Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, has taken the blame for Erling Haaland’s struggles in front of goal..
Haaland is still the Premier League’s top scorer, nine points ahead of his nearest rival, but he has only scored once in his last six appearances in all competitions. If the Norwegian striker fails to score against Bournemouth on Saturday, he will equal his unfavorable City record of three consecutive games without scoring.
The former Borussia Dortmund man has also been criticized for his perceived lack of involvement, with some pointing to the number of touches he had in the midweek draw with RB Leipzig. Guardiola has set out his stall as City battles to keep pace with Premier League leaders Arsenal.
The former Borussia Dortmund man has also been criticized for his perceived lack of involvement, with some pointing to the number of touches he had in the midweek draw with RB Leipzig. Guardiola has set out his stall as City battles to keep pace with Premier League leaders Arsenal.
It’s all our fault. “Erling has been excellent all season,” Guardiola said to reporters on Friday. “It’s not about metrics. When I finish the game, I know whether he was involved or not, and who should be involved more or less.
“I don’t need numbers or metrics because I know exactly what I’m doing. Of course, it is dependent on us. We’ll have to look harder for him..
You’re right about the last game [he didn’t get enough touches on the ball], but not against Nottingham [Forest]. He had chances in both the first and second halves. We’ve talked about it a lot, and it’s going to happen.
Haaland scored 15 goals in his first nine Premier League games after joining City from Dortmund in the summer. He leads the competition with 26 goals, while his five Champions League goals put him three behind the tournament’s top scorer, Mohamed Salah.
All five of those goals, however, came in the group stage, with the 22-year-old going scoreless in Leipzig. He also failed to score as City lost league points to Nottingham Forest and Tottenham, but Guardiola has tried to put that behind him..
Striker is the most difficult position to play; one man has two defenders, and Erling has three “The former Bayern Munich manager went on to say. “I would agree that more control and more passes were needed in the last game. We were really intense in the first half, but we dropped a little bit in the second half, which is why we struggled..
You’re going to struggle against Leipzig. We should have looked for him more during that game. It’s fine [if he’s frustrated], I’m frustrated too, and I’m sure you get frustrated in your life from time to time. “Happiness is overrated!”
Leave a Reply