“I have no preconceptions at all about coming to England or the football in the Premier League. I want to learn as much as possible. I have an idea of how we will play but, when I arrived in Germany with Bayern Munich, I had some ideas of how the team would play but changed them as I went along,” he said.
“I know how hard the Premier League is and some people have said that I will find it hard to play the football I like to play in England so I said to myself: ‘Why not?’ That’s why I’m here – because I want to try.
“We have to find a way to win and if we win one game, the next week we will say: ‘OK, let’s try to do the same things this week’ – and if we win again, we’ll say: ‘Let’s do the things that won us those two games’ and so on.
“I’ve been told it will be hard to do that in the Premier League but we did it at Barcelona and Bayern Munich and people may say: ‘Yes, that’s because it was Barcelona and Bayern – it won’t be possible to do that in England.’ And I just say: ‘OK, let’s try.’”
Guardiola directly addressed the view that his previous success has been at major clubs in leagues where competition is either limited (La Liga’s three-horse, Atlético-Barça-Real Madrid affair) or close-to-zero, (the Bundesliga, where Bayern have been champions the last four seasons).
The difference at City is that Guardiola is not taking over a club high on the emotion of a league, domestic cup and European Cup treble as Bayern were in summer 2013. City still expect him to win but given the at times jumbled displays under Manuel Pellegrini, which derived from the Chilean’s mono-tactical approach, Guardiola starts from a lower base point.
He pointed to this when stating what his first task is. “Play good. And after try to win one game and after second one and another but the first target is team spirit and play good,” he said.
In this context Ilkay Gündogan’s £21m signing from Borussia Dortmund can be viewed as a statement of intent. The 25-year-old is a midfielder broadly in the mould of Xabi Alonso or Xavi: all love to control a game from deep.
There is sure, too, to be the trademark emphasis on technically quick footballers, like Raheem Sterling, whom Guardiola contacted during Euro 2016 to assure the winger he will be a “big part of my plans”. As a ball-playing central defender Everton’s John Stones, a proposed target, also fits this mould. And, given Sergio Agüero’s ranking as one of the world’s finest goalscorers, expect Guardiola’s City to be more direct than either his Barça or Bayern, where he was no advocate of the traditional No9.
Gündogan will not be available until late August at the earliest on account of a knee injury but expect the new Guardiola‑City model to be on display as soon as the manager’s first match – the friendly at Bayern on 20 July.
Expect, too, every player Guardiola fields to become better. “Every manager in the world wants to improve their players,” he said. “That is why if he is able to, he improves the team. I work like all the managers in the world. I have my point of view, my way to do my job. I need time but as soon as possible we are going to try to create team spirit. That is the most important thing. After you can create tactics but we have to create something special with ourselves.”
All Credits :theguardian
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