00:00We'll start with PLP.
00:03Good afternoon, Pep. Thank you for this.
00:06Can I start with how your players are doing?
00:08Specifically, if I could start with Erling,
00:11who I know had a bump on his knee for the last game.
00:14Is he available for this one?
00:15He feels much better, but yesterday we didn't train,
00:19and now we're training.
00:22We will decide today.
00:23And Niko, who took a knock?
00:25The same. We'll decide after the training.
00:29As far as Vitor Pereira is concerned,
00:31the manager of the opposition for the next game,
00:35I'm told you go back a reasonable amount of time
00:38from when maybe he was manager of Porto
00:40and he played you, I think, in a Super Cup final.
00:43And when you were at Bayern Munich,
00:44I think he spent some time with you
00:46and gave you some advice after a defeat over two legs
00:50in the Champions League against Real Madrid.
00:52So I'm just wondering if you remember what that advice was at the time
00:56and what your relationship is like with Vitor.
01:00I remember from Leoporto.
01:02It was an extra time Messi, I think, scored.
01:04No.
01:05But it was a Super Cup in Monaco that I remember perfectly.
01:09You won 2-0.
01:10Sorry?
01:10You won 2-0, I think.
01:11Yeah.
01:11First goal, I didn't think so.
01:13Yeah.
01:13From Messi, the first and second.
01:15I lost my memory in advice.
01:17I'm pretty sure he gave me the good ones.
01:19I gave the shit ones.
01:21And respectfully, I remember Feline Wolves last season
01:23when we were playing for the Qualifier Champions League.
01:25The first game, the first half that I would say they were outplayed to us
01:31and they were much, much incredible.
01:33We were incredibly lucky.
01:36Yeah.
01:36Top-class manager.
01:37So I saw the games against right on Liverpool and they were alive.
01:42They were good.
01:44Always I had the feeling.
01:45So, you know, when we play there with Sean Dyke, the quality of the players,
01:48all of them, Igor and Gibbs-White and Hudson-Odoi, Hutchinson,
01:53of course, Anderson and Murillo.
01:54And they have a bigger squad, depth squad and top-class players.
02:00Sometimes, you know, the dynamics make the team sometimes during the season
02:04better or worse with question of dynamic.
02:06The result is the best medicine for the confident.
02:10The result is what the players are better than you expect.
02:14And, of course, they play for important things like us.
02:19And Rao started an important part of the season.
02:22When you arrive at the last ten games of the season, now it's really...
02:25It starts to be decisive every point.
02:27We have two Premier League games.
02:29We have six games in this month, two in the Premier League,
02:32before the international break.
02:34And it's really important, the condition that we are five points behind Arsenal,
02:39so we cannot drop points.
02:42Hi, Pep.
02:44Anis Lott said yesterday that Premier League games are no longer a joy to watch
02:48because of the reliance on set-pieces.
02:51Is that something you see as well?
02:58To set-pieces, they start to be an important part of the strategies.
03:02Before, when I started as a manager, in the beginning it was different.
03:05We cannot say that in England, for example, set-pieces.
03:07I remember when I was a young, young boy, a young kid,
03:11every time we thought in Spain when the people say,
03:13Oh, in England when it's a corner the people celebrate it.
03:16You know?
03:17Like a goal, celebrate a corner, a free-kick.
03:19I remember perfectly when I was a young boy, so nothing changed.
03:23But it's true that Arsenal dictate a little bit how they do it,
03:29and it's an important role.
03:33And before, before, years ago in the NBA the three-shot points
03:36was not involved as much like Golden State Warriors with Stephen Curry
03:40started to make three points and everyone adapt,
03:44and now Celtics do it as well, so many teams.
03:47So it's part of the ball, part of the dynamics,
03:51and you can say complain or you have to adapt.
03:55And it's part, part of the game.
03:57So I know when the set-pieces the game is a stop,
04:03it's not dynamic, and whatever, this part you have to adapt,
04:07and especially adapt with the way it's been given
04:12and the way it's been whistled
04:14and the vein is conducted in the Premier League.
04:16So we have to adapt.
04:18And the football is nice,
04:20but every country has his specific ways to do it
04:23and every club has his specific ways to play.
04:27The managers and the teams,
04:28and that's why it's open.
04:32But on the other side, I understand completely the reason why
04:36I don't say that.
04:38In some aspects, I agree.
04:41There's been a lot of talk about excessive pushing
04:43and pulling at corners as well.
04:46Can anything turn about that?
04:47In that I have my own opinion remains to me.
04:51You don't want to share with this?
04:52I share with my players a lot for a long time ago.
04:56But what happened inside of the box and outside of the box
05:00remains absolutely to me.
05:03And I don't want to share it with you.
05:08Just going back to set pieces.
05:10You said how in England, when you were growing up,
05:13we used to cheer them and we loved them.
05:15But your influence on football perhaps is such that
05:18maybe we don't like them as much anymore.
05:20I mean, that's where our slot was kind of going, right?
05:22So do you enjoy that style of football?
05:25Yeah.
05:26Yeah.
