Pep Guardiola has said he trusts himself to be a success at Manchester City but admitted he will be unable to “change everything” about English football.
Guardiola starts his tenure at the club after two supremely successful spells at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, winning a total of six league titles and two Champions League trophies with a brand of slick pass-and-move football, leading to expectation that Guardiola will work a kind of football miracle at his new club.
However, during his first press conference as City manager on Friday, he played down the prospects of him changing English football culture: “To come to the country which created football and believe you have to change something would be a little bit presumptuous,” he said. “I’m not good enough to change everything. To change the mentality of a club of more than 120 years would be presumptuous.
“I trust a lot in myself. I am able to do the job but I don’t come here to think I can change the mentality or the culture of England. Spain is the way it is for the weather, for the history, for many things. Germany is completely different as well.
“I am here to work with several people and to try to think in the same way. We are going to play that way because we hope to convince the players that is the best way. It won’t be easy. We need time. But we don’t have time. People don’t expect to see in January and February how good we are. They expect first friendly game against Bayern Munich [on 20 July]: ‘How good is Pep?’ I need time. I know I don’t have time. It was the same at Barcelona. The same in Munich so that is the expectation.
“I was lucky to train Barcelona and Bayern Munich with these amazing players and we won a lot of titles in a short time. The expectations now are the same and we will try [to achieve them].”
Joe Hart will begin as Guardiola’s first-choice goalkeeper despite his patchy form for England at Euro 2016. “At the moment, there’s no doubt about that. He’s No1,” said the 45-year-old. “We’re always looking for the best option to create a better team. But I’m not concerned about that. I don’t worry about the performance of Joe Hart in the Euros. It’s important to know what is the quality – to analyse the quality and to decide what we are going to do with him. It’s similar with [Raheem] Sterling.
“Last season, expectation was high and, OK, he didn’t play regularly and his confidence went down. I cannot judge. It’s so important to create good body language and team spirit and after there is the quality. And I think he is a good talent.”
Asked if he can rebuild Sterling’s confidence, Guardiola said: “We’re going to learn. The problem is recovering confidence when a player has no quality. That is a big problem. Then I cannot help him. But Sterling has the quality. He just has to focus on his life, his profession and I’m pretty sure he will have good season.”
The coming season is also viewed as make or break for Vincent Kompany because of the captain’s continuing injury concerns and Guardiola said: “My dream is for Vincent Kompany to be fit. The captain has a lot of experience and is a magnificent centre-back but of course he has to be fit. We spoke to him and just told him to focus on his body and come back to what he was in the past. Vincent will show his qualities.”
