Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola spoke for nearly five minutes as he defended his team selections following the Champions League defeat to Real Madrid.
Pep Guardiola launched a staunch defence of his Manchester City team selections during a passionate press conference ahead of the Premier League trip to West Ham on Saturday.
The Blues boss made several bold calls for the midweek Champions League last-16 first leg tie with Real Madrid, which City lost 3-0. He defended the XI after the game but went further on Friday in an answer that saw him mimic gunfire to articulate shots fired, bring up his decisions for the 2021 Champions League final defeat to Chelsea and sign off his monologue with ‘good answer’.
Guardiola was asked if he welcomed the chance to explain his selection thinking on the back of the calls in Madrid, having often spoken about the team being viewed as the correct one if City win and the wrong one if the Blues lose.
What followed was the City boss in full flow as he spoke passionately for nearly five minutes about why he opted to field an attacking XI in midweek, the hypocritical nature of how line-ups are viewed and how he felt the selection was close to coming off against Real despite the end result. Here’s the answer in full.
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“I can explain to you,” he said. “I said to you after the game in Madrid that there is a logical reason for that, the momentum of the players and many things.
“Listen, I played a final of the Champions League without Fernandinho and Rodri as holding midfielder against Chelsea, do you think that’s normal? No, honestly. Gundogan played in that moment, do you think that is normal? I was destroyed in that moment.
“They are right but in that moment I know how Rodri was playing and Fernandinho was playing, it was not the Rodri that we met after, and in the other positions there are a lot of times many decisions coming for many, many, many reasons, for how you handle the pressure and the other ones, I can explain that but they’re going to convince you for the next time? Forget about it. I want to stay to my players. To you, not one second.
“Now, my argument or reason is (to) justify the team selection. It’s because I lost, I lose the game, we lose the game. If you win, ah, genius. How many times I hear, ‘Pep is a genius’ for the team selection? Not waste my time.
“Convince you, why I put, I tell you that. Why I put that player, I want a threat, I want to have people arriving to the goal, I want people to make (grunts) when we arrive with the wingers. I see the game against Newcastle.
“Against Newcastle, Savinho was the man of the match, and we need a game at the Bernabeu, not just to play, to make the Bernabeu feel that we are there. And we did it in the first 20 minutes. A lot of times. Jeremy arriving at time, pass back, four players in the box. I want that type of game.
“If I put another type of players, more control, we don’t have that threat. And I know, no, I want in the first game to try to do it. What would happen if from those chances when they didn’t arrive we scored one goal or two goals? And we were there, we’re close. One moment, a pass back to Bernardo, Bernardo alone with no keeper, he didn’t make a contact. Bernardo, one of the most gifted players that we have, in the six-yard box. Bernardo here, scored at the Etihad at the stadium, the year we won 4-3 from the edge of the 18-yard box, and put the ball into the corner. What (would have) happened in that game with 0-1 there? We don’t know.
“And after the emotion is involved, like Ruben and Bernardo said. It happens, it’s football. But my players are extraordinary, and they were extraordinary in many things. You can say whatever you want. I will convince you now when the selection tomorrow, if I want to rotate the team? If we win, it will be perfect, Pep.
“What happened in Newcastle? Did you read the comments before the game, (about) my team selection, in the social media? Did you read it? Yeah, you read it. ‘What they’re doing, Pep, in the FA Cup, how lack of respect for that competition’.
“How can people say that when we arrive how many times in finals, semi-finals of the FA Cup in the last four or five years? No team. No team in England the last 10, 15, 20 years have been more times in the semi-finals. What a lack of respect. ‘How is Rodri not playing, how is Bernardo not playing, how you don’t play this player, how you don’t play the other one, how do you leave Erling at home?’. 1-3.
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“You see the performance of Newcastle against Barcelona, right? You see? It’s difficult. Easy place to go. Easy place. But I’m there to convince you? No, you judge. And after that, oh, Pep, how brilliant you have been against Newcastle.
“It’s the same in Madrid. There is a reason why. The forms and see the players and see that play with that player and play that position. So Bernardo…. I know Bernardo played better in the build-up in a low block with Rodri than being in the final third. I know that.
“Bernardo, with his composure, in Bernabeu, with Marc (Guehi) it’s the first game, Antoine is the first game and many things I need Bernardo there. I need that because he played a thousand million times there because I know how he is in the bad moments, how he behaves.
“But I had to explain it before and after? After 10 years? I would not convince you one second, any one of you, anyone. Why? Because we lost and that’s all and it’s right, 3-0, destroyed, yeah, it’s normal. It’s not personal, believe me, it’s all the managers. All the managers, all the managers.
“It’s not the first time I played in that competition, the Champions League, 17 years playing in that competition, and every time I lose, boom, my God. Pew, pew, pew (mimics shots fired) A lot. Is it new? No, it’s okay.
“The storm passed in one day, now West Ham, go to the second and prepare for Tuesday. And if Tuesday we will be out, we’ll be ohhhh. I have a lot of fans in the media, don’t worry. Supporters, a lot of fans, I have a lot, so it will happen. It’s okay, it’s fine. I have to do my job and my best, honestly. Knowing that if we win, it’s good, and if we lose, it’s bad. Okay? Good answer.”
