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Guardiola on Haaland form, winning manager of the month and not allowing results to dictate team selection
13/03/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
13/03/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
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00:00For manager of the month, do you remember when you last won it?
00:07It was 2021.
00:112021?
00:12Yeah.
00:12Wow, finally.
00:15Do you think it's a bit strange?
00:16No, it's not the same.
00:17Do you think that means that the other managers that won, they don't deserve it?
00:22Come on.
00:23But you've won three titles since.
00:28It doesn't matter.
00:29Listen, it's the less important thing in the world right now,
00:32if they give me personally a word for the manager of the month.
00:36So it doesn't matter, honestly.
00:37So the other managers they won in these years that for one month didn't give it to me,
00:43the other ones deserve it.
00:44So it's the less important thing, honest.
00:47Hi Pep, Erling has got an incredible record against West Ham.
00:51I think it's 11 goals in seven games or something like that.
00:53Do you feel like he needs a big game to sort of really get going again?
00:57Because 2026 hasn't been great from a goal-scoring point of view for him.
01:01Yeah.
01:02But I'm not a big fan of these kind of things.
01:04The same with Omar against Newcastle, right?
01:06They always have the special connection and score goals.
01:09But I don't believe much about this kind of...
01:16What happened in the past is the past.
01:19So it's a lesson, but I don't have an analogy of why he scored with Ham more than the other
01:23one.
01:23I don't know.
01:25His form generally is...
01:27Do you feel like he sort of needs goals?
01:30Of course he needs goals.
01:31Of course the team needs it and he needs it.
01:32We have to find him more.
01:34Will?
01:36Will?
01:38Will?
01:40Hi Pep.
01:41Recently you've drawn with Tottenham.
01:43You've drawn with Nottingham Forest.
01:44Two teams in the relegation battle probably for one place with West Ham.
01:48Do you need to change the way you approach these games mentally?
01:50How many teams dropped points against Wolves recently?
01:53It's the last in the battle.
01:54Tell me.
01:55How many teams in the top of the league dropped against Wolves?
01:57Arsenal.
01:58It's the Premier League.
01:58Yeah.
01:59And Liverpool.
02:00It's Liverpool.
02:02Every game is different.
02:03I have incredible respect since Arsenal is the top of the league
02:06and the Wolves right now is in the bottom.
02:08I have incredible respect and difficulties.
02:10Even this midweek was not good.
02:12The Premier League is top.
02:13It's so tough.
02:16But always where we are, where we live, we are special, we are good.
02:19The other places are good too.
02:21The culture is so important.
02:22The language is so important.
02:23Other countries are good.
02:24The leagues too.
02:25So I don't have any doubts.
02:26In Italy there are top teams.
02:28In Germany, in Spain, in Lugas and I.
02:32You know in Champions League at home how difficult it is.
02:34So every team is good.
02:36We give it for granted.
02:38If we lose, it's fine.
02:40It's not the first time I leave that.
02:42All the managers leave that.
02:44The teams leave that.
02:45So it's difficult.
02:45Our business is difficult to win and win and win.
02:48So complicated.
02:49So.
02:50Because the opponents are really, really good.
02:52You play against Nottingham Forest.
02:55Yesterday, Nottingham Forest lost at home in Midland.
02:58And the expecting goal was massively, massively, but massively much better than the opponent.
03:01And they lost.
03:03And I think the player would have a lot of chances to draw or win the game in Europa League.
03:08It's happened.
03:09It's happened.
03:10That game is unpredictable.
03:11It's difficult.
03:12Let's be focused and know exactly.
03:14Okay.
03:14Name for the next one and try to win it.
03:18And at the end, if you are in that position, because maybe we deserve better.
03:23And we're still learning for the future.
03:25That's the point.
03:27So.
03:28Hi, Pep.
03:29You obviously don't like the criticism for the line-up stuff.
03:33And I understand that.
03:34It goes back years.
03:34You said about you get massacred.
03:36And it's basically, if you win, it's good.
03:37If you lose, it's bad.
03:38Do you not like the opportunity to be able to explain, you know, if we're all talking rubbish
03:43about the line-up, but you're like, well, no, it's this.
03:46Do you not like the opportunity to sit here and say this is what I wanted to do?
03:50I can't explain you.
03:51Of course, there's the argument.
03:52I said to you after the press conference in Madrid, when you asked me about that, there
03:55had a logical reason for that.
