00:00It's been six or seven months now that you've been working with the other Pep.
00:04How has it been? How have you found him?
00:06Intense.
00:08He's brilliant, of course.
00:10He has a passion and a game understanding from a different planet, in my opinion.
00:18He knows exactly what he wants.
00:21The good ones and the top ones, what sets them apart is their love, in my opinion,
00:27for his team.
00:31You always have people who are geniuses in terms of how to prepare a team,
00:37but the quality lies in how you touch the heart of the players,
00:41how you convince them to play in a certain way.
00:44That is something that not surprised me, of course, because I knew,
00:48but what I really like about Pep.
00:51When he approached you in the summer, I believe he spoke to Jurgen Klopp,
00:57I think Jurgen gave you a glowing reference.
00:59That must make you feel good that he did that.
01:03Was that a question?
01:06No, I think you answered it.
01:09When Pep calls, I felt the call coming because he asked a few people
01:14and it always comes back in the football world.
01:16You hope he makes this call and you hope that it's a nice one to have.
01:21The feeling was straightaway really good.
01:25It was not a difficult decision.
01:27There has been quite a lot spoken about the tactical differences
01:32between this city this year and previous incarnations of Pep's teams.
01:38From your perspective, having watched them before and then obviously coaching this year,
01:42how much different do you think it is this year to previous years?
01:47The game, it's the game.
01:49It's the way football is developing.
01:51You have two games at the moment.
01:53One is played on the opposition half, where teams are really deep, compact.
01:58And that didn't change a lot from the last years.
02:02And then you have a game where all the teams play man-to-man high press.
02:06Not all, but 90 per cent in a lot of leagues.
02:10So that game where they come man-to-man, there are no lines.
02:16There are no pockets.
02:20There are no free space.
02:22It's all about how to outplay that moment of high pressure.
02:26And that changed a lot.
02:28So when this comes, you see us attack more quick at moments
02:31because when you outplay that press, the pitch is completely open.
02:35The quality is always like how you make the process
02:39to outplay that kind of pressure.
02:41And before I felt a lot of teams went immediately deep.
02:45And now it is much more a combination of what I say,
02:49one game on one side of the pitch
02:51and a completely different game on the other side of the pitch.
02:53And teams combining that well.
02:55So that's why they make it much harder for the top teams, in my opinion.
03:01How much work has to go into a week?
03:05Quite a lot of these players are used to playing against teams that retreat,
03:09as you say, like sit on their own box with a low block.
03:12How much work has that to go into teaching these players to play differently?
03:16Yeah, it's two completely different.
03:18It asks also different types of players.
03:23Because when you have space between the lines
03:26and you only need to move in the pockets to turn and to speed up the game
03:29or to go to the outside,
03:31and you have always the wing already in one-v-one situation, high up the pitch.
03:35Or you are deep with a lot of space and you have to attack.
03:38So that makes it different.
03:40But you need to, as a team nowadays, if you want to have a successful scene,
03:46you need to dominate both moments.
03:48Because when the ball doesn't come out clear,
03:50when the ball doesn't come out clean,
03:53teams will create problems.
03:57So I don't think you see a lot of different ideas
04:00because Pep is about organised attacks,
04:03constantly want to suffocate the opposition.
04:05That didn't change.
04:07It's more about what teams do to us to counter-attack that, basically.
04:11Do we want to attack quick when the pitch is open?
04:16Yes.
04:17Do we want to play a lot of passes when the pitch is closed?
04:21Yes, of course, because you need to disorganise them.
04:23But I think the mindset of Pep and the idea never changed.
04:29But the opposition always forces you to find different weapons.
04:35Quite a few hands.
04:38Pep has said that he made a quick phone call to you in the summer
04:43to approach you about it.
04:47Was it strange at all or even a difficult decision at all?
04:51Because you spent so many years in the opposite technical area,
04:56maybe shouting at the city staff.
04:59I never shouted.
05:01Was it a difficult decision at all, being a rival for so long?
05:06You want my political answer?
05:14No, of course not.
05:17The moment Pep called,
05:20and how I felt, the feeling he gave me,
05:24what he wanted to do with the team by bringing me in.
05:28The trust he already had before we even started talking about how it would look,
05:38made the decision much easier.
05:40But you cannot put away ten years Liverpool that easy.
05:43But I'm really proud to come to a club of this magnitude,
05:50to come in a club that was so successful over the last ten years,
05:54with a manager who defined football.
05:56So, when I spoke with Jurgen about it, he was so clear,
06:01if you don't do it, I take the assistant job.
06:04Will it be strange on Sunday,
06:08will it be a strange emotion being in the away dressing room at Anfield?
06:13No, no, because I'm a professional.
