00:00We'll start with PLP.
00:04Good afternoon, Pep. Thank you for this.
00:06Can I start with how your players are doing specifically?
00:10If I could start with Erling, who I know had a bump on his knee
00:13for the last game, is he available for this one?
00:16He feels much better, but yesterday we didn't train
00:20and now we're training. We'll decide today.
00:24And Niko, who took a knock?
00:26The same. We'll decide after the training.
00:29As far as Vitor Pereira is concerned,
00:32the manager of the opposition for the next game,
00:35I'm told you go back a reasonable amount of time
00:39from when maybe he was manager of Porto
00:41and he played you, I think, in a Super Cup final.
00:44And when you were at Bayern Munich, I think he spent some time with you
00:47and gave you some advice after a defeat over two legs
00:51in the Champions League against Real Madrid.
00:53So 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.
01:05No.
01:06But it was a Super Cup in Monaco that I remember perfectly.
01:09You won 2-0.
01:10Sorry?
01:11You won 2-0, I think.
01:12Yeah.
01:12First goal, I didn't think so, yeah.
01:14From Messi, the first.
01:14And second, I lost my memory.
01:17In advice, I'm pretty sure he gave me the good ones,
01:19I gave the shit ones.
01:21And respectfully, I remember Feline Wolves last season
01:24when we were playing for the Qualifier Champions League,
01:26the first game, the first half,
01:29that I would say they were outplayed to us
01:32and they were much, much incredible.
01:34We were incredible lucky.
01:36Yeah, top-class manager.
01:38So I saw the games against right on Liverpool
01:40and they were alive.
01:42They were good to go to...
01:44Always I had the feeling.
01:46So, you know, when we played there with Sean Dyke,
01:48the quality of the players, all of them,
01:49Igor and Gibbs-White and Hudson-Odoi, Hutchinson,
01:54of course, Anderson and Murillo.
01:55And they have a bigger squad, depth squad,
01:59and top-class players.
02:01Sometimes, you know, the dynamics make the team,
02:04sometimes, during the season, better or worse.
02:06It's a question of dynamic.
02:07The result is the best medicine for the confident.
02:10The result is what the players are better than you expect.
02:15And, of course, they play for important things.
02:19Like us.
02:20And Rao will start an important part of the season.
02:22When you arrive at the last ten games of the season,
02:24now it's really starting to be decisive every point.
02:28We have two Premier League games.
02:30We have six games in this month,
02:32two in the Premier League,
02:33before the international break.
02:34And it's really important,
02:37the condition that we are five points behind Arsenal,
02:39so we cannot drop points.
02:42Hi, Pep.
02:44Anis Lott said yesterday,
02:46Premier League games are no longer a joy to watch.
02:49because of the reliance on set-pieces.
02:52Is that something you see as well?
02:59To set-pieces, they start to be an important part of the strategies.
03:03Before, when I started as a manager,
03:04in the beginning, it was different.
03:06We cannot say that in England, for example, set-pieces.
03:08I remember when I was a young, young boy, a young kid,
03:11every time we thought in Spain, when the people say,
03:14Oh, in England, when it's a corner, the people celebrate it.
03:17You know?
03:17Like a goal, celebrate the corner and a free kick.
03:20I remember perfectly when I was a young boy,
03:22so nothing changed.
03:24But it's true that Arsenal dictate a little bit how they do it,
03:30and it's an important role.
03:33And before, before, years ago in the NBA,
03:36the three-shot point was not involved as much,
03:39like Golden State Warriors with Stephen Curry
03:41started to make three points and everyone adapt,
03:44and now Celtics do it as well.
03:46So many teams.
03:47So it's part of the ball, part of the dynamics,
03:52and you can say complain or you have to adapt.
03:55And it's part, part of the game.
03:58So I know when the game is stopped,
04:03it's not dynamic and whatever,
04:06but it's part.
04:06You have to adapt and especially adapt
04:09with the way it's been given
04:12and the way it's been whistled
04:14and the game is conducted in the Premier League.
04:16So we have to adapt.
04:19And the football is natural.
04:21Every country has his specific ways to do it
04:24and every club has his specific ways to play,
04:27the managers and the teams.
04:29That's why it's open.
04:32But on the other side, I understand completely
04:35the reason why I don't say that.
04:39In some aspects, I agree.
04:41There's been a lot of talk about excessive pushing
04:44and pulling at corners as well.
04:46Can anything turn about that?
04:48In that, I have my own opinion.
04:49It remains to me.
04:51You don't want to share with us?
04:52I don't want to share.
