Guardiola refutes Haaland burnout amid goal drought

Pep Guardiola has dismissed the suggestion that Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has played too much football this season.

Haaland has endured a downturn in form in recent weeks, failing to score in his last four appearances across all competitions. He has not scored from open play since before Christmas.

The Norwegian has struggled to make an impact during defeats to Manchester United and Bodo/Glimt over the past week, leading to suggestions of potential burnout.

Haaland has played 2568 minutes across all competitions this season with only 11 players across the Premier League featuring more. Following the midweek Champions League defeat to Bodo/Glimt, he apologised for his lack of impact.

“I don’t have the answers,” Haaland told TNT Sports.

“I take full responsibility for not being able to score the goals I should do, so I apologise to everyone and every single Manchester City supporter that travelled today.

“I don’t want to speak about how I feel, I do my best whenever I am on the pitch and I am on the pitch quite often because we play ridiculous amount of games. I try to do my best, that is my job and I try to get ready for the next game.”

Guardiola was asked whether Haaland was being overloaded this season, but shut down the suggestion. Speaking ahead of this weekend’s clash with Wolves, he told his pre-match press conference: “Why do we talk about that subject again? Nothing is going to change.

“In Bodo, we had 11 players out. Aston Villa have a lot, Tottenham have a lot. It’s not just us. It’s a lot of games but how many times do we talk about that? It’s not going to change. He has a physicality to maintain.

“We were in Newcastle one week ago and we won 2-0. In my opinion, against Bodo, we missed the chances that we had and the long balls, we were not aggressive enough. We conceded two goals in two minutes. We had chances with the Max Alleyne header.

“I’m not talking about the game against United. In the game against Bodo, I did not have that feeling.”

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