Pep Guardiola on choosing Man City captain for first time, asking Klopp about Lijnders, Grealish’s future

A lot can change in 25 days.

Since the time Pep Guardiola played down the prospect of major changes at Craven Cottage after the final game of the season, four players and three coaches have joined the club.

They had five days to integrate and gel their ideas and skill sets at City’s training base in Boca Raton, Miami, but on Tuesday, the 32-man squad travelled to Philadelphia, where they kick off their Club World Cup campaign on Wednesday against Moroccan side Wydad.

Advertisement

On the eve of that game, Guardiola spoke to the assembled media for the first time since that final day victory against Fulham, which sealed Champions League football for a 15th consecutive year, and there were plenty of subjects to chew through.

A change in approach over the captaincy, the arrival of a former rival as assistant coach, the future of Jack Grealish and the prospect of further signings.

The Athletic breaks down what Guardiola had to say on each…

Guardiola chooses captain for first time

The City manager has traditionally delegated the choice of captaincy to the group, allowing his staff and players to vote for the five players they want to lead.

Last season, Kyle Walker began wearing the armband, but he went on loan to Milan in January and has not been named in the Club World Cup squad. His successor, Kevin De Bruyne, departed on a free transfer this summer.

Guardiola has decided to take matters into his own hands this year and has included Erling Haaland in a decision he believes underlines that the 24-year-old is the future of the club.

“I’m the manager this season, for the first time in my career, I decided it would be my captain,” Guardiola said.

“I didn’t like what happened last season, and I decided this season I will represent the team.”

Guardiola did not go into more detail on what he meant by that but he did speak last season about how disappointed he was that Walker — whose exit he declined to confirm — handed in a transfer request mid-season.

Guardiola was disappointed by Walker and has added Haaland to the leadership group (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images)

“I just decided this season, sometimes I want to be the boss,” Guardiola said. “This season I decided to do it, so I chose the four captains, and at the end of this World Cup, maybe we choose one or two more.”

Haaland signed a 10-year contract at the start of the year and Guardiola saw that as reason to hand him more responsibility.

Advertisement

“First of all, he’s so young, but he has to start to learn what it means to be a captain,” he said. “He will be here, hopefully, for many, many years, and that’s why, sooner or later, he will take that position as the first one.

“When you have Bernardo (Silva), you have Ruben (Dias), and you have Rodri, plus Ilkay Gundogan, who was an unbelievable captain for us in the treble year, he will learn.

“Especially because he’s incredibly respected. He’s an important figure. It’s not necessary to say what happened on the pitch, but the important (thing) for me is I had the feeling that, thinking about the future of this club, he has to start to learn what does it mean to be a captain and thinking what is best for the team.”

Haaland is a single-minded forward whose game revolves around his desire to score goals, but Guardiola believes being a leader can perhaps provide a new perspective.

“Captaincy… it’s complicated sometimes, but at the same time, it’s so simple,” he said. “You have to put the team, your mates, the club in front of you all the time. To ask all the time what is the best for the team, and when you decide what is the best for the team, you never make a mistake, never, ever.

“This is what you have to do as captains, and Bernardo has been an incredible figure for us for many years here, knowing in the bad moments to make a step up and (be an) example on the pitch, when they had to say something to me as a manager, or to the players.

“They will guide the new players because we’ll have problems during a season always happen. These three or four players on the pitch are guys with a huge personality. When everything is going wrong in the bad moments, they always say, ‘OK, guys, we have to do it, we cannot accept what’s going on’, and they make a step up. That is the reason I chose this team. He’s one of those guys who has a big personality.”

Talking to Klopp about hiring Lijnders

Guardiola is starting his 10th season at City and has gone through many assistants along the way, but there will be a trio of new faces next to him in the dugout in the U.S. over the next month.

Juanma Lillo and Inigo Dominguez left at the end of the season when their contracts expired, and Carlos Vicens has joined Braga as head coach.

Advertisement

In their place is Kolo Toure, who has been moved up from the academy for this tournament, and Liverpool’s chief analyst James French, who is taking up Vicens’ role as set-piece coach.

But the most surprising addition is another man who knows Anfield well — Pep Lijnders, Jurgen Klopp’s No 2 in the second half of his reign.

Guardiola spoke to Klopp about Lijnders (Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

“I had a conversation with Jurgen, but not about Pep. As always, a long conversation,” he said. “I suggested I was thinking about Pep, and he gave me his opinion that was, of course, so high. He was his right hand, one of the most successful periods of Liverpool in the last years.

“I asked for permission from Jurgen because I didn’t want to interfere much. I said to him, ‘Would it be a problem, you know, to talk to him?’, and he said, ‘Absolutely not’.

“So I talked to him, we talked a little bit, and in one or two days, we decided, ‘OK, let’s try to do it’.”

Lijnders lasted only six months at Red Bull Salzburg before being sacked, his second role as a No 1 after a brief spell at NEC in the Netherlands in 2018, but Guardiola is used to working with coaches who have ambitions to pave their own way.

“I’m an unfortunate guy, all the assistant managers I had in my career, since Barcelona, Bayern, and here, I had a lot. Wow, everybody helped me, incredible. I’ve been so fortunate to have Domenec (Torrent), Juanma, but especially Mikel (Arteta), Enzo (Maresca), so they made me a better manager.

“I’m pretty sure Kolo, and especially Pep, will help me too because at the end it’s a question of back and forth. I drink from his knowledge and every day since we met we talk a lot about tactics, about football, about training sessions, and many things. He’s been so inspiring for me.”

Does Jack Grealish have a future at City?

Guardiola also gave an update on Grealish, City’s record signing, who was left out of the final Premier League squad of the season and was not given a seat on the plane for this tournament.

Grealish has two years left on his contract but was reduced to a bit-part role last season, and it was decided he would not be involved this summer.

Advertisement

“He had a conversation between him and the club and they decided it was best,” said Guardiola. “Jack is an exceptional player. The only reason why he didn’t play last season is, of course, my decisions. We decide that he has to play.

“The club was honest, he was honest. Incredible love and respect and we decide the best is to stay (behind) and have a place that he can feel like he can come back to be the player like he was in the year of the treble or all his career in Aston Villa.

Grealish is not part of City’s Club World Cup squad this summer (Lars Baron – FIFA via Getty Images)

“Without him, it would have been more difficult in the year of the treble. The fact is in the last two seasons, he didn’t play much minutes. He has to come back to play and have the butterflies in his stomach that he can play every three days, every three days and show again the quality he has.”

Guardiola was asked if this should be taken as an insinuation that his future is away from City.

“I don’t know. Now we decide, ‘Don’t come here’, and what happens, I don’t know in the end. If we don’t find, he’s a player for Man City and he will be back,” he said.

“My decisions. Football is competing with each other. Not just Jack, to all of them. They compete (to decide) who deserves to play. The butterflies happens to all the players. Over the last two years, he didn’t play muc,h and I take responsibility for that. He has to play. We reflected that it was better not to come here.”

(Top photo: Franck Fife / AFP)

Click here to read article