05:27It's what it is.
05:29Listen, it's my business.
05:30I'm a manager, no?
05:31When you set pieces, I go to the referee, please.
05:33I don't like set pieces a lot.
05:36So it's what it is.
05:37Adapt and do it.
05:39And football is, I said before,
05:40there are a thousand million things.
05:42And football has not been played in one way since
05:46the football has been created.
05:50So the football playing in England is different, in Spain
05:53and Italy is different.
05:55That's nice.
05:56That's why the Champions League is nice in different ways
05:58even in that country.
06:00Every manager plays in a different way.
06:02So it's nice.
06:03That's why it's so attractive.
06:05How boring it will be in all the managers and all the
06:07leagues playing in the same way.
06:08How boring it will be.
06:10So if I like or don't like, it's my business.
06:13If I don't like, I don't watch as a sportator.
06:16But it's where it is.
06:17I have to adapt.
06:19It's a question of as quick as you adapt.
06:22Just going back to Nottingham Forest,
06:25you mentioned Elliot Anderson.
06:26He's one English player that we've been very impressed
06:28with watching him play.
06:29A few of us, Gibbs-White as well.
06:31Are you surprised at where Forest are though in the table
06:34given the quality of play?
06:36The Premier League is so tough.
06:37It's so difficult.
06:39Look at the results, the teams in the relegation battle
06:42against top teams, how are the results right now.
06:45Normally, the teams are in the low for different circumstances
06:50and low position.
06:52The teams are not expected to fight for the Premier League.
06:54In the beginning of the season, the beginning of the Premier League,
06:57always there are surprises.
06:58When we arrive at the end of the season,
07:00normally it's, you know, the teams that play for the Champions,
07:04the qualification at the top don't draw much points.
07:06Look how many.
07:07Look how many has happened.
07:08So, it's really, really tough.
07:10So, and as I said, since 10 years ago when I arrived here,
07:14I don't judge the teams depending on the position of the table.
07:19Never, ever.
07:19So, I know the quality they have
07:21and this is what remains important for me.
07:26Pep, just listening to how you answered the previous questions
07:29on set pieces, I think there's a differentiation
07:31maybe between how important teams view corners
07:34and what goes on during a set piece, the pushing and pulling.
07:37Are you surprised that IFAB at their most recent conference
07:41didn't discuss that, about any ways to help referees
07:44or help players mitigate what does go on, what we watch?
07:51Arn, you create at this press conference.
07:55I have an opinion, a specific opinion about that.
07:58It remains to me.
08:03Okay, so you don't want any help from IFAB there?
08:07Or referees to get more help on that?
08:13Listen, ask to the referees.
08:14So, I cannot answer that question.
08:16I know my opinion perfectly with that.
08:19So, and I don't want to create now, it's coming on.
08:23So, now my priority, because normally when you
08:25get that subject, you lose the focus.
08:28And the focus, you know, this focus is Nottingham Forest for Victor Pereira.
08:31That is my focus.
08:32And I start to talk about that subject, we'll be in trouble tomorrow.
08:36And I know when you have 10 games left, but I'm completely,
08:39completely have a detailed and precise opinion about that.
08:43But you have to ask the referees, not to me.
08:46I think that's very clear.
08:48So, I appreciate that.
08:49Wow.
08:52On Nottingham Forest and the busy run of games that you have,
08:56how challenging is that?
08:58Because I'm sure there's temptation to want to rotate,
09:00but also you want to win every match.
09:03You need to assess every game as it comes.
09:05How do you juggle that at this time of year,
09:07when it does become so hard on players' bodies?
09:11Listen, the privilege to be in March,
09:15that always I believe in here wintertime finishes,
09:19especially wintertime in February.
09:20February is over.
09:22So, March starts to be at 5pm, 6pm.
09:26It's not dark.
09:27It's still a little bit light, you know?
09:29And we are in the competitions.
09:30So, a dream.
09:33Again.
09:34Except last season, like we fought in the Champions League
09:37and the Champions League were out.
09:39And the Carabao Cup were out.
09:41So, we are there.
09:43So, happy to just start to, okay.
09:45Knowing that ten games left,
09:47finally next Saturday against Newcastle,
09:51two games against Madrid.
09:52You win, you will continue.
09:54You will win holidays in that competition.
09:58So, it's good to be here and prepare the game for tomorrow.
10:00It's only I'm concerned about that.
10:07We'll send the ball there for 10.30pm this evening.
10:09We'll start with Martin.
10:13Hi Pep.
10:14Saturday was the first Premier League or Champions League game
10:17that you didn't have Erling playing this season.
10:20How different is it without him?
10:22How do you think you managed without him on Saturday?
10:24Yeah, we won 0-1.
10:25He's not going to play any more games until the end of the season.
10:30I don't like Erling.
10:35I mean, you co-opted, didn't you?
10:36You managed to.
10:37During the season happened the injuries, you know.
10:38I think so, I feel like you got an opportunity to be on the exam.
10:38I'm going to play some games later.
10:38I mean, we didn't win when we μμains.
10:38you know, you still didn't play some games.
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