Guardiola: Players make Barcelona tick, not me

"It's the players the public come to watch, it's the players who win the games," he told reporters after his side's 3-2 Champions League at AC Milan on Wednesday.

"I try to help them by getting to know the opponents and letting them know how we can do damage," he said. "Then I just make them go out and run. That is my job."

Guardiola said he had won 12 out of 15 competitions in which Barcelona had taken part under his leadership, although that includes the likes of the Super Cup, which are one-off matches.

"There is one absolute certainty, which is that I wouldn't have done that with another group of players.

"Whether this group of players would have done that with a different coach, I don't know."

Guardiola sprang another surprise by declaring that his priority for the rest of the year was the Club World Championship in Japan, a tournament which carries little weight in Europe.

"What we want to do in the next few weeks is prepare well for the world club championship, that's what we really want to win and that's our absolutely priority in the next few weeks."