03:58The momentum of the players and many things.
04:02Listen, I played a final Champions League without Fernandinho rather holding midfielder
04:05than Chelsea.
04:06Do you think it's normal that?
04:08No, honestly.
04:10Played Gundo in that moment.
04:11Do you think it's normal?
04:11I was destroyed in that moment.
04:13And they are right.
04:13But in that moment, I know really how he was playing and Fernandinho was playing.
04:16It was not the Rode that we met after.
04:19In the other position, there are a lot of time, many decisions coming for many, many
04:23other reasons, for how you handle the pressure and the other one.
04:26I can explain you that.
04:27But I'm going to convince you for the next time?
04:30Sam, forget about it.
04:31I don't know.
04:32I think it will be useful.
04:33I went to say to my players, to you, no one second.
04:37I said, ah, I will justify.
04:39Now, my argument is justify at that time's election.
04:43It's because I lost.
04:44I lose the game.
04:45We lose the game.
04:47If you win, ah, a genius.
04:50How many times have Pepe been a genius for the team selection?
04:54Not spending.
04:55I waste my time.
04:56I convince you.
04:56I tell you that.
04:58I want to make a threat.
05:00I want people to arrive in the goal.
05:01I want people to make…
05:04I want to arrive for the wingers.
05:05But I see the game against Newcastle.
05:08Savinho was the man of the match.
05:09And we need the games with Bernabeu not just to play, you know, make them feel to the Bernabeu.
05:14We are there.
05:15And we did it in the first 20 minutes.
05:17A lot of times.
05:18Jeremy arriving at that time, passed back four players in the box.
05:21I want that type of game.
05:23If I put another type of players, more control, we don't have that threat.
05:26And I know, no, I want in the first game to try to do it.
05:29What would happen if the chances that didn't arrive scored one goal or two goals?
05:32And we were there.
05:33We're close.
05:34One moment, passed back to Bernabeu.
05:36Bernabeu alone with no keeper in the ball.
05:39Didn't make a contact.
05:40Bernabeu, one of the more gifted players that we have in a six-yard box.
05:44Not in the goal Bernabeu.
05:45He scored in Etihad Stadium.
05:47And the year we won 4-3 for the H18-yard box.
05:50And put the ball to the corner.
05:51What happened in that game?
05:52Happened with 0-1 there.
05:53We don't know.
05:54It doesn't bat.
05:55And after the motion is involved, like I said to Ruben and Bernabeu.
05:59It's happened.
05:59It's football.
06:00But my players are extraordinary.
06:02And they were extraordinary in many things.
06:04You can see whatever you want.
06:06I will convince you now when the selection tomorrow, I want to rotate the team.
06:10We want to be good.
06:11If we win, we'll be perfect, Pep.
06:12What happened in Newcastle?
06:14Did you read the comments before the game in my team selection?
06:16In the social media?
06:17Did you read it?
06:17Yeah, you read it.
06:18What's that doing, Pep, in FA Cup?
06:20How lack of respect of that competition?
06:22How the people can say that?
06:24We arrived how many times in finals, semifinals in FA Cup in the last four or five years?
06:28No team.
06:29No team in England in the last 10, 50, 20 years.
06:31There are more times in the semifinals.
06:32What a lot of respect.
06:34How they don't play Rodri.
06:35How they don't play Bernardo.
06:36How they don't play this player.
06:36How they don't play the other one.
06:37How they leave Erling at home.
06:401-3.
06:41You see the performance of Newcastle against Barcelona, right?
06:44You see, huh?
06:44It's difficult.
06:45Easy place to go.
06:47Easy place.
06:48I didn't pay for that.
06:49But they're there to convince you.
06:50No.
06:50You judge.
06:51And after that, ah, Pep, how brilliant.
06:53I've been in Newcastle.
06:53It's the same Madrid.
06:55Isn't there a reason why?
06:57And the forms and see the players and see that play with that player.
07:00And play that position.
07:01So Bernardo, I know Bernardo played better in the build-up in a low block with Rodri.
07:05That being the final third.
07:07I know that.
07:08A Bernardo in a composer in Bernabeu with Marc is the first game.
07:12Antoine is the first game.
07:14And many things.
07:14I need Bernardo there.
07:15I need to play a thousand million times there.
07:17Because I know how he's in the bad moments, how he behaves.
07:21But I have to explain it before and after.
07:23After ten years, I will not convince you one second, any one of you.
