Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola admits his squad is exhausted ahead of Manchester derby against United and speaks out against the racist abuse suffered by Kyle Walker
13/12/2024
CFGA, Manchester, Uk
13/12/2024
CFGA, Manchester, Uk
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon guys, hope you're all safe and processed, just bear in mind it's a Sunday
00:12embargo so the open section is busier, we'll try and get to as many of you as we can.
00:20Hi Pat, can I start the press conference by talking to you about Kyle Walker, he's said
00:26this week that he wants the authorities and social media companies to do more after being
00:31racially abused on Instagram. I'm obviously guessing that you are in full support of Kyle
00:37but what are you doing as a manager and what are the club doing to support him?
00:42At first it's unacceptable, but not because he's a Kyle,
00:46for every human being, unfortunately today in the real world it happened many times.
00:51Of course it's not necessary to say the support that he has for the entire club,
01:01of course for all the staff, for all the people there, but it's not because he's Kyle,
01:06unfortunately it's happening in every department of our society, it's completely
01:12unacceptable and we are in full support of him.
01:15How is he?
01:17I didn't speak.
01:17Can I ask you about the match then, with everything that's gone on the last few weeks,
01:25does it help the club that it's a derby with the atmosphere, with the emotion,
01:29and this match on Sunday, does it help you move on from your problems,
01:33the fact that it is such a big occasion?
01:35It's a football game, the same points of course emotionally for our fans,
01:40for all of us that will stay a long time here, it's a bit special but at the end,
01:45always I said in this type of situations, I would say in this type of games,
01:50as less emotional you are, you will be better.
01:56Before the Juventus game you spoke to Luca Toni and you spoke about a lot of human elements of
02:03your job, about your state of mind, about how nervous you're feeling, about the fact that you
02:08don't sleep well, that you don't eat well, I think a lot of people might be shocked or surprised to
02:15hear you talk about things like that, is that the reality of being a football manager or is that
02:20the reality of the situation that your team is in at the moment?
02:24I think in our jobs always we will do our best and work the best as possible,
02:29if it doesn't happen you are more uncomfortable than when the situation is going well.
02:34Not just the managers, especially the people,
02:37like it's been a scrutiny for every step that we do as a team, always it happens, but I'm fine.
02:48Of course when I have more thoughts it's about what happened, what can you do and
02:54what I feel right now is like I feel the last three weeks, one month and every press conference
02:59when I see what is the situation, nothing changed absolutely. I'm really pleased for the way we play
03:06and I have a certain moral authority, what happened in my career as a football player and manager,
03:14the titles we won that I know perfectly when we are playing good or not good.
03:18We have to shoot more in the final third, we have to defend better, we have to avoid mistakes
03:23on both sides, but the game is there, except as I said, Liverpool game, Bournemouth game,
03:28the rest of the games we were there. We are not consistent for 90 minutes, we are not consistent
03:33in the teams, you know the reason why, I know the reason why and that's why we move forward,
03:41keep working, this is what we have to do. Does that make it easier for you when you go to bed
03:50at night to go to sleep thinking you're doing everything you can and even I know when you win
04:00you still want more, you can still demand more, it's not necessarily about winning and losing,
04:05but being at peace with yourself almost that you're doing the best you can.
04:10Do you do your best when you write the article in this press conference?
04:14Yeah, I'm pretty sure of that. I don't know how many people read to you what you write,
04:19I don't know, but you want to do your best, I want to do my best.
04:23I want to do my best in the good moments, we are happy, but when I write the next game I'm
04:27concerned the same right now, what I have to do, what line-up will be right, will be wrong,
04:33I do the same, so there is no human being that makes an activity like they want to do it,
04:38it doesn't matter, it doesn't happen, it's the same and all the managers are more concerned
04:43with me because I have responsibility for these people, for the players, for that.
04:48Of course the support, the support of the club more than anyone else, so they want to do well,
04:53but sometimes for the reason why I explained the last month, still we have to keep working,
04:59keep working, so sometimes in the period you go through in the bad moments, in the bad times,
05:07you know that? But the problem, you have to keep working, but the problem is the bad moment,
05:12it's not you, it's the situation, but not you, you are fine, we are fine, but we don't have results
05:20and you have to of course do it, but even if it's not going to do good results you have to keep
05:25working, so that you have to do, it's the only chance.
05:30Hi Pep, the financial figures obviously were released by the club today, very healthy again,
05:35record revenue, profits again, second highest I think ever on record, January is approaching,
05:41I know the window is a difficult transfer window, but have you had conversations yet,
05:45do you know if you will have money to spend in January?