06:16We played them here.
06:18The only mindset I have, especially with the game schedules now,
06:22is Tottenham, of course.
06:23But when we go to Anfield, it will be special,
06:25maybe more special for my family than for me.
06:28But my mindset is to win and to try to beat them.
06:34We've got time for three more, please, guys.
06:37Hi, Pep.
06:38You mentioned the intensity of title races before,
06:41and obviously you've seen it up close with Jurgen and now Pep.
06:44Obviously Jurgen, a couple of years ago,
06:46admitted he had nothing left to give, really.
06:48You know, it took so much out of him.
06:50How impressive is it to see Pep up close
06:52and to have done this for now, coming on ten years?
06:55Yeah.
06:56And how much support do you have to give someone
06:58to keep that intensity going?
07:00Yeah.
07:01The best ones are like that.
07:02Tiger Woods, all these guys.
07:05They push themselves to limits.
07:12They need to feel that to push themselves to limits,
07:15and he's constantly searching for that.
07:17Yeah.
07:18Very professional.
07:20Very ambitious.
07:22Wants to make impact every day.
07:25But I always say what I feel, what is his biggest strength,
07:29or what I feel when I came into this club,
07:31is the passion he has for his team,
07:33his passion he has for his love he has for his backroom staff,
07:37how he treats everyone.
07:39And that makes that family feeling inside this club,
07:43that makes it probably a little bit easier as well.
07:46Obviously, City were below the usual standards last season.
07:50When you looked at taking the job in the summer,
07:53what were the areas of the team or the squad that you looked at
07:57and thought perhaps you could help with improving the most?
08:01I think it's quite normal that when you build, when you win,
08:06when you win, my feeling in football,
08:09and I've been through that process with Liverpool as well,
08:11the hardest thing is to renew a team who was so successful.
08:20If you have so many players who were so important for a club
08:25to win trophy after trophy, win the big one as well,
08:30to renew that team, it always comes with ups and downs,
08:34because your standards are really high, you expect,
08:37but new players have to give the same kind of standards.
08:40It's the hardest thing in football.
08:41I think we are on the way.
08:43I think you will feel glimpses.
08:45I think it's the youngest Champions League team we had,
08:48the players we used.
08:49We used seven players under 22 in the Champions League format,
08:52so that is a good sign for the future.
08:55But these players now have to build together with Rodri,
08:58together with Bernardo, together with Ruben, together with Joe,
09:02with all these guys who have already been through it,
09:04to build something new.
09:06And we are giving everything to make that happen.
09:10Hi, Pep.
09:11Going back to the tactical side of it,
09:13I don't know if you saw Anthony Gordon the other day
09:16in the press conference.
09:17He talked about the difference between the Premier League
09:18and the Champions League.
09:19And he said the Premier League,
09:20sometimes it just comes down to if you win your duels,
09:22you win the game and it's end-to-end like basketball.
09:24In Europe, it's more about control and old-style football.
09:29You were talking there about how Guardiola's ideas don't change
09:31and the difficulty now being combining those two phases.
09:34Is City trying to find somewhere in the middle?
09:38Rather than just match that Premier League style of end-to-end duels,
09:42are they still trying to retain that control
09:45and the old-style football that Pep's always loved?
09:48It's like this.
09:49If the opposition team play high press against you
09:52and you go long and you go long against that,
09:55you try to find a striker,
09:57so you go keep a try,
09:58an old-style try to find a striker,
10:00you win that second ball,
10:02it's a chance for you.
10:03You lose that second ball,
10:05it's a chance for them.
10:06That's how the Premier League looks at the moment.
10:08And that happens on both ends,
10:10so that's a logical consequence.
10:12So it becomes more important to be good in the duels,
10:17but it was always important,
10:18be good in the duels,
10:19be smart in your positioning,
10:20to know when to play this pass, et cetera, et cetera.
10:27Hi Pep.
10:28You've obviously worked for Pep and Jürgen
10:30for quite a length of time now.
10:31Do you get the impression Pep is still as hungry as ever?
10:34You used the word, I think,
10:35at the very start of this press conference,
10:37you said he's sort of as hungry and passionate as ever,
10:39ambitious as ever.
10:40Obviously, there's a lot of speculation about Pep's future,
10:43and I wouldn't expect you to comment directly on that,
10:45but do you get the impression he's still as hungry as ever
10:47to keep going after all these years here?
10:49Guys, he sits here every day.
10:50You ask him, not me.
10:52I cannot answer for him how he feels, how he does.
10:55The Premier League is so intense,
10:57but how I see it, that was already my answer.
11:00That's enough.
11:01Thank you, everyone.
11:02All right.
11:03Thank you, guys.
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