07:27Anyone.
07:28Why?
07:28Because we lost.
07:29And that's all.
07:30And he's right.
07:313-0.
07:32Destroy.
07:32Yeah.
07:33It's normal.
07:35It's not personal.
07:36Believe me.
07:36It's all the managers.
07:38All the managers.
07:39It's the first time I've played in that competition at the Champions League.
07:41It's 70 years playing in that competition.
07:42And every time I lose, boom, my God.
07:45Pew, pew, pew.
07:47A lot.
07:48It's new?
07:49No.
07:49It's OK.
07:50The storm passed one day.
07:51Now it's ham.
07:52Go to the second and prepare the Tuesday.
07:53And when Tuesday will be out, it will be, oh.
07:56I have a lot of fans in the media.
07:58Don't worry.
07:59Support is a lot of fans.
08:01I have a lot.
08:01So it will happen.
08:02It's OK.
08:03It's fine.
08:04I have to do my job and the best, honestly.
08:06Knowing that if we win, it's good.
08:08And a bad, it's bad.
08:09So we lose, it's bad.
08:11OK?
08:12Alex?
08:13Good answer.
08:19You mentioned Savinho there and his display at Newcastle.
08:22Obviously, he excelled in that game.
08:24He started in Madrid.
08:24Just kind of talk to me a bit about his season, because he's been injured twice.
08:29There was talk of a move at the start of the season.
08:31How sort of high a ceiling do you think he's got?
08:33I'm pretty sure Savinho would not play in the way he played in Newcastle.
08:36He would not play in Madrid.
08:37But I saw him that.
08:37I said, oh, guy.
08:38This is a mood.
08:39And I love wingers.
08:41But in Newcastle, it's been marking.
08:42And we dribble the hole.
08:43It's one against one against the keeper.
08:44And Madrid was low block and a lot of helps.
08:48You know, every time Doku has the ball, Jeremy have Alex, Trent Arnold and Valverde,
08:54they go there three against one or three against two.
08:55The other one, they defend really well.
08:57Solidarity, low block space.
08:58It was more difficult for Savinho.
08:59Had to leave a one, a two, a three.
09:02They have to learn what happened when it's one, two, three.
09:04Had to attract them, pass the ball, go to the opposite side,
09:06make another free man in the other positions.
09:09You know?
09:09But it's a process.
09:10Twenty-one years old.
09:11First or second time in Bernabeu.
09:13So, yeah.
09:14Bernardo had more experiences in the previous season.
09:17Riyad Mahrez had more experience in that season.
09:19It's a question of, as I said, most of the players were the first experience there.
09:24And most of them, it was not the first, but only the, you know,
09:29the early one.
09:30So, yeah.
09:30We need that.
09:32And the result is tough.
09:33It is so difficult for the comeback.
09:35Come on.
09:35Everybody knows, against Madrid, it never happened before.
09:38Madrid never made a comeback in no-cut stages in that result.
09:42So, I know how difficult the situation is.
09:44It was a really, really, really bad result.
09:46We know that.
09:47But I still have 94, 95 minutes.
09:50No 110 minutes.
09:51Because here in England, it's always 100 minutes a game.
09:53He has 94, 95.
09:55So, we'll see what happens.
09:56Let's start from tomorrow.
09:57Can I just check on Matej Kovacic and Rico Lewis?
10:00Are either of them likely to be available in the league?
10:03Rico still have a little bit swallow.
10:06Yep.
10:06Yep.
10:07In the, in the, in the, in the, in the uncle.
10:10And Matteo, Matteo's training is much better every day.
10:13That's too important, Jack.
10:14Pep, you always talk about the, the importance of the body language of your players
10:18and how much you can read that when you look at them in the eye.
10:21What have they been like over the last 24 hours?
10:23How have they kind of, do you sense they've moved on from that match?
10:27Of course, disappointed.
10:28You know, I prefer disappointed or like the people laugh or being calm.
10:32So, of course you were, of course you can, you know, there's always,
10:37it's difficult for the second leg, but yeah, let's move on.
10:42So, yesterday we traveled together.
10:44Today we will be, we talk and prepare with Ham, with Ham, with Ham.
10:48And, and next Madrid and after Arsenal, the final.
10:52And yeah, it's our life.
10:54So, you have to accept that, that you can lose 3-0.
10:57You know, so, it happened.