05:48No, what I want is my players back, the players that we have, I would have
05:57desperately competed with the squad we had at the beginning of the season,
06:00I said many times, this is the only regret I have, I don't have the players, these players,
06:05no new ones, but in a certain moment, the right moment we will see, but the fact that you have
06:10a revenue that I must congratulate to the club and CEO and all the people involved in that,
06:15because of course the club must be sustainable, that doesn't mean we have big resources to buy
06:26whatever we want, especially today the transfer market, how expensive everything is, and we
06:30will prove in the last four or five years that I'm sorry we are not the best in that terms.
06:36One of the players you won't have back unfortunately is Rodri, is that the one
06:40position if the right player becomes available you might look to enter the market for?
06:46Listen, when I have three, four central defenders, I need the central defenders,
06:50when I have Kovacic and Gundo, I don't need a replacement in that position,
06:54when I don't have wingers for Inter this season, I need wingers,
06:58when Erling is away, I have Oscar, Bob and Phil Foden to play there, we have the same goals,
07:03this is the problem, if you tell me no, no, all these players will be fine in that position,
07:08we need that, we go to the transfer market, but I don't know which one because it depends,
07:12you have the four central defenders, I don't need central defenders,
07:15but we will have, you know, the only problem is, you know, Rodri, we knew it from the beginning,
07:20but the problem is Rodri, of course, we are playing this season without the best player,
07:25the Ballon d'Or, and without the best player in England last season,
07:28when Phil had played four or five games, but no more than that in his best,
07:31so how not is one team to play with a central defender, with a Ballon d'Or,
07:35and the best player in the Premier League during all the season, of course it's difficult,
07:40you know, Chicago Bulls won sixth NBA with Michael Jordan, right?
07:43So since then, Michael Jordan, Ridia, how many?
07:48So we have the problem that we had, and the moment we come back, we will be strong again,
07:52we will be a good team, and at the same time, of course, we have to play the way we played,
07:58especially in Turin, especially in Nottingham Forest, and improve with the players that we have,
08:03that still we have a really, really good team, not the best squad, but the eleven in Turin
08:08was really, really good, to try to, yeah, to win games, but the reality, do you know,
08:15was the double hold in midfield in the last game against Turin, you went to Turin,
08:20Jack Grealish was one of them, so, and we play more decent, and Jack play again really good,
08:26but with that, we have to move forward, and I said, yeah, third time, we have to keep working,
08:32so sooner or later, we are going to get back.
08:35Can I just check, the injury that Manu Akandji has got, what actually is it?
08:41Is it a muscle problem, or a knock?
08:44No, having discomfort in the area for the pelvis, for the abductor, and it doesn't feel good, and
08:51he is making an incredible effort, playing in Bournemouth, when there was, him and Nathan were
08:58him and Nathan were not even the half in his best, and helped us to play there, and at the end,
09:07he can play the time, he can play for 45 minutes, 15, after he had to step back and said,
09:13I have to recover, otherwise I cannot be, you know, and Manu is a strong player, and
09:20he is so reliable, but in that moment, cannot be that.
09:24It sounds like you have only got three defenders for Sunday, are you going to have to do something
09:31special with positional, because obviously there is no Rico either?
