00:00Hello, Pat. You're a couple of days on from that win at Anfield.
00:06How much of a boost have you felt from that amongst the group around the team?
00:11Yesterday I didn't see the players and today I didn't see the players. Not yet.
00:17We'll see. Still, the distance is not huge, but considering how Arsenal is doing,
00:25so six points is a lot. Next game against a team every year is better and better.
00:36The gap is smaller than it could have been, like you suggested. If you were to win against Fulham,
00:40it would be just three points for at least 24 hours compared to it being nine points at the weekend.
00:46Psychologically, how much of a difference does it make at this stage?
00:49I understand your question. Every time in the last month, last week, every time when I go before
00:57the game in a flash interview, always you lose. You are losing everything and you are going to
01:02disappear for the planet Earth and this kind of stuff. So what I'm saying is that
01:09what you have to do to beat Fulham, what you have to do better to do, be closer to make the first half
01:15than Anfield and the second. What is the reason why? The second half, still we are dropping our
01:20performance. Why? It's not three, four, five, six, because if we don't improve that, we are not winning.
01:26No Fulham, we are going to drop maybe no Fulham, but maybe it will be in Newcastle or maybe in the next.
01:32And I understand how nice that, nine points, three points, this kind of stuff. That is okay,
01:37but that is not winning titles or arriving in the last stages to try to win,
01:42you know, to be close to fight for win the titles. What do you have to do to beat Fulham then?
01:50Fulham is every season is better, the movements they do. So when I see the game,
01:54for example, United this morning that they lost at the end with the Cisco goal and
01:59they are so really good. So the patterns and the quality they have and the composer with the play,
02:06the speed they have and the orientation, defensive, offensive, that's really good. Marco is one of
02:12the top, top, top managers I face. Even the results have been good, that is because Man City have more
02:19opportunities in terms of top players, but he's a top, top manager, destiny to be one of the tops in
02:26a few years for sure. Hi Pep, how's Kuzinov for tomorrow? Yeah, good. He's able to play, yeah?
02:34Yeah. Maybe he had a difficult start here, but he's still only 21 and there was a language barrier as
02:41well. Has it taken you by surprise? Kuzinov? Yeah. Has it taken you by surprise how well he has
02:49coped with the Premier League? Well, I admit he doesn't speak like William Shakespeare, but
02:53but he's getting better and getting better. So he understands, he understands what we want,
03:02what he says, and every time it's better and better. He's so intelligent. Normally you have the
03:09opinion that he's so physical, so strong and he's so fast, he's not able to think. And it's
03:16completely the opposite in Kuzinov. He's always taking good decisions. How are you getting on with your
03:21Uzbek? My Uzbek? Not even one word, but... And you spoke about his speed and his ability to recover
03:33in challenges. Are there any players that you've watched or worked with that he reminds you of?
03:38His speed is difficult. It's so, so fast. To recover that position is one of the attributes.
03:45But not just that. Don't confuse about Kuzinov. He's so intelligent. Normally when the player had this
03:51physicality, always had this physicality because he has not to use what is going on and solve it for
03:58his physical condition. And have both. That's why, and the ball is getting better, so that's why
04:06always encouraged me to improve. And I think he can improve at that age and always is open-minded.
04:10I said, yeah, recently. Man City have a player, a centre defender for many, many years.
04:18Hi Pep. So Oscar Bob could be in the Fulham side tomorrow. How could a player of Fulham
04:24sign there and why do you think it didn't work out for him here?
04:30Oscar will have any doubts about his potential. Depends on him, what he want to become.
04:35And when he became a top-class player, he will be a top-class player. Of all that, it's all.
04:41OK. And can I just check on the injured players?
04:43Is there any likely to get here? I didn't train with them.
04:45Stones, Docu or Savino?
04:46I trained this afternoon, but John is back. His feet, I would say. And yeah, everybody's OK.
04:55Hi Pep. I know obviously for you it's about the next game, but I just wondered,
04:59when you think back to previous title races, how much were you affected by the pressure that a team
05:06was putting on you? Because I think to those particular close ones with Liverpool, where it
05:10was neck and neck for so many weeks and weeks, and we asked you endlessly about the gap being
05:15three, six, three, six. How much did it make a difference to you?
