- 9 hours ago
Guardiola on Cherki development and chasing down Arsenal
10/04/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
10/04/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Rayan Shirky is an interesting character and the last game he put on Eketike's shirt, only for a second, but
00:06he did do it.
00:07He can sometimes be a little bit, we say in English, showboating, messing around, but also he's an unbelievable player.
00:14What's your view about him generally? I mean, do you care about some of the sort of Maverick stuff that
00:18he does?
00:19I think he's a little bit free soul. You have to understand, every player is completely different.
00:24You have to give them a little bit this kind of... I'm really surprised.
00:31So he's one of the most unbelievable talent players I've ever seen.
00:37It's just, you know, it's just in the future, hopefully he can stay for longer,
00:44because he has the attributes to be in a top, top team's players.
00:47It's an attribute that is difficult to find, it's the same with Berlin, difficult moments,
00:52and a lot of pressure, like a friendly game.
00:56So it doesn't matter, and that is so difficult to find.
00:58It's the most, I think, as a manager, when a sport is a sport director,
01:02the biggest attribute I would like to find in the players, like a team sign.
01:07It's just, when you have a lot of time here, how will it be his behaviour, to stay humble enough,
01:12to stay, work for the team, and, OK, this is my role, I'm going to do for the team.
01:16But the impact in the first season in the Premier League, in terms of his goals,
01:20and his, you know, being angry, don't play because I want to help,
01:25and these kind of things, surprised me a lot.
01:27I'm really incredibly pleased for the first season here in the Premier League,
01:32and many, many new players, and many, many good things, new things,
01:37being the way he played.
01:39He played good in the beginning, but when he played in the beginning,
01:45his impact on these 50, 20 minutes all have been massive.
01:48Always create something, always give something.
01:51But he's not a guy, he's a little bit, you know, sure for Liverpool,
01:57so he's unconscious to do it, and you have to understand it.
02:00Everyone is everyone, and a little bit you have to leave them,
02:03express themselves always who they are.
02:05Your teams tend to have one flair player, let's say De Bruyne, David Silva,
02:11going back to Barcelona, could go on.
02:13So do you think Cherki has the potential to maybe be that next player for you?
02:18Yeah, I had the ability and quality in the final third.
02:20That's why I always say the men sometimes go to ask the ball to the keeper,
02:24and say, no, I don't want you, I want you there.
02:26You know, because in the final third always have something that I like a lot
02:32with attacking players, like how they play with the rhythms.
02:36So accelerate, accelerate, accelerate, accelerate, immediately attack,
02:40and have to stop, and everybody stop, and have to accelerate again.
02:44These players have this ability to play with the rhythm for the opponents,
02:47they have the vision to make surpass, that for me define the best.
02:51One guy can be incredible fast, but if he doesn't know to stop and accelerate again,
02:57never will be a top, top, top player.
03:00Jeremy as well, Jeremy go and stop, and stop.
03:03That players are really, really good.
03:05And Cherkin, that is extraordinary, but really, really extraordinary,
03:08because he's accelerated, stopped, all the defenders stopped,
03:11and after had the ability to make a pass and assist and shoot.
03:14And that's why we need him close, close to the final third,
03:18to his talent, you know, help us to assist, to shoots, to goals,
03:22because it's his biggest strength.
03:25Hi Pep, we didn't see you after the Liverpool game,
03:28but how pleased were you to see Erling scoring again
03:31and looking like his old self again?
03:33A lot. A lot, a lot.
03:37Yeah, he was given a week.
03:39It's so important for us Erling.
03:40Until November, I would say, and in November,
03:44his goal, the scores, how has that been?
03:46He's a machine.
03:47I like especially the second one.
03:50They make a movement.
03:51Of course, the space between Kornateva and Dyck was big,
03:53but they make a movement to the first post, to the new post.
03:57So, yeah, really good.
03:59He was given a week off by Norway after the Carabao Cup final.
04:03Did you think he needed that sort of break to reset
04:06for these last few weeks and the World Cup?
04:08No, everyone needs a reset,
04:10but sometimes with the reset, they have not been like that.
04:13So, it's always in the mindset,
04:17in the, you know, how positive you are.
04:20So, that is the difference in the big, big players.
04:22That's how we immediately forget the bad shot, you know?