11:00So, but I see the things that, what we thought, I like it.
11:05And do you have to do anything different yourself?
11:08Do you have to like go and speak to the players?
11:10Anything, you know, that you wouldn't do ordinary after, after a defeat like that?
11:17Yeah, but I talk a lot, right, to them.
11:20Maybe they should talk.
11:23Yeah, we talk about with Ham.
11:25So, that, that energy, there's a little bit disappointment of standards that we have.
11:31Good energy for the, for the washam.
11:34That is, we have been here a lot of months, you know, to, to be up there.
11:38Last season in November, December was over.
11:40You know, November was over, November, December was over, the fight for the Premier League.
11:44Still, we are there.
11:45Still, you know, it's not in our hands, but we are close if we win in our game.
11:50So, until this chance, we will be there.
11:56Just going back to what you, what you were saying earlier about social media and sort of reaction on Saturday.
12:01Why is it that you choose to read social media around sort of like team selection?
12:06No, it's hard to inform me.
12:09How to make a briefing.
12:11This guy, this guy, this guy.
12:14None of us, though.
12:16Listen, I want to be honest with you.
12:18I didn't read the social media, but I'm pretty sure before the selection was that this is my feeling.
12:25But as well, I didn't read it.
12:27Because I don't have it.
12:28I don't have Instagram.
12:29I don't have TikToks and this kind of stuff.
12:33So, but I'm pretty sure.
12:35I'm pretty sure.
12:37Everybody wants Ireland playing and, you know, the people like having mental.
12:41That is impossible in many years.
12:43There are moments.
12:44There are moments.
12:46There are many things that take that decision.
12:48The people and the players don't believe it.
12:50It is not personal.
12:51It's hard to take a decision.
12:52It hurts all the time.
12:53The players don't play.
12:54But take for that.
12:56So, I need to play in the last stages with many, many games, many games.
13:01And when they are fit, I like to have everybody involved.
13:04Always have been like that.
13:05Always.
13:06And you were talking about the first 20 minutes being really good on Wednesday night.
13:10And obviously, there was loads of crosses that flashed across the box, as you said.
13:14Players are not getting on the end of that.
13:16They have to move better.
13:17So, it's not luck.
13:18They have to...
13:19No.
13:19They have to move better.
13:20What can you do to sort of change that?
13:24The players in the box, they have to make a movement before the pass to a smell where the ball
13:29will go.
13:31If you make a movement, if you beat you, man, before the ball will go, and the ball will go
13:35there, you score a goal.
13:37Now, you cannot say, the ball will go there after a goal.
13:39No?
13:39Because the defender is with you.
13:42Where?
13:43Here, here, here.
13:47It's a question of them.
13:51So, but we arrived there.
13:53So, and that is, in the second half too.
13:55You know?
13:56And that is, insist.
13:58Guys, insist.
13:58Make a movement.
14:01Why Savino scored the first goal in Nottingham?
14:05Newcastle?
14:06Toys of all, Mateos is a fullback.
14:08Mateos is a fullback.
14:09It's in front of the goal.
14:12Hall has to be marked, and it's alone.
14:15They have different movements, and they are there.
14:18That's why I score a goal.
14:19If Mateos is not there, Hall is a clearance.
14:22And Savino didn't score.
14:24You have to do that and make.
14:25And that's why we put Antoine.
14:27It's really, really good.
14:28You can see the goal in Leeds.
14:30The cross from there, Antoine there.
14:32That's why, oh, Antoine, I love to put it there because I want to make a, try to make a
14:36threat in Verano.
14:38And you know Nico O'Reilly?
14:39The goal against, which goal?
14:40The goal was across and make a, with a head in the post.
14:44Yeah?
14:45He loves to rise to the, to the box.
14:47Yes?
14:48And Erling is the number one in the world in that position, so.
14:52And you have two wingers that make a good movement.
14:56And Bernardo has read how he dropped to play, and Bernardo rise to the box and arrived.
15:00Arrived at three or four times.
15:01But now we need that moment that, hmm.
15:04And Madrid defend really well.
15:06Because Madrid is a master to defend the previous season.
15:09How many times we arrived with Kevin and Gundos and the other one.
15:12And they defend, they defend, they defend.
15:13They are really good.
15:14So.
15:15It's a top team.
15:16So.
15:17It's a top team.
15:18But this question improves and improves and improves.
15:20And maybe next, next time will be better.
15:23Okay.
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