Pep Guardiola spoke to the media on Friday afternoon ahead of Manchester City’s Premier League fixture with Wolves on Saturday.
With no Champions League football to contend with, Manchester City enjoyed a rare midweek off following their 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
Next up for City is Wolverhampton Wanderers, who they lost to back in October in the run of games for which Rodri was suspended.
Thankfully, the midfield maestro will be in the starting XI this time around and it sounds like the Blues will be at full strength after Pep Guardiola gave a promising injury update on Ederson.
You can read what the manager said about his goalkeeper and everything else from his pre-match press conference, broadcast by City’s official website, below.
- Man City vs Wolves: TV channel, kick-off time, team news, prediction, referee and VAR
Pep Guardiola’s Man City vs Wolves press conference
Phil Foden wins FWA Player of the Year award, deserved?
“The writers decide this award, congratulations for the writers and for him.
“He played really good this season, many players play really good this season and the writers decide for this award. So what can I say, congratulations.”
How do you think Phil has done this year?
“Very good. I said many times. The impact in the final third is really good, work ethic.
“Yeah, every year, the amount of games he’s playing, the minutes he’s playing, he’s more mature and he understands the game. He has to continue, he is still young.”
Annoying to be criticised during Foden’s early development?
“The first part of the question, criticism, he was 17, 18 years old, David Silva was here, Kevin De Bruyne was here, [Ilkay] Gundogan was here.
“So we was playing a team that won a lot of Premier Leagues, final stages in all competitions. So it was not easy to play, so demanding.
“Again, thank you so much for giving me incredible credit but it’s not about that. The footballer’s for the amount of minutes they play learn during the game, what happened with his mates, opponents and so on.
“The work ethic mentality. We can as a manager suggest something, it depends on the opponents, but it belongs to them. It belongs to them.
“Look at the case of Cole Palmer. What did I develop? I didn’t give the minutes, if I gave the minutes maybe he be here maybe not. The talent is there.
“At the end, it depends absolutely on the players and what they do, what they learn every single game.
How much more can Foden improve?
“Always you can improve. Until you retire, until you die always improve.”
Latest on Foden and Dias?
“He feels good.”
[Are they okay?] “Yep.”
On Ederson
“He’s okay. Looks worse, then he feels good. Yesterday we train he feels good.”
[Could be back this weekend?] “Yep.”
Does the experience of winning the league give you an advantage over Arsenal?
“I would love but I don’t know. I don’t have an answer to this question.
“I would like to think yes but we have to prove it tomorrow against Wolves and the next games.
“We know that to win we need all 12 points otherwise it will be difficult because Arsenal are so strong, so consistent.
“What I said is it depends on us. Simple one game, one more week, then the last week of the season before the FA Cup final.
“Three games in a week, one at a time to win the games. It’s no more complicated to our guys.
“I would like to say, ‘yeah, what we have done in the past is going to happen this season’ nobody knows it.”
What do you want to see from Foden next?
“It depends on him. It’s simple as that I promise you. It depends on him. Mentality, wanting more, wanting to do it again, I will live 24 hours for my game, for my profession.
“It’s on him, like all the players.”
Should he be proud of the academy player tag?
“Of course for academy players, making a huge impact in the team is the target but look at how many players came from the academy.
“How many have played here, how many are all around the world? Here in England, how many players?
“Morgan [Rodgers] now Aston Villa was here and many, many players. So the job this academy has done in the last five, six, seven years is unbelievable.
“We are so proud of them. Not all the players in the academy can play in the first team, it’s a question of space.
“They can not. But we help them to be better players, better human beings and look what happened. A lot of them are professionals, long careers will be, so it’s so nice. Really, really good.
A word on how Gary O’Neil has done at Wolves
“Really good.”
How was it to have a week of training?
“Good. Days off, three really good training sessions. As always. The team always trains good.
Can you do more? Work tactically?
“More refresh the mind. Tactics, little details, but at this stage, there’s not much to talk about tactics it’s about fresh legs, minds and ready for the game tomorrow.”
Do you have time to think of new ideas? How do you think of then?
“Right now? No. Right now is rest of myself and prepare for Wolves, Fulham and no more than that.”
English teams struggled in Europe this season. Jurgen Klopp thinks it’s down to the schedule in England, agree?
“I don’t know if it’s the main reason but I completely agree with Jurgen, it’s one of the reasons.”
Does more have to be done to change it?
“It’s not going to change. Maybe next season we are three, four teams in the final stages but for a long, long time it’s more difficult.”
Is Haaland fit to start again?
“Yeah. When everybody’s fit, everybody has to be ready.
“I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do tomorrow, of course I know but have a little doubts about one or two players in the lineup.
“But the rest of the game plan and what we’re going to do, I have time to think about it and see the last games from Wolves.
“And yeah he’s ready, yeah.”