04:27Masters, today is on the sky and always like that.
04:30All the big players, make a bogey, forget it.
04:34Next shot is perfect.
04:35That defines the biggest, biggest athletes in all sports.
04:38And I think it will be a good lesson.
04:42Every season, Erling will be better and better, I'm pretty sure.
04:45James?
04:46You've got this, like, extraordinary record in the Premier League
04:50from, like, about mid-February onwards.
04:53Like, you've won something like 102 of your 129 games.
04:57You've only lost, like, 12 in this period.
04:59You've really come alive.
05:02You've overhauled Arsenal sort of twice before.
05:06Do you think that you're the last team that they would want chasing them?
05:14Like, you've overhauled them before.
05:16Everyone knows just how strong you are in these final months.
05:19I don't know what's going to happen.
05:20The gap is big.
05:22We cannot deny.
05:23Nine points, one game in hand, but you have to win.
05:26This game in hand, so this is big.
05:28I think Nottingham Forest and West Ham punishes a lot to them.
05:35Maybe we can do it again.
05:37The business is big.
05:38You know, Arsenal.
05:39I'm not saying now because I say now, not before the game.
05:42I answer next week.
05:43So, beat Arsenal once.
05:47Imagine twice and look again.
05:50The Champions League didn't lose one game.
05:52Won all and draw one.
05:54So, arguably, the numbers and the way this consistent, solid,
05:58and everything, all the details, is top.
06:02So, I don't know.
06:04I think it's happened because the results that you said in the last years,
06:08since February, is because the winter here is so tough.
06:11When the sun is springtime, I don't know.
06:13Our souls rise and we feel better and that's why we're winning games.
06:17That is the reason why this season we are not good,
06:20because the weather is not good.
06:25You've talked a lot in the past about Real Madrid
06:27and the weight of history in the Champions League
06:29and being the kings of the competition.
06:31The reality in the Premier League over the last eight or nine seasons,
06:35is that what City have?
06:37This weight of history, this aura about you.
06:42That has got to count for something.
06:44It's got to play on the minds of opponents.
06:46Are you sure?
06:46Yeah, I completely agree.
06:48Because now we are not seven in the Premier League or eight in the Premier League.
06:52So, we are second fighting.
06:53So, it's not a bad season.
06:55Bad season was the last one.
06:56But this season, when you compete until the end,
06:59we are having, again, eight in a row, semi-finals.
07:03Arsenal is a top team, but Arsenal didn't get the semi-finals this season.
07:07It's so difficult.
07:08We had eight in a row.
07:09That is the team in the Premier League season.
07:11When we have started winning the first Premier League,
07:13we had six in eight years in this.
07:16Of course, in the Champions League, the English teams,
07:18except Arsenal have been well in the no-cut stages.
07:25Because I have an opinion completely that the Champions League is completely different.
07:29We saw the involved in many decisions for the referees in these competitions.
07:35Oh, my God.
07:36Making it out.
07:38And I have a vast experience of that.
07:41But...
07:41Is your or what?
07:45No.
07:45The or is when you start on Sunday at 4.30, I think so,
07:48the referee behave like you have to behave.
07:50They always don't make you a few wins.
07:52They make results.
07:54But most of the players, not now, but in recent past,
07:59it's just, OK, we have done it many times.
08:01We can do it again.
08:02And know exactly the 10, 15, 20 games left.
08:04OK, you have to win every single game.
08:06And we have done it in the past and we can do it.
08:08Or maybe we know exactly what you have to do to win it.
08:11But that doesn't define a season in the Premier League.
08:14The season in the Premier League, 11 months.
08:15In the 11 months, there are a lot of games that we were good,
08:17but not good enough to win the games.
08:19Like in the past, always we found a way to win the games.
08:21Playing really, really bad, but we had a way to win games.
08:24And this season, we didn't find.
08:26So in terms of points, we're not comparing the season with Jurgen
08:30on Liverpool 90 or Arsenal 90, 89, 80.
08:34I don't know.
08:34This season, we have not been the best.
08:38But I think I give the opinion like it's a lot of new things,
08:41a lot of new players.
08:42And this time gives a lot of the players and personalities
08:46that had in the past that right now we are building of that.
08:49In the future, we will be ready to be closer in terms
08:53or at least continue to fight for the Premier League.
