben is an incredible leader.
06:50You know, having Nico there and their situations,
06:53the moment that we have a new players,
06:56Ruben gives us stability.
06:57I know that.
06:59So, always I've been.
07:01So a guy like rotate, not 10 players like was Leverkusen,
07:05like prove me that it's too much for the stability and everything.
07:08But always the two or three or four players, you can do it.
07:12But sometimes, when you have some specific players,
07:15you can rotate more.
07:16When you don't have it, you can rotate less.
07:17So, it depends game by game.
07:20But it's what it is.
07:20So, during the season, it happened many times.
07:23And I'm pretty sure for the future,
07:27the lesson will be made.
07:29Last two of Jack and Simon.
07:31Hi, Pep.
07:32Just on the defence,
07:33is there any consideration for bringing Vita Rice back from Girona?
07:39I don't think so.
07:41He's playing really good there and they need him there.
07:43So, obviously, you've got Kusinov and Ake and you've brought Alain back.
07:49With Nathan Ake, obviously, you've got quite a few games coming up over the next two or three weeks,
07:53like back-to-back.
07:55And history says that Nathan's not able to play three games in a week.
07:59How are you going to navigate your way through that and manage that?
08:04We'll be creative.
08:05We'll see the transfer.
08:06We'll see creative.
08:07We'll find some solutions.
08:11And is there a player in the squad at the moment that isn't a centre-half that you look at and say,
08:17maybe he's someone that can fill that gap?
08:21Well, we have the academy.
08:24We have Max.
08:25We have Stefan.
08:27We have Stefan and we have Nick Gonzalez, Canada, in that position.
08:32Yeah, we have some alternative for these two months.
08:35That is a lot, a lot of games.
08:37A lot.
08:37Champions League, important games.
08:38And the Premier League, of course, obviously, has started the cup.
08:41And the other competition, the situation that it's happened.
08:45So, yeah.
08:48It's where it is.
08:49During the season, it's happened.
08:50Do you know that?
08:51And you have to deal with that.
08:54Hi, Pep.
08:55Just on top of the injuries that you've got, a lot of the players that you do have available
08:59have played a lot of minutes over the last few months.
09:02Can they realistically be expected to get through the next month, two months,
09:08play in every game as well?
09:09We have to.
09:11With the spirit of that, we have to.
09:14I don't have any doubt.
09:15You have a good heart.
09:16And I don't have any doubts of that.
09:20And I saw when they are exhausted, like, these first 10-15 minutes against Chelsea.
09:29Because sometimes, you know, you're making incredible actitudes and incredible shape in the high-pressing.
09:38They cross one-half way in the half-time Chelsea because we missed one ball.
09:44Just going to build up in the final third, they make a transition.
09:47In the second half, they break a line one or two high-pressing.
09:49It looks like they were extending.
09:50So, come on, if Chelsea cannot break the lines one or two times with the players that have,
09:55they're well-educated with Enzo and arrive two or three times in our box with a play in, you know,
10:02less than 48 hours in a tough, tough game, arriving in that condition,
10:06that is normal, happen that you cannot do it.
10:08So, every time we have incredible good things, you have, you know, a lot of good bunch, fresh people
10:17to make the last 30 minutes and rotate the players and that.
10:20And now for a long time, we cannot do that, you know, for, we don't expect, you know,
10:25to John to be injured for a long time again and they just happen, but that you have to fit.
10:31But last season happened again, but we were, and this is what we have to change and not change.
10:37Stay like we stay.
10:39And you are tired, it's in your mind.
10:42And you are there, you can do it.
10:44And we will work on it with the players that we have and you have Academy as well.
10:48So, that's why Academy is here.
10:51And sometimes I regret in the past and give them more minutes to them.
10:54So, let's go.
10:56The young players never disappoint you.
10:58Young players always, they are there.
10:59They're in incredible focus.
11:00They don't ask permission for anything.
11:04They don't have some bills that you have to pay because they are clean in their minds
11:10and they want to be there.
11:11So, never disappointed when they are a little bit talented and supported
11:15for the little bit higher key players.
11:17They will respond.
11:18I don't have any doubt about it.
11:19And Max, for example, will respond.
11:22We saw how he grew up in Watford and ready to help us at that time.
11:27Thank you, everyone.
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