- 20 hours ago
Guardiola on Manchester City's changing styler throughout the season ahead of Cup final
21/03/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
21/03/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
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00:00Mikel was on your backroom team, do you remember much about him, how he was on these sort of big
00:05occasions?
00:06No, it was a long time ago. Yeah, it was nice. It was the first, you know, the first moment
00:13we were together when we arrived and win the first titles and it was really, really cool.
00:19That 2018 one was against Arsenal, of course, Jov. Was that sort of the most special in some ways, you
00:25know, your first one?
00:26Yeah, it was maybe for Mikel not because it was Arsenal, but for me definitely it was for him as
00:32well.
00:32So we worked a lot hard, a lot to understand the Premier League, new players and many things.
00:39We spent, you know, spending is our job, a lot of time and energy, you know, to read in good
00:44moments, bad moments.
00:46And of course, you know, to start to break that routine and start winning the first title in the just
00:53short time.
00:54The second season was really good and after came, it came to many, many good things.
01:01Pep, you've built several teams during the last 10 years here.
01:06With this current squad, how much time do you think you need for it to be peak, to be at
01:14it?
01:15I had a feeling in many things, yeah, it's just underneath, just, it will flourish.
01:21I had a feeling that it's close.
01:22In the other things, we need a little bit more time to the people realise or the players realise what
01:27we need to be.
01:29Strong teams in many, many, many departments.
01:31But in most of the things, yeah, close.
01:35So not, not far, not, not, it wouldn't take a long?
01:38No, in many things, we are close.
01:40And just how, what your mood has been, like, in the last few days, in the aftermath of losing, getting
01:48knocked out of the Champions League,
01:49your kind of feelings towards this, the squad, do you?
01:54No, I had the, I had the same feeling, so it's difficult, you know, 75 minutes or, yeah, 75 minutes,
01:5910 against 11 with 4-0 down,
02:01it's, could be worse, so the people behave unbelievably, so, because they have chances normally,
02:09but we had a lot too, 10 against 11 against Madrid, so we were there, it was always tough there.
02:14But in both games, we have, we were able to do in 10 games, no, 10 minutes, 11 minutes here.
02:22In Bernabeu, 19 minutes, you have 2 or 3, but here, in 10, 11 minutes, we have 4 chances,
02:281 against 1 against Courtois, of course, I'm making incredible 4 safes.
02:31It's all, to stop from, from the center defenders, so, we are able to do that.
02:36I never had doubts about that, so, in the important games, in Etihad State, we are able to,
02:42in a blitz, so in a moment, we are able to create that.
02:46That is where I had the feeling, that many things we are close to be, and the other things to
02:51be aware,
02:51to, maybe you have for the, for the type of players that we have,
02:58to really, really, what we need, to be consistent during 11 months, in important games,
03:03it's much for the quality of the play that we have, we still, a little bit, the gap is a
03:08little bit,
03:08not, not close, but in many aspects, we are extraordinary team, otherwise, we will not be top 8 in the
03:15Champions League,
03:15we will not be second in the Premier League, final Carabao Cup, and quarterfinals, the FA Cup,
03:21so, we are not that, after 9 months, we will not be here, next season, I knew it,
03:27but in the past, when we won a lot of times, always, I know what we need, exactly, to do
03:31it,
03:31and, for many things, we need a little bit more time.
03:36Pat, when you say you're close, what is the gap that is missing?
03:39I know, I know it, I will not tell you, I know, the players know it.
03:43And, would a trophy accelerate, sort of, your journey to, no?
03:50In terms of the season that you've had, and you talk about top 8 Champions League,
03:54and still in three competitions, did well in the Champions League until Real,
03:59do you need silverware to call this a successful season, or, for you, is it already a success?
04:05I said last season, we arrived at the final FA Cup against Crystal Palace,
04:09we played really good, there were many things, and then, behind the scenes, we could not control,
04:15the season was not good, we had not been good, even winning the Crystal Palace.
04:18The season maybe was not, I don't know what's going to happen, but the season was more than decent,
04:24of course, if you define the season for the titles, yeah, obviously, we need it.
