Don’t Blame Haaland For Man City’s Poor Form – Guardiola
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has revealed that Erling Haaland is not to blame for the team’s poor run of form ahead of the Boxing Day’s clash against Everton.
The defending champions lost 2-1 to Aston Villa on Saturday to continue their disastrous form, which has seen them slip out of the top four to sit seventh on the log.
Top scorer, Erling Haaland has been criticised for his lack of effort as the team struggles for form and confidence, but Guardiola has leap to his defence.
Guardiola said: “It’s about us, it’s not just about one player.
“So when in the past we scored goals and Erling was so prolific in helping us, it’s because of the team. And when you have problems at the back, in the middle, it’s for everyone.
“If it was just one player, the reason why, it would be easy. It’s not about that. Erling is so important for us, will be so important for us, and we try to do things better, to use him better.”
Haaland has scored just two goals in the last 10 matches after scoring 10 in their opening five matches in the league.
He has scored 13 goals in 17 Premier League matches this season.
Guardiola is unsure if the trio of Matheus Nunes, Ederson, and John Stones will be available for the clash against Everton, while also praising Sean Dyche for his impressive work at Goodison Park.
He said: “All the tendency to say we don’t run, we don’t fight, the reason why is this one, this situation or this player or this manager or this.
“It’s not about that. It’s many little details or big details that all together make us not as good as we were.
“But we have another opportunity on Boxing Day to try and win time for the players to come back and in a certain time we’ll be better.
“Sean Dyche always has a really good defensive structure, really good patterns defensively, offensively.
“And when they are able to do it against Arsenal and Chelsea, that means they are really good because they have good transitions and of course at set-pieces, long balls, they are really, really strong.”
Manchester City are currently 12 points behind table-toppers Liverpool with the Reds having played a game less.
The defending champions have had just one win in 12 matches in all competitions since October, suffering a sixth defeat in their last eight Premier League games against Aston Villa.
Everton will be buoyed by their battling performance to earn a point in the 0-0 draw against Chelsea at Goodison Park on Sunday.
Don’t Blame Haaland For Man City’s Poor Form – Guardiola is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
