- 8 minutes ago
Guardiola thinks schedule means clubs need more players to cope
23/01/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
23/01/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Can you tell us a bit about what that solution might be or what the problems are?
00:05I have it, myself, my heart and my soul.
00:08Can we try and guess?
00:11Eleven players back.
00:13Is that it?
00:14It's simple.
00:16Like last season, give me my players back.
00:19How far is Doku from being available to start?
00:22We'll see.
00:23Do you think Doku will not play in Bodo?
00:26He will be fit?
00:27No, exactly.
00:28Do you think Doku will not play in Bodo will be fit?
00:32No.
00:33The World War Maverick could not play.
00:35So we have eleven players out, like most of the teams.
00:38Give my squad back.
00:40Give it to me like last season.
00:42And after we see what happens.
00:44How about Jostko?
00:45One day we can solve it.
00:46For two days we can solve it.
00:47But for a long time it's unsustainable.
00:50So, five central defenders.
00:53You have one ability, we have one.
00:55So it's more difficult.
00:57Because I know how they lose with Bodo.
01:01Yeah, yeah.
01:02I always admire these comments for all the people saying how lack of respect for the opponents
01:10for Norway when they reached the semi-finals of the Europa League last season.
01:14And I'm pretty sure that guys that said how they lose at Bodo, they didn't see one damn game about Bodo.
01:21And Bodo is an exceptional top team.
01:23Especially there.
01:25They draw in Dortmund two weeks ago.
01:28So we knew it.
01:29But give my team back.
01:33It's been fit.
01:34Only I ask, just think.
01:35Fit.
01:36It was last season.
01:37In March when we arrived, in February, fit.
01:39Had the players.
01:40And after that, give me the opponents.
01:42And we will be there.
01:43But that is more difficult.
01:45Not saying that even with that, we have to do better.
01:49And tomorrow we will start to do better.
01:51And Ruben and Josco?
01:52Are there any updates on them?
01:53Obviously not tomorrow.
01:54Josco is at two months and Ruben still will be out.
01:58Two more months for Josco?
02:00Josco is a fracture.
02:01It's a surgery.
02:02It's a bone.
02:03So it's not going back.
02:10Hi Pep.
02:11You mentioned lacking aggression in duels in midweek.
02:15Obviously Wolves play at back five at the moment.
02:18They play against a lot of teams with a low block.
02:20Do you think naturally your players lack a bit of aggression
02:22because teams sit off them?
02:23Do you need them to sort of pre-empt it
02:25and they need to be more aggressive from the start?
02:27Football is just about aggression.
02:28Because that's what you do with the ball.
02:30So football is everything.
02:32It's many, many things.
02:33One day you said,
02:34Oh, we don't have aggression.
02:35Okay, we solve for the next game
02:37and after the next game we didn't make one good pass.
02:39No good movements.
02:40No good shoots.
02:41I defend by the set pieces.
02:43There are a lot of factors and every game is different.
02:46And Bodo plays completely different.
02:48Do you know how Bodo plays right?
02:504-4-2.
02:51I don't know.
02:52I tell you.
02:534-4-2 is so narrow.
02:54Like Villarreal.
02:55So narrow.
02:56When the team who is in the right is so narrow,
02:58where are the spaces for the wingers?
02:59The wingers go in against one and go.
03:01How many wingers have we had against Bodo?
03:03Zero.
03:04Zero.
03:05So in that shape, when we arrived there with Nico O'Reilly
03:09or Raytan Nuri was the exception.
03:11It's not the same.
03:12We have Savinho or have Doku or have, inshallah, Oscar Bob
03:18and all the wingers that we have.
03:20So we struggled a little bit.
03:21Why?
03:22Because we don't have the team.
03:23So after that, it's more difficult.
03:25Only I ask two seasons.
03:26Give me the team, please.
03:27Be fit.
03:28Only I ask.
03:30No more than that.
03:31And we don't have it.
03:32When we have it, most of them, we were there.
03:34Seven, eight victories in a row.
03:36When we have it, we try it, but they are fatigued like season.
03:39We cannot rotate the teams.
03:40We have the same problems.
03:41And Gundo should play all the games.
03:42And Koba should play all the games.
03:43And Bernardo.
03:44And arrive a moment.
03:45We cannot, you know, in European teams every three days, four days,
03:49three days, four days.
03:50And after that, the players come back for the Ingers.
03:53They need a process.
03:54They have to play again one game, another one.
03:56Ingers again.
03:57And this role will happen.
03:59So hopefully we can stay there, stay there, stay there.
04:02Because we are in semi-finals in Carabao Cup.
04:05We are in FA Cup.
04:06The league is a little bit away.
04:08Especially the strong team they have in front of us.
04:10But Champions League, we are there.
04:11Qualified.
04:12So that's what I said.
04:13When arriving in February and March, only I ask is not opening.
04:17The team back.
04:18The feet.
04:19And after that, I swear, I promise, we will be there.
04:22Because we spend a lot of money.