04:29But, last season, we were in the Community Shield, we were in the final FA Cup,
04:35the season, I would say two or three months was not good, but many things happened
04:40that was not a team we should be.
04:43This season, yeah, this season we have been, most of the time,
04:47a team like, of course, not being perfect, because sometimes happened, good.
04:54Hi, Pep. The performances across the season, they seem to have changed at different times.
04:59If you think back to, like, the start of the season, November, when you beat Liverpool and Bournemouth
05:03and Dortmund, with less possession, quite a lot of counter-attacks.
05:06Since Christmas, maybe more control. The last couple of weeks, the second halves have been
05:11even more under control. It kind of seems like things are progressing, maybe,
05:15if that's the way you want it to go. So, in that sense, by the end of the season, maybe
05:21next season,
05:23how do you want the games to look? What do you think the matches will look like,
05:27if they've gone from less possession, quite chaotic, to more control?
05:31Well, I think that when they had less possession in the games, with the second half, we dropped a lot.
05:35The second half, most of the passes were not good. The difference lately was much, much, much better.
05:41Of course, we have to be close, but I think we need that team for the type of players that
05:46we have
05:46to have more control and what we have to do as a team, like we have done for many, many,
05:54many years.
05:56But today, the way the team has been played, it's difficult to find all the time the same type of
06:02of game in the same moments. But I would like to have the feeling that the last three games,
06:12like it's more during 90 minutes, we have more . So, at the end, in many aspects,
06:19in Champions League games or here, when we dropped, was the second half, and now I think we make a
06:24step forward.
06:25In the Leeds game, I mean, before the Leeds game, you were talking about how football is these days,
06:29and then in that game, when you were taking the goal kicks really short, and it was Bernardo and Rodri,
06:34loads of touches to try and get around what Leeds were doing. That's obviously the way you want to go.
06:39You can still make a clean build-up against teams that press very aggressively.
06:45To what extent do you think that really is possible? Because obviously, at Leeds, you had to stop.
06:49It seemed like you stopped doing that after about 20 minutes, because it was tough.
06:53Do you still think there is a future for that style of football with the way that England's English football
06:58is?
06:58I have to combine. Now it's more difficult to do all the time the good process.
07:01You can do it, but all the time you make a type of situation. After two or three times,
07:07the people realise and the people know what you have to do. And now we have to combine more here,
07:11more direct. You can all the time do it, but all the time direct, not even is not good.
07:15Not good. Everything is good. It works. You can take a thousand million direct situation,
07:21win the second ball and attack. It's fine. It's not just that aspect. I said that to have to control
07:28through the ball. That is always have been and will be until the last day of my dream.
07:32So have the ball to do it and create chances, because you create nine minutes for chances against Madrid.
07:40It's because we have the ball in the second half. We could not press more intense, because Madrid make
07:46a good moment and 10 against 11 against them is more difficult. But we have the ball. We create
07:49chances. That is the idea of the type of players we're going to do since day one until the last
07:55day.
07:56I'm really sorry to go back to this, and I didn't plan to, but the way you talked about creating
08:00chances through control. In the Bernabeu, I really didn't plan to do this, but in the Bernabeu, you
08:05didn't want control. You talked about how you wanted to show the Bernabeu who you are with attacking players.
08:11Normally in those games, it's about a thousand million passes and keeping the games tight.
08:14Can I just ask why for that game you decided to attack? Because it did seem very uncharacteristic.
08:20Yeah, I want to show, I want to show the one about a passive team, and I want to know
08:24that every time
08:27the right side was left with Savio, but in the left side with Jeremy, for his special quality,
08:32arrived in the byline, I know, three, six times in that moment, I wanted people in the box to try
08:38to
08:38score a goal and make the field of players, make the field of Bernabeu or whatever, that we come here
08:42to try to
08:43score goals. What I'm saying, Justin Courtois, except one shoot in the 34 minutes from Antoine,
08:50we arrived Jeremy four or five times, crosses here for the tapping six times, seven times,
08:57so that is a dream for the team arriving by line and cross, but we were not effective,
09:01he were effective in the terms that Ryan Cherkic shoot two times, Tijani another one,
09:08and we were there the second half the same, even with 10 against 11, that we were, yeah, we tried
09:13to look for.
