Pep Guardiola exclusive: Defensive strength, Rubén Dias and why he ‘never doubts principles’ | Football news

Pep Guardiola is calm right now.

It was last summer that the Manchester City manager said he “needed enemies”; his admission is yet another glimpse into the psyche whose quest for greater heights has not wavered in intensity.

“Sometimes when someone pushes me, yes, I defend myself,” he says, speaking to Sky sports in an exclusive interview and thinking about his emotional response to setbacks and challenges at the top of the game.

“Sometimes you need these hypothetical enemies, to say, ‘Okay, I’ll show you who we are as a team.’

“But right now? I don’t need them. I’m stable, I’m calm.”

He suffered the worst defensive display of his coaching career last weekend, but Guardiola seems composed and confident.

A 5-2 loss at home to Leicester was the first time in 686 games as manager that one of their teams conceded five goals. After Jamie Vardy went through the sky blue jerseys, the hosts sucked and then hit, Gary Neville declared that Guardiola would face the “greatest challenge of his career”.

There were many mitigating factors.

These are, of course, the first weeks of a campaign that remains out of place. Guardiola’s team, with that delayed start and without a recognized preseason schedule to grease the components and ignite the connections, was stripped of eight top teams against Brendan Rodgers’ side. Three of the five goals sent were penalties; punishments for individual haste and rebellious positioning.

Guardiola, for whom defense and attack have always been so intrinsically linked, emphasizes the elementary: “Football has changed in the last 10, 20 years; defenders need to create, play, it is not only in the ‘big’ clubs; Look at Brighton, how they encourage their defenders to build, but they must defend, they cannot make mistakes. “

However, there has been a sense of family flaws; the defeats to Lyon in the Champions League and Arsenal in the FA Cup were remembered, as well as what turned out to be an 18-point difference with Liverpool; Suggestions that his overall defensive ability has sunk, that it has become easier for the opposition to break through midfield and beat the press, that he may have lost a little faith in his ability to defend with a high line.

Guardiola’s team certainly faced more shots and more on target last season: up to 115 in 2019/20 from 83 in 2018/19. They are also conceding better quality opposition efforts, and more counterattacks.

An aggressive counterattack when possession has been lost has long been a Guardiola trademark, but Opta’s PPDA metric, which represents the number of opposition passes allowed per defensive action, according to which the lower the number, more active is a team to recover the ball, calculating a gradual increase from 8.3 in 2017/18 to 10.1 last period. Ball recoveries have also declined between those seasons.

But Guardiola is calm right now.

Any scrutiny has only served to strengthen their convictions that individual mistakes, injuries, and circumstances are to blame for systemic malfunction.

“The high line has always That’s how it has been for me, “says the Spaniard, whose teams have had the best defensive records in eight of his seasons in office.” My teams have conceded the fewest goals playing 40 meters from our area. I’ve always believed that the further you are from your goal, the less chance you have to concede.

“We have to control the counterattack as a team, we have to improve the game against the counterattack. We have to have more passing to have more control in the game but I don’t see it as a big problem at the moment.” . We didn’t lose to Leicester because of the counterattack. “

The replacement of Fernandinho against Leicester by Liam Delap was a rare kind of trade from Guardiola that did not pay off, but a midfield double pivot, pairing the 35-year-old with Rodri, was effective against the Wolves. The City manager says he will continue to use the strategy of two deeper midfielders, “depending on the opponent and their preparation,” and cites the victories against Real Madrid and Liverpool as evidence against possible attack compensation.

Fernandinho – whom Guardiola assures that now he will only play behind “in case of emergency” – remains a key figure and it has been a relief for Guardiola to call back another in Aymeric Laporte, whose return from a serious knee injury saw al City to score nine clean sheets in their last 11 games of last season.

Against Burnley midweek, a reassuringly assured victory with minimal fuss, the Frenchman, forced into self-quarantine after a positive coronavirus test, helped create City’s first with a slide rule pass. But, fundamentally, it was the way he could be heard on Turf Moor, organizing and cajoling.

“He has been playing at an outstanding level since he arrived when he was fit; unfortunately when he came back from injury he struggled to reach his best level, but now he feels good. He is a very important player for us.”

Laporte should soon have Rubén Dias by his side and Guardiola has been encouraged with his latest business.

The arrival of the Portuguese international from Benfica brings Guardiola’s spending on defenders at the Etihad to more than £ 400 million, but there is a feeling that even at 23, Dias is finally the kind of player who can replicate the kind of influence of Vincent Kompany.

His former coach Joao Tralhao believes that Dias “will lead everything at City and be the voice of the coach.” Guardiola hopes his new man will spread the message both on and off the field. “It is not just about the transmission from the coach to the field, it is about the transmission to the other players, to his teammates.”

“We knew all about his personality before we tried to buy him,” Guardiola adds.

“He is not just a player with skills, he is a natural leader – you have to be one to be captain of a team like Benfica, one of the best teams of all time in Europe, at 23 years old. In a short time he will be captain” of Portugal too.

“He needs time, to know the players, to know how we want to play, but he came here for six years; in that time he will become an important player for us.”

Where will Guardiola be by then?

This is the first time that he has led a club to a fifth season. He left Barcelona apparently counting the emotional cost of being the most successful manager in the club’s history. He is already entitled to that title at Manchester City and while clarity has yet to come to his contract, he is convinced his message has not diminished over time.

“Every day I try to get the players to believe the message. Most of my backroom staff have stayed the same and look what we’ve won in three seasons.

“If the players ever don’t believe the message, it will be my fault. I have to keep doing everything I can to try to convince them. I know that when you are winning, everything you are doing is correct and when you lose, you have a problem. But they are quite convinced of what we are doing. “

Guardiola is as convinced as ever of his soccer ideals and it seems appropriate that this weekend he faces Marcelo Bielsa.

No one could usurp Johan Cruyff, “the most influential person in my life”, but Bielsa, whose own idealistic and offensive brilliance resonates so deeply with Guardiola, is the coach he “admires most in world football”, the kindred spirit that provides. calm down right now.

“Marcelo has more experience than me but his teams always play the same way. That’s why he is the one I admire the most, as a coach and also as a person.

“I never doubt my principles. Not even in bad times.

“Whether your career is long or short, you have ups and downs, but in the downs I never doubt the players or how I feel. No one can assure you of a victory, no one can assure you with an idea that you will be successful.

“Your to have believe in your own convictions. “