Pep Guardiola about the Premier League: “I have never known this level before” 
Pep Guardiola appeared for an interview with the big English media outlet to speak about tactics, young coaches and global changes in football. We’ll give you the highlights in brief.
The level of football has become higher, it’s harder to win matches than it was 13 or 14 years ago:
“Compared to when I started at Barcelona, it has gone much, much further. The level has improved a lot. The quality, the methodology, the training sessions, the analysis of what exactly the opponent is going to do and what your team can do to punish them. You cannot imagine the hard work that goes in behind the scenes. That is why it is so much more difficult to win games now than when I started 13 or 14 years ago.”
“I have never known this level before. Of course, there are managers in Germany, Italy and Spain, but in the Premier League, these are the best managers, the elite managers. The quality, the preparation. The level is so high.”
Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard have a high level of coaching – which is partly thanks to modern equipment and technologies:
“Younger managers such as Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, who were players when I became a manager, they are incredibly well prepared. They have a curiosity. They understand a lot. They study the reasons why, offensively and defensively.
“It is partly thanks to the facilities that we have now. The drones, the wide angles, the databases. Many things help to build a picture of who you are as a team and who the opponents are as a team. After that, you can take the decisions as a manager easily.”
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In the EPL, the game is played differently – even within the same match:
“The nice thing about the Premier League is that there are five or six different ways to play and, when you do it well, it works. It is not a pattern, teams playing one way all the time. Teams play differently even within a game and you have to solve the problem.”
Replicating a winner is a mistake, it is those who believe in their own style who achieve success:
“I remember years ago when teams would win the World Cup, whatever nationality, and afterwards we would all analyse the winner and say this is the tendency that we will see in the next years. Everyone wants to copy the winner. This is a big mistake. Football is not copy and paste. I cannot copy another manager who I like and paste it into my team if I do not know what they do. A manager succeeds by doing what they believe in.”
“I admire those managers who, when the season starts, you can feel the way they play. Then, when the situation goes down a bit, they stick with what they believe. These are the managers who have success. When they start to veer left and right, up and down, depending on the results, that is a bad thing. You are not going to do good that way.”
The Spaniard wants the future to be decided by talent and skill, not by going to the gym:
“My wish is that talent and skill will dictate the future of our football, not the managers who say that if you want to be a better player go to the gym and you will play. When you have the ability to dribble past two or three players and put the ball in the corner, it is about the quality not going to the gym. Hopefully, the streets of UK, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, everywhere, produce young talents who can show this game is beautiful.”