04:24But do you think with the fatigue then, that that is causing a problem with aggression
04:28or, you know, being on the front foot as much as you'd like to be?
04:31Sorry?
04:32You mentioned there that fatigue is a problem because you are playing the same players
04:35due to injuries.
04:36Do you think that is having an impact on being aggressive?
04:39No, I don't think it has a fatigue.
04:40Of course, I didn't play much.
04:41Max didn't play much.
04:42And Rico didn't play much.
04:43It's not a fatigue.
04:44It's sometimes you have to be, you know, the players in the bench and to make different
04:50alternatives for the opponents to create the problems.
04:53To do that.
04:54Omar is back now.
04:55Semenyos could not play there in Bodo.
04:57It would be there.
04:58And so I have a natural, natural, natural feeling of myself for my career.
05:04I'm incredibly optimistic in my life, in my job.
05:08Always I think that it's going to be well.
05:10It's going to be fine.
05:11Of course, I have thoughts.
05:12I have to do better.
05:13But always I'm incredible, incredible, incredible positive.
05:15That's why when I see the team and play and the other ones, of course, we are disappointed.
05:21And not necessarily apologise.
05:22You have to apologise because you are not doing top.
05:25You want to do top after you have to be worried.
05:27That is the point.
05:28But the feeling in Bodo, the games with 10-11, we must do well.
05:33So the other ones always are good.
05:35So we have to accept it.
05:37It's now two seasons in a row where you've had a big injury crisis kind of at the same time.
05:46Do you...?
05:47No.
05:48Last season was two months before.
05:49Now it happened in January.
05:51Last season was in November.
05:52Yeah.
05:53So we are lucky that we survive until January.
05:55Yeah.
05:56How...?
05:57The reason why?
05:58Yeah.
05:59A man of games.
06:00They have incredible doctors.
06:01The best fissures that I can have.
06:03My fissures, I don't change once.
06:06The doctors, Max and Edu, are 24 hours.
06:11They work like an animals.
06:13A secret amount of games.
06:15But it not happened in Man City.
06:16It happened to all the teams.
06:18All the teams.
06:19Looked better in Barcelona now injured.
06:20Why?
06:21Muscular.
06:22A man of games.
06:24So...
06:25If it's still happening though, is there something that needs to be looked at for next season?
06:3050 players in the squad.
06:31And two managers.
06:34225 players don't play.
06:37That is the only solution I have.
06:39Nothing more realistic then?
06:44I'm not a scientist, but...
06:50It's a matter of games.
06:51It's a lot.
06:52I said...
06:53You were in Norway, right?
06:55I said in Norway, what Carlos Alcara said, right?
06:57Have no weeks to recover.
06:58That guy, when he finishes the season, I don't know when, goes to the national teams
06:59to play the World Cup.
07:00United States of America, with incredible hot, warm conditions.
07:01And after that, go home.
07:02How many weeks?
07:03Two?
07:04Three?
07:05Oh, he came back.
07:06Let's go again.
07:07How many years of that?
07:08Eight, nine, ten seasons in a row.
07:10So at the end, it's difficult.
07:11That's why the people get injured.
07:12How many injured had Bodo?
07:13Zero.
07:14Why?
07:15Two months.
07:16So no, no, no, far more secrets than that.
07:18With so much going on with teams, to have somebody next to your number two must be really, really
07:46crucial.
07:47So I've counted since you've been here, six, no?
07:50Dome, Mikel, Rodo, Lillo, Enzo, and now Pep.
07:59If you have the time, would you look back and say why you chose them and what you got from them?
08:05They choose me.
08:06I don't choose them.
08:10No, each one happened in their lifetime.
08:13So first Dome, we came from Barcelona and after Mikel arrived, you know, before I arrived, we were making
08:20the topic.
08:21He knew the Premier League better than me in that moment.
08:23And yeah, and everyone happened.
08:26Rodo was here when I arrived.
08:27And after Juanma for a relationship we had in the past, Enzo, I saw him working in the
08:32academy in the second team.
08:33I was really impressed how good communicating after they proved it, how good he is.
08:38And then, yeah, life is put in a position because everyone has dreams and they live.
08:44Would you remember more or less what you got from them?
08:47Got from them?
08:48What you got from them?
08:49Everything.
08:50They are top, all of them.
08:52Top, top, top, top, top.
08:54They helped me unbelievably.
08:57As a human being, as a presence, as a comfort when the situations go bad, especially with
09:03that, how much enjoying the good moments, his knowledge, their knowledge of the game, the
09:08feelings, the trust to share with me what they believe in the right moment, the right
09:13time, what they have to do.
09:15So, without them, it would not be possible.
09:18The same would happen in Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
09:21All the staff, they helped me, helped me a lot.
09:23But, of course, the time changed things and that will happen.
09:28Hi, Pep.
09:29At the end of last season, when you had all your players back, you were very good and went
09:32on a very good run towards the end of last season.
09:35This season, when you've had all the players, you had a run where you won eight
09:38or nine in a row.