09:31I think we keep the ball, I think you keep the ball, in most of the time, especially the second
09:37half,
09:37before the penalty, that again, behind the scenes what happened, so,
09:44so we had the ball, and he as well, so always we tried, just had the feeling that when we
09:50were
09:50right there, tried to be more insistent with the strikers that we have, because what I saw,
09:54for example, Newcastle, three days aboard, I liked it, that was the reason why.
10:00When Mikel went to Arsenal, they weren't particularly considered one of your competitors,
10:04it was more Jürgen and Liverpool, I'm sure when Mikel came to you to say,
10:08I'm leaving for Arsenal, that you were happy for him personally, but did you have a feeling in that
10:12moment that he could be the guy to make Arsenal one of City's contenders, competitors?
10:19Yeah, yeah, I know him here, I know his capacity, ability, and we just, if the club trust,
10:28trust him a lot, you know, in the, you know, many years, so that success when you arrive,
10:34imagine we were going to arrive here, we didn't win one title in the first season, said we didn't win,
10:40you can go home, you know, would not happen, would happen, always the manager have to be the support
10:44for a hierarchy, not for the players, the players will never support, support you when you win,
10:48when you don't win, the players normally don't support you, there are exceptional cases, but
10:53the players, they are not, it's the hierarchy, had to support to make sure to the players that
10:57whatever happens, you are there, and I think here happened, that's why the success we have for many,
11:02many years, look at other clubs, how quick change the managers, I'm not Dave, I said many times,
11:08so I'm here still because we won a lot after the second season, and of course, Mikel won in the
11:15beginning, and I think the FA Cup and some community shield, but they have not been, but still is there
11:21after six years, five, six seasons, it's because the hierarchy trusts him, because they, always I said,
11:27and I will be sport director, and I will be, I don't know, CEO, or a guy who decides who's
11:34there,
11:34always I will take a look how they train, and how the people and the players talk about the manager,
11:40how they work, if it's good, and the people is, yeah, that is the word, forget the results,
11:47the results will come, the opposite side is the same, I'm a sport director in the club, and we're winning,
11:52winning, but the people don't follow the manager, and in the moment the result is bad, must be fire,
11:59and I think what happened is because they saw how he works, and the people on top of him,
12:06for the American people decide, okay, that guy has to be the guy who guide us for the next years,
12:11that's why we still are there. And is it hard from a personal point of view to watch a guy
12:15walk out the
12:16door and have you think, I've just made, I may have just made my own job here at City a
12:20little bit harder,
12:21because he may turn them into a team that I have to deal with? Try again. Is it hard from
12:26a personal
12:26point of view to watch a guy walk out the door and think, maybe I've made my own job here
12:31at City a
12:32little bit harder because this is a guy that's going to turn Arsenal into one of my competitors?
12:38No, it's not hard, I've said many times, so, you have an incredible huge opportunity, he decided to go there,
12:45always I said that when he was here, I was blessed to work with him, and work together,
12:50and we had success together, and I had success with Rodo, with Juanma, we had, the club had success
12:57with him, without him, and it was so nice for me to work with him. I said, the day he
13:03was here,
13:03the day he left, and after, I don't know, six years, that you are not together. So,
13:09after that belongs absolutely to him, and what happened there is belong to him and his staff and
13:14backroom and stuff. And the moment he left, zero influence. So, the team is completely,
13:21he's a stump, Arsenal's stump is not absolutely a way away with, you know, what we were here, and
13:27that take full credit and give credit to him. And, yeah, try as a final, a big challenge for us,
13:34and looking forward today to take the right decisions, hopefully, and the players behave
13:39in the best way. And, but he decided, I want to leave, who I am, to say, don't go.
13:46Players and staff and everyone, everyone has to be the freedom. If it's possible to do what
13:50you have to do, he decide, and we'll play it. Okay, thank you.
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