05:19When 65 or 70% of new players, we don't have that that we had in the past right now.
05:30Before, after second season or third season, we have done it. OK, we are able to do OK.
05:35We prove it. But now we have to prove it. Now I don't know. I don't know if we are able to win
05:39three, four, five, six games in a row. I don't know. I don't know.
05:43Do you get the sense, though, that the group is still growing? I know we've spoken a lot about
05:49that room for growth this season.
05:56Considering because we were in Anfield?
05:59Not just that. The fact that over the last few weeks, you have actually closed the gap
06:03to Arsenal in terms of the best teams in the league.
06:04We draw in the sports and I know the comments after that are having the sports.
06:08It's not two months ago. It was days ago.
06:11They have done really good things. I've had the feeling for many, many months,
06:16but not consistent enough to say, OK, we control many aspects to win the games, more or less.
06:23Football at the end, we equalized the game with a deflection cross
06:28from Ryan Cherky, towards the ball with McAllister and go to the head-dwelling and after the
06:34intelligent movement for the deflection. And we saved an incredible save from Jijo for the deflection.
06:41That is football. And that intervened. But when we are a champion team, even in that deflection,
06:49you control the other aspects that don't make the deflection the key point to win the games.
06:55And still we are in this phase. I think I was so clear, right?
06:59Yeah. And the other thing that has to go for you, obviously, is you have to have key players stepping
07:05up in those moments. And you mentioned two there. I mean, Harland obviously converting the penalty
07:09under huge pressure. And Gigi making that incredible save, which we saw you like to emulate on the sidelines.
07:15Yeah, like James Rufford have done in Newcastle with 1-0 up, I think so, 0-1.
07:23Make an incredible save in Newcastle to be in the final for the Carabao Cup. That means team.
07:27Everyone make his own contribution and helps. And of course, what happened, I know exactly the reason
07:35why we drop in the second half. I know it. I know exactly. And we are working on it. Hopefully,
07:40we can be better. Because if we don't do it, Fulham was 2-0 down in Old Trafford. It was 2-2 in 92.
07:47And have the chances to make the third. So it happened in Fulham, right? So when 5-1, 5-4,
07:56because never stop playing. Never stop doing it. Never stop. Never stop. If we behave in the second half,
08:00like it happened, it will be so difficult. That is what I'm concerned. Of course, we want
08:05the three points. And after that, we have Saturday, long weeks in Newcastle, long week against Leeds,
08:10that we need desperately, you know, after this incredible run of games from three, four months
08:14with a few players and the other one. But it will happen if we do what you have to do. So I want to
08:20deserve, you know, I want to deserve the three points. I want to deserve the way we had to play to,
08:25you know, to stay there. And that is my feeling. Hi Pep. You've watched a lot of football. Where
08:34does that save rank from Gigi on Sunday? We saw your reaction on the touchline. Just how special a
08:40moment was that? Because it kind of got overshadowed by what happened after that with the disallowed goal.
08:45Well, in life, I saw there was a deflection. I said goal. My first piece of goal. And after
08:50that, sometimes when you are lucky, the mom and dad make you so big and so huge, you can make that
08:59safe. I think you can make that safe because it's so big. And otherwise, oh, you have an incredible
09:04pace, you know, and the energy in your jumping. Yeah, really good. It was obviously a crazy ending
09:12on Sunday, but it was a mad game at Craven Cottage when you played Fulham earlier this season. What lessons
09:17can you learn from that game going into tomorrow night? The same happened on Wolves in the first
09:24Premier League game in the season. Like we were 0-3, I think so. 0-2, 0-3. And the second half was not
09:30good. So the same. We stopped to do what you have to do. And that's why it was a little reflection.
09:38That was a little 5-1. I said, ah, come on, 5-1. You know, 5-4. And I think
09:44in seven years of career where there were the toughest moments I lived in the Galt, definitely.
09:50Because 5-1, OK, they're good, but you take more or less for granted. No, we're going to win the game.
09:56And at the end, we were close to equalize and lose the game.
09:59So I think we'll have 10.30pm this evening to start with Jamie.
10:03I'm getting there.
10:07I'm getting there.
10:07I'm going to have 10 times tomorrow.
10:11So I'm getting there.
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