Pep Talk: ““We want to prepare the right way for Real Madrid,”

Pep Guardiola gave his weekly press confernece and hit on a number of topics. From David Silva, Real Madrid match, Kevin De Bruyne and Norwich, the boss gave some interesting thoughts.

Let’s get to them.

Pep on David Silva-

“Extraordinary,” he said when asked to summarise Silva’s illustrious career.

“The amount of games, the huge quality in the games he played, the titles he helped win...he’s alongside five or six others who made this Club what it is now.

“And this club will always be grateful.”

Pep on future UCL tie/Norwich

“We want to prepare the right way for Real Madrid,”

“Real Madrid and #ManCity both want to go through.

They have more experience and we know that to go through, we have to do an exceptional game to beat them. We have to focus. We will train and prepare as best we can do.”

“The game against Norwich and how they train this week will be what I base Madrid on. Every game will be an exam for me to see who is ready to play the game.

“Against Watford [we were] a little bit better. But still, we need to improve.”

“It’s more important to win games,” he added. “If we win every game 1-0 we would be champions.

“We score lots of goals in general, but the job is to be better after 95 minutes than your opponent. When you lose nine, ten games it’s not enough to win the Premier League.

“We lost there and that showed us inconsistency. The last game was the first time we won four games in a row.

We played one team like we were maybe not consistent in the box but we created many chances and we want to win the last game...”

“You can’t lose many games right now and next season, it will be the same.”

“I think everybody will be fit for Real Madrid. Mendy is suspended.”

Pep on KDB-

“He speaks for himself, what he gives to our team and to the league. It is not necessary to say what a fantastic player he is. Congratulations to the Liverpool captain for the award, he is a really good player.”

“He enjoys to make assists. I would love for Kevin to score goals but he enjoys making assists too. I think in the last period, he is enjoying taking free-kicks and penalties and taking this responsibility...”

“The numbers are incredible, not just this season but also the year when we won 100 points. He was incredible and I will never forget how he played.”

“We will see. The players make these roles on and off the pitch, it depends on what they want, not the manager. I think these things are won with the respect on and off the pitch, it comes naturally.”

Pep on days off-

“I gave two days [off] - we had a tough period after lockdown with games every three days. We don’t play for anything and Norwich don’t except the respect of trying to win the games but no more than this...”

“If you play against an opponent playing for something maybe I would not have given two days and after this we are going to prepare two weeks with a normal day off but no more than this and complete the plan.”

That will do it for this week. Keep it here for match preview and coverage.