**Pep Guardiola has once again faced the media ahead of another hugely important clash for Manchester City in the Premier League this weekend.**
The reigning champions are looking to immediately break a challenging run of form across competitions with only their second victory in 11 matches, having lost their seventh game in a run of 10 games against Juventus in midweek.
Second-half goals from Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie forced Manchester City to succumb to defeat once again in European competition, leaving them in a precarious position within the UEFA Champions League table.
Things are not much better in the Premier League either, and heading into the weekend City find themselves eight points adrift of league leaders Liverpool, who also have a game in hand on Pep Guardiola’s side.
In the second-half of the manager’s press conference, there was plenty of discussion around the injury sustained by Rodri, the need for a bigger squad next season, whether he regrets signing a new contract, and if a trophy lift this season would be his greatest achievement.
Following part two of Pep Guardiola’s pre-Manchester United press conference from the City Football Academy on Friday afternoon, here is every single word from the Manchester City manager!
**On how he gets his inspiration**
“Good question! From my closest people I would say, and reflect a lot and think a lot. I think the people think about what happened is necessary. I think all the managers, not right now just my case. You are alone in the decisions, you can share opinions and listen to opinions, but at the end it’s you with your decisions you have to make.
(Ultimately it comes down on you doesn’t it?) “Yeah, that’s why I am well-paid. If I don’t want that, if I don’t want all the comments after the game, I have to get it off and I have to go to another job. It’s not new. I didn’t expect that the good, good moments that happened in the past gives me time in the bad moments.
“Never, ever has happened in any manager in all of history. That’s the reason, but I’m calm because I know the reason why when we were winning, I know the reason why we are losing. I don’t know all of you, the people don’t know the reason how we are going to ask to know exactly when we are losing.
“I know it, because I’m there and I know the process and things that of course you don’t have to know it. So this is the truth. That’s why I’m aware thinking how is the team for the circumstances and many little details how we are playing, it’s not enough, I know that, the players are not stupid, they know it!
“They taste the highest level in consistency and it doesn’t matter how we found a way to win the games. Now we don’t have the way to win the games, even playing good moments or bad moments, we don’t have it.
“So they crossed the halfway, Juventus, six times, six times! Six times they crossed the halfway! Away in the Champions League, the biggest English team there, it’s quite good. But it’s not enough; we defended poorly. In attack, we arrived there, ‘Come on, shoot!’ And we don’t shoot.
“So of course we have to do many good things, the players know it. Of course we have to improve. So it’s not defence, the results, I don’t have a defence, we don’t have a defence. How you sustain the last 10 games, we lost seven.
“A team across a season maybe to lose seven games in one season didn’t happen, and now it happened. But it’s football, it’s life. I was thinking about that not happening, no. You tell me one month ago when we were top of the league, unbeaten, the only English team unbeaten, ‘You are going to lose the next seven’.
“Are you crazy? It’s not going to happen in my team! It’s happened! And maybe we can lose more.”
**On whether dips in form make the good times even better**
“I know the people better, I know who they are behind the scenes and now they come up, that’s for sure. But the important is how we are inside there, how the players feel, and the staff. There is one thing when I would say, ‘Pep, you have to think about it’; it’s when I lose the team.
“When I feel they don’t run, I feel for everybody knows, the manager, I lost the team, they don’t follow me. And in that moment, not one more minute I will be here. But the moment it’s there, more than ever I am there! More than ever! There is no doubt about that.
“And that can happen for the results, that can happen for the style and direction, it can happen because we are tired, for many things! And I said one month ago, it should happen. Unfortunately it should happen for one reason; the schedule for the injuries.
“I don’t know what will happen with all the players there; with Rodri there, with muscular problems but being there, with Phil (Foden) there, with Oscar (Bobb) there, with four central defenders there – I don’t know the position that we would be. I imagine what it would be.
“I cannot prove it, right? Nobody knows it, what would happen. But I think we would be a better team. Everybody knows I think, no? Just for the fact of what happened in the past. But the reality is completely the opposite. I’ll put an example, so Liverpool were seventh for Europa League qualifying with many injuries, it’s happened!
“So all the managers depend on the quality of the players. I’m not special, I didn’t feel special before. Not now, but I don’t feel bad now, because always I make a conscience that a football player, this business, belongs to the players and we are here to support them.
“But now, for the problems that we have in this schedule, crazy ones, so… So why is Rodri injured? He played 75 games last season! When we finished and I was on holiday, he was at the Euros to win the Euros with Spain, and injured with Spain and came back.