09:38I don't know, I don't know what I have to do, I need players, so I have three,
09:43and we will see what happens today and tomorrow, and the players we have, and we think about it,
09:50maybe some wingers have to play as a full-back, or Mateus maybe can play as a full-back, or maybe
09:57play with five in the back, when wing-backs are wingers, so I don't know, I have to, I am thinking
10:04a little bit, we are thinking what to do for the situation that you have just three central
10:10defenders, but the soul and the spirit of this team is there, so we are sad, I am sad for the
10:17players, because the way they run and they fight with the circumstances they have, so Bernardo a
10:23lot of minutes play, Gundo playing in a position, can play sometimes, but he is playing alone there
10:29in that position, game by game, and at the end arriving in the final third three or four times
10:34to arrive, Rico our more consistent player this season, for the decision for the referee, cannot
10:40play there, of course, but I think, I know our fans, maybe they are sad, I understand completely,
10:48because we are used to, you know, maybe we lose seven games, eight games in one season, or in two
10:54seasons, you know, and now we play with one month, a month and a half, so it's normally they are sad,
11:00but they know that this group of players have made an era, and eight, nine, ten years that
11:08no one has done, and the numbers, the records, and now negative ones, but the positive ones they have
11:14done, this group of players, only I encourage them to support them until the end, because they deserve
11:20it, so it's unbelievable what they have done, they do in the circumstances that we have to compete
11:26in this calendar, then the season there are more games than ever, in terms of the Champions League
11:30and whatever, have more injuries than ever, and it made me reflect that today maybe in this calendar
11:35you need a squad for 25, 30 players, will be more difficult financially for the club, but
11:41today we're going to play the World Cup in summer, three weeks, start again the Premier League,
11:48and maybe we have to, you know, to have more depth squad, because when the people say what is
11:54the problem, the problem is the schedule, it's not the training, it's not the physio, it's not the
11:59doctors, it's not the players, it's not how they foot, it's not how they rest, it's just one problem,
12:05it's the schedule, and the schedule sooner or later, they will happen for all the clubs,
12:12look Madrid for example, they can have clubs with how many injuries, so, and this is the truth, so without
12:18players everything is more difficult, because when we won it was thinking, when we won the travel, the
12:22four domestics, we have one, two, three injuries muscular, sometimes, I was so stable, that's why we
12:30could compete, and now we cannot, you can survive, like I said, it's time to survive, survive, stay there,
12:36be closer than ever, and sooner or later the players come back, and and we qualify
12:43for the Champions League, we're not busy, but we qualify and we can be there,
12:47I don't know in January, February, what's going to happen to our team, always we respond well, so we'll see.
12:52Do you want each guy to try and get through a few of you for the embargo?
12:55Pep, you talked about Manu and Nathan playing at Bournemouth when they weren't fully fit,
12:59have you got players in the team at the minute, who are playing despite not being anywhere close to 100%?
13:08No, I would say, yeah, always problems, Kevin is coming back, last game was better than the
13:14previous ones, I would say, so, but I've been two months injured as well, Kevin five last season,
13:19so it's step by step, it's in modern football, Erling plays all the minutes, so therefore
13:25Hazard and Erling is unbelievable, unbelievable, without him I don't know who would be,
13:32but all of them, so it's honestly, it's so emotional from my point of view when I see them,
13:37you know, before and during the recovery time, the time to spend to be fit in this period, so it's
13:44remarkable and I'm there, I'm there with them and I told them and I tell them, you are good guys,
13:50you play good, so of course you're going to get results, I know that this difficult situation
13:56and in this world you have to accept it, when you don't win in this business, you have to win,
13:59it's fine, you don't win, it's not good, but I have to analyse a little bit more than just the
14:07results and with these players I want to be here, so I don't want to, I want to stay close to them,
14:14not behind, not in front, not beside them and yeah, this is what I want to do.
14:20Hi Pep, just on players coming back from injury, obviously Kevin's now started three
14:24games in a row, you were a bit wary of putting him in initially, how has he coped with three
14:29matches in a row? What to do? I said before, they pass the table massage to the play games in the
14:35higher competition, on the table massage you have three days of training, training, training and one
14:39week and after start to, now they have to, why is Nathan injured again, why? They play 90 minutes,
14:47and 90 minutes, three days later after being in the table massage, one month and a half,
14:52training one day and a half and recovery training sessions, 90 minutes and 90 minutes,
14:58if I have John and I have Manu, Nathan play 90 minutes, they don't play 90 minutes and when the
15:04people say, why the substitution against Feyenoord, 75 minutes, it was 3-0 and I had to take care of him,
15:08but history is like that and in that moment I feel, it's like one month later,
15:14injured, you know, with the amount of games and we suffer it and this is the truth, so it's an excuse, yeah.
15:23Yeah, it's an excuse.
15:26Last one for the embargo please, Richard.
15:28Hi Pep, you faced Ruben Amorim a few weeks ago with sporting, I'm just wondering are there any
15:34lessons that you can take from that game and do you see his influence rubbing off at United?
15:41Yeah, he's already there, he's already there, all the patterns start to do it,
15:46how good the movements everyone do it and the runners and the pace and
15:51yeah, he will do a good job here in United, I'm pretty sure of that.
15:58He would do it.
16:00Do you think that game with sporting will have any bearing on this game?
16:04Yeah, in two seasons ago when we won 0-5 as well, you know, always we have good lessons too,
16:11maybe the lesson better then because he beat us 4-1.
16:15I would like to play the game like we play in Lisbon tomorrow, on Sunday, believe me.
16:21I would like to, the way we played in Lisbon, I would like to play on Sunday,
16:25I don't know if we will be able to do it because for many reasons, but yeah, we will see.