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Tag: Pep Guardiola

  • Guardiola blames Madrid for Hazard’s poor form

    Guardiola blames Madrid for Hazard’s poor form

    Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has questioned Real Madrid’s role in Eden Hazard’s difficulties to settle in La Liga.

    Hazard secured a dream move to Los Blancos from Chelsea in June last year for a reported fee of €100 million (£90m/$110m).

    After questions were raised over the 29-year-old’s fitness in pre-season, Hazard has struggled to perform strongly for Real to date, with a string of injuries not helping his cause.

    Currently recovering from a foot injury, the Belgian has one goal and four assists to show from his first 13 appearances for his new club.

    Having seen Hazard up close in the Premier League, Guardiola believes the player’s quality can’t be questioned and any dip in form is down to Los Blancos.

    “If he’s not playing well, something’s going on at Madrid because he is really good,” Guardiola said on Post United in an interview with YouTuber ‘DjMaRiiO’.

    “Not a top player, another level above. What we saw in England… he is world class. But the whole world knows that you need a period of adaptation.”

     

     

  • Guardiola speaks on Aguero breaking Premier League record

    Guardiola speaks on Aguero breaking Premier League record

    Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has hailed striker Sergio Aguero on becoming the Premier League’s all-time leading foreign goalscorer.

    Aguero’s hat-trick helped City maul Aston Villa 6-1 on Sunday afternoon, and took his overall league goals tally to 177, breaking the record held by Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, who scored 175 times.

    The hat-trick was Aguero’s 12th in his Premier League career, taking that record outright having previously shared it with Alan Shearer, who remains the competition’s most prolific player with 260 goals.

    Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Guardiola said: “Aguero is a legend and legends rise tonight.

    “Thierry Henry is one of the most incredible players to play in this league and he will be proud that Sergio is the guy who breaks his record. He was a legend and Sergio is the same.

    “To score this amount of goals means you have done for many years a lot of good things. He’s been consistent for many years and so we are proud of him.

    “He is the most incredible person. You cannot achieve this without being a guy who loves to play football.”

  • Why I can never coach Man Utd – Guardiola

    Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has stressed that he will never manage Manchester United, even if it is the only job he was offered, and that solely down to the intense rivalry between the two heavyweight clubs.

    The Spaniard – who was mooted for the Old Trafford job in the past – said he would rather go and play golf on a tropical island than take over at the red side of Manchester.

    “After training City I won’t train United,” the tactician considered to be one of the greatest managers of all time said.

    “It is like I would never train Madrid. Definitely not. I’d be in the Maldives if I don’t have any offers. Maybe not the Maldives because it doesn’t have any golf courses.”

    United and City clash in the derby on weekday in the Football League Cup Semi-Final first leg.

    Although, there is a notable gap between the two British giants in the English Premier League (EPL), they’d go into Tuesday’s game feeling confident of progressing to the final.

    In their last meeting this season, Manchester United somewhat surprisingly came out tops at the Etihad.

    This is the first time the sides have met over a two-legged tie since the 2010 League Cup semi-final, when United overturned a 2-1 loss away from home and defeated Roberto Mancini’s City team 3-1 at Old Trafford to secure progress to the final.

  • Guardiola concedes defeat, says title race is over

    Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola conceded the Premier League title race is over after the reigning champions lost 3-2 at Wolves on Friday.

    City are third in the Premier League, 14 points behind leaders Liverpool and a point below Leicester City.

    Asked if the title race is over, Guardiola told BBC “The advantage is too big, yes.”

    City have lost five Premier League games this season, one more than in the whole of the 2018-19 campaign.

    They have also played a game more than Liverpool, who have dropped only two points this season, are on a run – stretching back to March – of 26 wins from 27 league games and are two matches away from going a full year unbeaten in the top flight.

    “It’s unrealistic to think about Liverpool, we think about Leicester,” Guardiola added. “We have the chance to recover second place. I know the quality of my team but that’s the situation.”

    Winger Bernardo Silva added: “It is a really bad situation for us. A frustrating first half of the season. Nobody expected us to be this far away from Liverpool at this halfway point.

    “We have to continue now. We know that winning the title is very complicated. I wouldn’t say impossible but very difficult.”

  • Guardiola set to break Mourinho’s EPL record

    Manchester City head coach, Pep Guardiola, is on track to set another Premier League record, with one of Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jose Mourinho’s achievements in his sights.

    Having become the first manager to win the English domestic treble with Man City last season, Guardiola is on the verge to break the record for least amount of matches required to get 100 Premier League wins tonight if his team beat Wolves at Molineux, according to Daily Mail.

    Mourinho currently holds that record from his time at Chelsea, with his first 100 wins coming in only 142 league matches.

    But Guardiola looks set to surpass that mark as he currently has 99 wins from 132 league games.

    Even if Man City did not win at Wolves on Thursday night, Guardiola will have another eight matches in which to break Mourinho’s record.