“And one game, two games. Do you know being fresh you get an ACL (injury)? No. I promise. Strong as Rodri, but he came back tired, not on the top, but I needed him against Inter, I needed him against Arsenal, not being at the top. And you are not strong enough, and unfortunately it happened.
“The reason why? The schedule. Give him one month and a half, two months holiday, give to Rodri, two months holiday after the Euros, like in the NBA, three months they have, four months they have, tell him, and he would be perfect, and after he can play 80 games if you want.
“But give him three months (holiday). But next season, next season Manchester City, not Chelsea they already have the squad, have to be 30 players! 25 or 30! How do you sustain the club economically, financially? We won’t have revenues next season, impossible! Impossible!
“Why do we have revenue this season? We sold a lot of players, from the Academy especially, a lot, and with Julian (Alvarez) and the other ones, a lot! Combine the financials and the demands for the team, it’s tough! We would like to have 17, 18, 19 players, financially the conductor for the team it’s perfect.
“Today, in modern football, it’s impossible. Impossible. Even with 22, 23-years-old, the young ones, and one team would say, ‘Ah no because we (Manchester City) work differently’. We were perfect in the preparation, physical preparation, because our nutritionists are more special than the other clubs.
“No, because our beds are top for rest. You say that, yeah. Next year, seven injuries. Doing the same. It’s the schedule. Don’t look at another way. Impossible.”
**On whether a trophy lift at the end of the season would be one of his greatest achievements given the position the club are in right now**
“The greatest achievement has already been done. I’m sorry! We have been the best. And we are not the best because we don’t have the players. Otherwise Liverpool, we would be close, my friends. Close. BUT, now it made me realise how difficult it was what we have done and we will come back, of course.
“When we come back, of course, it will be, ‘WOW!’ We will not forget those tough moments because we want it and we do it, and we are not able. We don’t have a defence, my friends. We don’t have. We lose too many games, and when that happens all the criticisms and the fair judge is deserved.
“But I have to analyse a little bit the reason why, and there are moments that… Because it’s another issue, there are things that I need to train, I need to practice, for the players to improve, I need to practice! WHEN?!
“Normally when you have a game, the day after recovery, and they train the players that didn’t play the day before, and we have seven, eight players, nine, the Academy comes. One player I have. I have one player! So we don’t have time to practice all the mistakes that we have, and we have a lot of mistakes, but we don’t have time.
“With the video but the videos are not enough, you have to practice. To be a writer it’s not necessary to read books, you have to practice to write a novel. Unless you are William Shakespeare, and after that you don’t need anything.”
**On whether he has any regrets or second thoughts about signing his Manchester City contract extension**
“Absolutely more than ever I will regret leaving now! I could not sleep, even worse now if I think now I’m leaving and leaving the situation… IMPOSSIBLE! They will sack me, that could happen, if we continue like this. But leaving now?! No chance.
“If my boss, Khaldoon (Al Mubarak), is not happy with me, they can do it. But leaving now in that position? No chance! No, no, no!”
**On if he wants to leave Manchester City on top like Sir Alex Ferguson**
“No, no, no, no, not even that! When I feel it is time to leave, I will leave. Not because I’m here (at the top) or there (at the bottom). No, no, no. What we have done, we have done it. Satisfaction to do it is done. I don’t have any, I would say, targets to make me, or my life, or my tenure here, or my time here completely different. IMPOSSIBLE!
“If I leave tomorrow, it has been the best. In this club, I will never, never, ever forget! It’s not, ‘No, no I will not leave until I will win another Premier League or another Champions League’. No, no, no, no, it’s done, it’s accomplished. The way we have played, the numbers and everything, always it will remain.
“But now in that situation I could not leave, I could not leave. Of course you have many things to do, you have to go to the market in the right moments, maybe in winter or in the other one or the other one, for the reason I said to make a better depth of squad, for them to compete with each other, to outcome the best of every player competing during the week as enemies, and at the weekend as friends against the opponents.
“And that is for sure. But, listen, if I’m losing and losing and losing and losing for one month more losing, I will say, ‘Guys someone else has to come to fix this kind of things’, because it cannot be eternal. Because I said, you have to be honest. Still I didn’t feel to get out of my job because of what we have done in the past, so I don’t know if a big, big club, in a big, big club in the last 10 games loses seven, I don’t know if I have the confidence that I have right now for all the departments.
“But it happened because we have done in recent (years), and the club and the players know the situation is completely exceptional for many, many reasons. But I think I’m not stupid to know that’s a lot of games lost, and you have to do it better, and you have to win, but we try it, every day we try it, but it’s not enough.”