09:39It must be very frustrating as a manager to have seasons that are being decided by something
09:43that's completely out of your control.
09:45You can do everything right.
09:46The players can do everything right.
09:47But the success or the failure of a season is decided by something that you can do nothing
09:50about.
09:51Still, we are in the season, many things are going to happen.
09:54But if you tell me right now, the only thing I feel a little bit disappointed is the
09:59worst, a little bit, oh, what happened that is not half the squad.
10:03It's the only thing.
10:05There's nothing else.
10:06Still, I fully believe that last season, with all the squad that he had, with the injured,
10:12you know, for Roderick Longbite, for all central defenders, with Kyle left, and for many,
10:17many things, we would have been there in all competitions.
10:21It's the same feeling I had that.
10:23It's not about the team is not good.
10:24It's not about they don't fight.
10:25It's not about the doctors are not good.
10:27It's happened.
10:28And I thought maybe it will not happen.
10:30It's the only feeling that, ah, the last two seasons, because the years when we won
10:36is because we were there.
10:37One injured, two injured, three injured, one player came back after down.
10:40But this amount in the same time, for the long period, in the period of a lot of games,
10:44that is the only thing I did.
10:46And maybe you can do better.
10:48Yeah, I'm pretty sure the doctors and the other one analyzed why it happened.
10:51But I said to them, the reason why is that we make more fatigue, fatigue is in your body,
10:57more fatigue, and fatigue in your body.
10:59And, you know, more runs, more hours, the fatigue is not.
11:04Scientists prove that they need to rest and sleep and eat and need time to the muscle,
11:12come back to do it.
11:13And that's why you are slower in that moment, you are late in the actions, you have fractures
11:20in the ankles and this kind of stuff.
11:23If you tell me when in these ten seasons will happen, it's yes, no, we will win semifinals
11:28or lose the finals in the Champions League or lose whatever.
11:33No, because you know me, but you don't know me.
11:36But anyway, when I lose because they deserve it better, they will lose it.
11:39And United is better in the situations, what can I say?
11:43It is better.
11:44So it happened.
11:45But at the end when they demand you as a team, you know, to compete in the highest standards
11:50in all the levels, we need the players to compete themselves because they are so good
11:55but we don't have them.
11:56So that's why it's only, only, no regret because it's not about us.
12:00It's not about me.
12:01It's not about the players.
12:02It's not about the club.
12:03It's happened.
12:04It's happened.
12:05So, but still we are there.
12:07Still we are in the competitions and hopefully, hopefully our fans can feel,
12:14I never do that, but our fans can feel that we need them too much
12:18because we are in the problems for that reason and we need them.
12:21They have to, because they deserve it.
12:25So most of them, not most of them, but the Monopat have been the most glorious part of that club
12:31for many, many years and that is the moment for just the reason why we have, like last game,
12:3811 absents that could not play.
12:40So, and the bench was academy players, five, six academy players and Omar.
12:45They came for the AFCON one day before coming from Marrakesh.
12:48So, and fly to, to, to there.
12:52So, it's, it's only, I think we need them and, and hopefully they can support us.
12:56It is final that we have tomorrow and especially as well, you know,
12:59and Wednesday against Galatasaray.
13:01And, because we need them.
13:03Definitely we need them.
13:04Last two with Jack and Mark.
13:07Can I just ask about Gonzalez and Savinho?
13:09When do you expect them to be?
13:10How close are they?
13:11Savinho still started yesterday's run, the first in the pitch, so maybe two weeks, three weeks.
13:18And, or maybe less, I don't know.
13:20And Niko, we try to, if he can help us for the absence from Rodri on Wednesday against Galatasaray,
13:30but he's in doubt.
13:33With Niko on Wednesday, for an argument's sake, you've got to be careful
13:38because you don't want him to re-aggravate an injury because then it's just a spiral.
13:43That is the question.
13:45That is the question.
13:46I don't have Koba for, you know, I spoke with Koba in his full-hand game on the pitch
13:50when we were called a final champion.
13:51Like I said, don't go to the, to the World Cup in the States and make a surgery quick,
13:57but he was struggling a lot last season, to clean it.
13:59The next season, top.
14:00Played two, three games.
14:02Again, his bone was not react well and we got another surgery.
14:06So, and we have the three top.
14:10You know, we were lucky that Niko and Gonzalez helped us incredible a lot in that position.
14:15But, yeah, that's where it is.
14:19I think you described the Wolves game.
14:21You said it's like a final.
14:23How big is the game for you in terms of the context of the week that you've had?
14:30Well, in context, we are second in the table, right?
14:33We are not 12th or second, but the opponent is so strong.
14:37So, you see Arsenal, they see weaknesses.
14:40Difficult to find them, you know?
14:42And everybody's feet and they are, but not just in the Premier League,
14:46we're in the Champions League.
14:47How amount of games winning in many, many different circumstances.
14:51And I know that if we don't win games, it will not be possible to be close to them until the end of the season.
14:59That is what we want.
15:03Thank you, everyone.
Comments