Guardiola says he puts Manchester City’s steady progress first

The coach of Manchester City , Pep Guardiola , said this Monday , on the eve of the first leg of the English League Cup semifinal against Newcastle , that he is more concerned with the progressive growth of his team than with winning titles.

“It’s not about winning or not winning titles (…) Believe me, that’s not what matters. We are here to make the team play better and the only satisfaction for us and our fans is to deliver a good performance,” Guardiola said at a press conference.

The 2024/2025 season was City’s first without trophies in eight years, although they did beat archrival Manchester United on penalties in the English Super Cup final in August 2024.

“We didn’t deserve to win more than one trophy last season because we weren’t playing well,” the coach admitted.

Guardiola, who last year had to rebuild the team after the departure of several key players, such as Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson , reiterated that the goal remains to improve game by game.

The English League Cup is a competition that, nevertheless, brings good memories.

From 2018 to 2021, Manchester City achieved the unprecedented feat of winning four consecutive editions of the tournament, a symbol of the club’s dominance under Guardiola’s leadership over the past decade.

Knocked off the top by Liverpool in the English Premier League last season, City is currently six points behind the current leader, Arsenal .

Arsenal, managed by fellow Spaniard Mikel Arteta , a former Guardiola assistant, will go to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to face Chelsea in the other League Cup semifinal.

*with content from AFP

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.