Pep Guardiola unsure of player rest after Manchester City's club world cup campaign
01/05/2025 embargoed
CGA, Manchester, UK
01/05/2025 embargoed
CGA, Manchester, UK
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00:00Hi, Pep. You mentioned how well Vito Pereira has done at Wolves. How difficult do you think it is as a coach to come in mid-season when the team is losing, maybe the players don't naturally fit your style, and to turn it around in the way he has?
00:15Yeah, sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. I think the previous manager, Pernod Rosal Reilly, always is an excellent manager. They beat us last season, playing really well defensively in the transition.
00:32So, yeah, sometimes you make a click, you know. You don't know why sometimes it works, but I'm pretty sure Pereira is an experienced manager, did an incredible job, and always, as I said, the feeling, always Wolves had exceptional players with the players at high levels in the previous teams, and always they are good.
00:51One of the things that Vito Pereira likes to do is go to the pub with the fans after a match. Have you ever considered it, a beer with the fans?
00:59Vito Pereira, after matches, likes to go to the pub with fans for a beer?
01:04Yeah? Oh, yeah? That's good.
01:08Would you consider it with the City fans, maybe after the FA Cup?
01:11I'm waiting in the offer.
01:13What's your Wetherspoons of choice?
01:16I like wine, but I will take a beer as well in that period. I didn't know it. Good.
01:24Hi, Pep. Just back to Erling. Have you got any idea of when he will be able to be back in?
01:28Soon. I think it's getting better. So he's injured the four, six weeks. Now he's in between four and five.
01:34So danger is not easy. Dismosis is a tricky, tricky injury, but he's making partial training.
01:41Just training almost fully, fully training. It's getting better. Hopefully in the next games can be that.
01:49And the under-18s are in the FA Youth Cup Final on Monday. Have you been on top of their progress?
01:56They've got, I think, 27 wins.
01:58They make an incredible job, the manager. That team making a step in terms of intensity,
02:05aggressivity we never had before here. So congratulate him, of course, for the incredible,
02:12for, again, succeed. And I think the players are, are much better than was maybe one or two seasons ago.
02:20They develop a lot, many things that is necessary to compete in the highest level. So, very proud.
02:26Sorry, Pep, just going back to Haaland there, but is there a time scale or do you want him to play in England
02:33before the Club World Cup or what's the thought?
02:35No, I hope so. Yeah, yeah. I think he will be able to play. Yeah, before the World Cup, yeah.
02:40Is the FA Cup Final something that could possibly happen?
02:43I'm pretty sure all of them, they want to play it. When you reach a final FA Cup, everyone will be involved.
02:50Yeah, but it depends on how they feel, you know, how you cover. So, now is the period you have to be certain.
02:56So, it's not already qualified here. We don't play for anything. After that, you can do things.
03:00But now is the final every single game. We make an incredible effort the last 11 games and beaten since
03:07Nottingham Forte is away. We just will make one draw against United away.
03:13So, now we cannot be distracted from anything else. To walls, walls and walls.
03:18So, the rest, we have time to think about it and day by day, seeing the training session,
03:23the Fisher's doctors, what are we going to say? We're going to try to make the right decisions.
03:29Hi, Pep. Sorry, this is a quite specific question, but going back to the Bournemouth game in the FA Cup,
03:36when you did the substitution at half-time with Kusinov going off and O'Reilly coming on,
03:41do you remember, was that more for O'Reilly to give you more left-back,
03:46or was it more about Gavardiol helping you with the build-up in the middle?
03:50No, one of the reasons was that Kusa had a yellow card, and I didn't want to take a risk.
03:56And we want to push a little bit more for the left. And, yeah, in that moment, I didn't think that
04:02that Nico is going to play the minutes, is going to play the months of minutes,
04:06and Josco come in the middle. In that moment, it's true that we have injuries.
04:09Of course, we have Victor and Kusa, but they are so young in that moment.
04:12But that proves that, don't take for granted your position and start 11,
04:17and don't take for no granted that you aren't going to play tomorrow.
04:20So if you tell me, I said many times, if you tell me in the decisive part of the season
04:25to qualify for the Champions League, he's going to play Mateus or Nico all the time
04:30in that position, and Josco in the middle will say, no, it's not possible.
04:34But it happened because they are playing good. They are stable, they are playing good,
04:38and we have a good process, and the combination for all of them, it suits.
04:44So that is the only reason why. So now reflect why Nico play in November, December,
04:50January, February, or McAtee don't play November, December, January, February,
04:53where he didn't play much. Why you shouldn't do it, Pep? You should have done it.
04:56Yeah, in that moment, I thought maybe they were not ready, maybe they were.
05:00And now look what happened. So they are ready. So that's why they play.
05:04In terms of Josco, is it possible to think long-term, like next year, the year after?
05:09Do you see him as a centre-back or a left-back, or is it just how it would go?
05:13Yeah, he can play both perfectly, but in a certain back, and he's doing less mistakes,
05:21and the day before, the month before, it's much, much solid and stable,
05:27then of course he can play that. Yeah, definitely. He proved him to do it.
05:31After the FA Cup win the other day, I was thinking about what the summer would look like
05:38after the Club World Cup and the short timeframe between finishing in America and the season starting.
05:46Given the injuries and things that you've had this season, how much thought of the club
05:52and put into the rest that the players are going to get in the summer?
05:58That's what it is.
06:00Chelsea will have the same problem, I think. The other teams go there and the other teams as well.
06:06So maybe here we start a little bit earlier. It depends if we play the community shield or not.
06:13If we are able to beat the final against Crystal Palace, always we change our schedule.
06:20So, yeah, we'll see. After the final against Crystal Palace, we'll see exactly the days we have.
06:26But we knew in the beginning that the next season, pre-season, will be a short time.
06:31But, yeah, hopefully if we have a fit players, we can rotate and we can handle it, I think.
06:37The problem is we have a lot of injuries and we had that problem.
06:40This season now we have problems, big, big problems.
06:43But I suppose irrespective of whether you make the community shield or not,
06:48it's going to be a really, really short summer.
06:51I mean, what can you do to sort of mitigate that?
06:56Because you are someone that likes to give four or five weeks off in a normal summer.
07:00I don't know. I would like to give weeks off, but we cannot give it to them.
07:05So, I don't know. Try to be doing the season a lot as much day off as possible.
07:12Try to, you know, create a good environment in the team,
07:16that they are happy to come here to train and play games day by day.
07:20So, to be honest, I don't know.
07:22Because we need rest that we cannot give them.
07:24The players need to be disconnected mentally in a physical way.
07:30But the schedule is the schedule.
07:38Is Edison ready to be in goal yet?
07:41Yeah.
07:42So, will he be back tomorrow?
07:43Yeah.
07:44We decide.
07:45But, yeah, his training is recovered, yeah.
07:49With Erling, is there a danger that if you do give him any minutes
07:54that it could lead to a setback?
07:57I need to speak with the doctors and the physios.
07:59So, the last game, for example, against Wolves, sorry, Nottingham Forest,
08:06in the semi-final FA Cup, he said, I'm not ready.
08:09So, when he will feel ready, the doctor said, yeah.
08:13Can he be on the bench tomorrow?
08:16Yeah.
08:17I'm saying, yesterday training, today we're going to train,
08:21and after we talk, like, every game with the doctors,
08:23I'm going to say, first the player, how does he feel,
08:26and after the doctors as well.
08:28So, I don't know.
08:29I don't know yet, honestly.
08:31Yeah.
08:32Okay, thank you.
08:33Thank you, guys.