    Guardiola will also eclipse the games it took to reach 100 wins for Jurgen Klopp (159), Sir Alex Ferguson (162), Arsene Wenger (179), Rafael Benitez (181) and Claudio Ranieri (187).

  • Guardiola speaks on Man City exit

    Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, has said that he will try staying at the club for next season before leaving the Etihad.

    Guardiola’s contract runs out at the end of next season; and questions are constantly being asked whether the boss would consider extending his deal.

    Speaking with the press on Monday ahead of City’s Premier League clash with Wolves, Guardiola said, “This is my fourth season, next season will be the fifth – I’ll try to stay next season.

    “It is a long time. I have answered this question recently many times, I am incredibly good here. I have to see if I deserve a new contract…

    “The level has increased a lot and expectations are higher and we have to see if we can handle it. It is not just up to me. Now we have a break with the family and prepare for Wolves and the rest. We have time to think about it in the future.”

    Asked whether the vision he had when he started at Manchester City was coming to fruition, the Spaniard said, “It’s good. We’re working with the same people. Players change but I didn’t expect much.

    “I was curious to see if we could survive in the Premier League but I came with my family, the friends are the same…

    “I know people at the club, I know more about the competition than before. I tried to settle quick and do the job.”

  • Pep Guardiola denies Man City exit clause

    Pep Guardiola says it is “not true” he has a contract clause allowing him to leave Manchester City next summer.

    The manager, 48, has won two Premier League titles since joining City in 2016, and is contracted to 2021.

    He completed an unprecedented domestic treble last season, but City are now 14 points behind leaders Liverpool.

    Responding to reports of a contract clause, Guardiola said: “No. It is not true. I spoke a few weeks ago about my intentions with the club.”

    Guardiola, whose side visit Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday, said in November that he was “happy at the club” and “wants to stay to live and work in Manchester”.

    City are third in the Premier League, having lost four out of 16 matches, as many top-flight defeats as they suffered throughout the whole of last season, and two more than they endured in 2017-18.

    Guardiola said the club are not planning to make any January signings, despite being linked with Bournemouth centre-back Nathan Ake.

    “The players we started the season with we are going to finish with,” he said. “We will look in the summer.”

  • Transfer: Man City won’t buy in January – Guardiola

    Pep Guardiola has admitted that Manchester City “won’t be able to buy in January” after injuries and departures have decimated his defensive options.

    It began in the summer when long-standing captain Vincent Kompany left for Anderlecht before injuries in quick succession to Aymeric Laporte and John Stones saw Guardiola’s centre-back choices significantly reduced.

    But Guardiola – who has been playing defensive midfielder Fernandinho at the back alongside Nicolas Otamendi – insists that he will not be bringing in back-up when the transfer window reopens in a few months time.

    When asked by Soccer Saturday, he said: “That is not my business but in January we are not going to buy because we don’t have money to pay a huge amount in the summer so we cannot do it in winter.

    “We are going to stick to the players we have, with [Taylor] Harwood-Bellis and Eric [Garcia] and with the new players in the academy. We have young, talented players and we can count on them.

    “Vinny [Kompany] was an incredibly personality and he was incredibly helpful to me and the whole club, but he decided to go to Anderlecht and we have to move forward. That is what it is and so far, it has been perfect.”

  • Jesus is an animal, says Guardiola

    Pep Guardiola has hailed Gabriel Jesus as “an animal” after the Brazil striker expressed frustration at his number of first-team starts for Manchester City.

    Jesus made it three goals in as many starts this season when City began their EFL Cup defence with a 3-0 win at Preston North End in midweek, but he is likely to find himself back on the bench against Everton on Saturday.

    Sergio Aguero has netted in every Premier League game this season and, although Jesus proclaimed his admiration and respect for City’s all-time leading goalscorer in an interview with Esporte Interativo, the 2017 arrival from Palmeiras stated he was “over the ‘I have to wait’ phase” at the Etihad Stadium.

    “He’s passionate. I read that interview and it was perfect,” Guardiola told a pre-match news conference.

    “It was incredibly respectful, like Gabriel is. No problem at all. Of course he wants to play. He is the number nine for Brazil.

    “I said recently, he is maybe the only striker in the world at this level who has to have this mentality, a friendship with Sergio and all the team-mates.

    “Every time he is on the pitch, if he plays one second, two minutes or 90 minutes, he plays like an animal. In every action he does his best.

    “Not just Gabriel, all the players want to play all the games. It’s normal. It’s not a problem.”

    Goal

  • EPL: Stay calm, we’re not champions yet, says Guardiola

    Manchester City’s players must remain calm after their derby victory if they are to retain the Premier League title, says manager Pep Guardiola.

    Goals from Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane gave City a 2-0 win at Manchester United to move above Liverpool at the top of the table.

    City will retain the title if they win their last three league matches.

    “We’re still not champions with three games left,” said Guardiola, whose side have one point more than Liverpool.

    “I told the players don’t read tomorrow, don’t watch the television, just rest and sleep a lot and go in there against Burnley [on Sunday].

    “We go to Burnley and we know how tough it will be. It’s important to be calm.”