04:53I shared with my players a lot for a long time ago.
04:57But about what happened inside of the box
04:59and outside of the box remains absolutely to me.
05:03And I don't want to share it with you.
05:08Just going back to set pieces, you said how in England,
05:12when you were growing up, we used to cheer them
05:14and we loved them.
05:15But your influence on football perhaps is such that
05:19maybe we don't like them as much anymore.
05:20I mean, that's where our slot was kind of going, right?
05:23So do you enjoy that style of football?
05:26Yeah.
05:26Yeah.
05:28It's what it is.
05:30Listen, it's my business.
05:31I'm a manager, no?
05:32When you set pieces, I go to the referee, please.
05:34I don't like set pieces.
05:36So it's what it is.
05:38Adapt and do it.
05:39And football is, I said before,
05:41there are a thousand million things.
05:43And football has not been played in one way since the football
05:47has been created.
05:50So the football play in England is different,
05:53in Spain is different, in 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.
06:03So it's nice.
06:04That's why it's so attractive.
06:05How boring will it be in all the managers
06:07and all the leagues playing in the same way?
06:09How boring will it be?
06:11So if I like or don't like, it's my business.
06:14If I don't like, I don't watch as a spectator.
06:17But it's where it is.
06:18I have to adapt.
06:19It's a question of as quick as you adapt.
06:23Just going back to Nottingham Forest,
06:25you mentioned Elliot Anderson.
06:26He's one player, an English player,
06:28that we've been very impressed with watching him play.
06:30A few of us, Gibbs-White as well.
06:31Are you surprised at where Forest are, though,
06:34in the table, given the quality of player they've got?
06:36The Premier League is so tough.
06:38It's so difficult.
06:40Look at the results,
06:41the teams in the relegation battle against top teams,
06:44how are the results right now?
06:46Normally, the teams are in the low for different circumstances
06:51and low position.
06:52The teams are not expected to fight for the Premier League.
06:55In the beginning of the season,
06:57the beginning of the Premier League,
06:58always there are surprises.
06:59When we arrive at the end of the season,
07:00normally it's, you know,
07:03the teams that play for the Champions League qualification
07:05at the top don't draw much points.
07:06Look how many.
07:07Look how many has happened.
07:09So it's really, really tough.
07:12And as I said, since 10 years ago when I arrived here,
07:15I don't judge the teams depending on the position of the table.
07:19Never, ever.
07:20So I know the quality they have and this is what remains important for me.
07:27Pep, just listening to how you answered the previous questions on set pieces,
07:30I think there's a differentiation maybe between how important teams view corners
07:34and what goes on during a set piece, the pushing and pulling.
07:38Are you surprised that IFAB at their most recent conference didn't discuss that,
07:43about any ways to help referees or help players mitigate what does go on,
07:49what we watch?
07:52Arn, Arn, you create a conference.
07:56I have an opinion, a specific opinion about that.
07:59It remains to me.
08:04OK, so you don't want any help from IFAB there or referees to get more help on that?
08:13Listen, as to the referees.
08:15So I cannot answer that question.
08:17I know my opinion perfectly with that.
08:19So, and I don't want to create a now, it's coming on.
08:24So now my priority, because normally when you look at that subject,
08:26you lose the focus.
08:28And the focus, you know, the focus is nothing on for us for Victor Pereira.
08:31That is my focus.
08:32And I start to talk about that subject, we'll be in trouble tomorrow.
08:37And I know when you have ten games left,
08:38but I completely, completely have a detailed and precise opinion about that.
08:43But you have to ask to the referees, not to me.
08:47I think that's very clear.
08:48So I appreciate that.
08:49Wow.
08:50More than that.
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,
09:01but also you want to win every match.
09:04You need to assess every game as it comes.
09:05How do you juggle that at this time of year when it does become so hard on players' bodies?
09:12Listen, the privilege to be in March that always I believe in here wintertime finishes,
09:19especially wintertime in February.
09:21February is over.
09:23So March is starting to be at 5pm, 6pm.
09:27It's not dark.
09:27It's still a little bit light.
09:29You know?
09:29And we are in the competitions.
09:32So…
09:32A dream.
09:34Again.
09:35Except last season, like we fought in the Champions League and the NFL Cup Final.
09:39And the Champions League were out.
09:40And the NFL Cup were out.
09:42So we are there.
09:43So I have a privilege to start to, OK, knowing that 10 games left,
09:48finally next Saturday against Newcastle,
09:51two games against Madrid.
09:53You 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.
10:01Only I'm concerned about that.
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