08:58Pep, if you are to win the title, you're almost certainly going to have to beat Arsenal next week.
09:03The fact that you are playing them, does that help you for this weekend?
09:08Because it is just one game where you have to win to put yourselves in that position where you can
09:13try?
09:13We don't have to make, listen, I'm not to confess something special to the fact that what do you have
09:20to do
09:20to be until the last games of the season, Aston Villas or Brentford before, you know,
09:26or Crystal Palace to try to fight for the league.
09:30Talking about Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal.
09:32If you don't win in the Stamford Beach, it is an easy place to go.
09:37Maybe you don't need to make the press conference before Arsenal because it will be over.
09:41Everybody knows it.
09:42You know it, I know it, the players know it, everybody knows it, England knows it.
09:46There are so many games left, you have to win all of them.
09:48All.
09:50Forget about it.
09:51Nine points is a lot of points against Arsenal.
09:53You know, so, but we win there.
09:56We win Arsenal at home and that, of course, always you leave the illusion that, you know,
10:00the wish always is there to try to do it.
10:02But the reality, I'm not naive to say, ah, it's going to happen.
10:09With West Ham and Nottingham, we play to win both games.
10:15And we have points, of course.
10:17We have a chance because it was in our hands.
10:21It was Arsenal who had to come here.
10:23But it's what it is.
10:24So, at the end, it's fair enough.
10:25The Premier League, as I always said, is the most difficult competition.
10:28For me, the most, I don't know, prestigious.
10:30It doesn't matter.
10:30It's the most difficult because it's 11 months, 30 years.
10:33It happens, many, many things.
10:37And that's why I give a lot of credit.
10:39So, when we won or when the opponents won, it settles.
10:44Last two, Rob and Gane.
10:46Hi, Pep.
10:47You said a couple of weeks ago that you felt that this team was very close to reaching their
10:51top level, being a top team.
10:53And since then, you've had two big results, Arsenal and Liverpool.
10:56And not only that, the performances in those games, I think, felt like a top-level performance
11:00from a top team.
11:02Do you think, in the last couple of weeks, something has changed?
11:04Has something clicked?
11:05Have they made a step up as a group?
11:08Should be sure.
11:09The click should be done earlier.
11:11Right?
11:11Having more chances.
11:14Yeah, sometimes it's later.
11:15It's what it is.
11:17I said, man, the motor, we are able to do it.
11:20We are able to do it.
11:22But to win that idea, to do it every single three days.
11:25And the team still was not during this season.
11:29But still we are there.
11:31We have a semi-final FA Cup ahead of us to reach a final FA Cup in the Premier League
11:38until it's over.
11:39It's not over.
11:39So we have to go there to our performance.
11:42But, you know, we proved even in October, in early moments, a game is like, wow.
11:50But after that we dropped.
11:51We are not, like, being stable like Arsenal have proved in this season for many reasons.
11:57So, yeah.
11:58But it's a good lesson and for the next season we'll be better.
12:01Absolutely.
12:03With the man marking and the compact defending, the free man is getting harder and harder to
12:09find.
12:10So how much of a challenge that has been for you in recent times and what have you done
12:15to try to find it or do something about it?
12:18You have to play more direct, a little bit more.
12:20The connection from the keeper for the people up front has to be better.
12:25Always when I pass the ball to the front row it's easier than I have to play for the backseat.
12:31Because it's safer this pass than this pass so that you lose more passes there than here.
12:35But despite of that, even with my marking you can do it.
12:39You can play and use the pockets and use the positions.
12:43You can do it.
12:44You make one process good that is not easy to do it.
12:47But if you do it well you can do it.
12:49And after that it can be more dangerous for the man marking teams.
12:53It can be more dangerous.
12:54And we prove it.
12:56We prove it.
12:57We prove it in several games here in this season against man marking teams.
13:01That when we do one specific concept, every system has its weaknesses.
13:07Deep block, man marking, five, four, three, always.
13:10If you make the proper movements, always you can do it.
13:14But I admit, when it's all the time I'm marking and marking, you have to use the other option
13:20that is long balls.
13:22And if you win that ball, always you can run and you can create a problem for the opener.
13:28Thank you, everyone.
13:28The President.
13:29The President.
Comments