Pep Guardiola points out one Manchester City star that he can’t afford to drop
Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, admitted that he cannot drop Erling Haaland after the Norwegian scored yet another hat trick.
Haaland’s hat-trick in 17 in-game minutes against Julen Lopetegui’s side secured a 3-0 win and all three points to keep pace with league leaders Arsenal. City’s two-game winning streak was the perfect response to consecutive defeats.
As a result of their dramatic 3-2 victory over Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium, Mikel Arteta’s squad currently leads the defending Premier League champions by five points.
Haaland was the talk of the town after he scored his fourth hat-trick of the season, despite the fact that Rodri, Jack Grealish, and John Stones arguably had the best games.
Pep Guardiola revealed Haaland’s reaction to being substituted in the second half, despite the possibility of him adding more goals to his hat-trick, while speaking to the broadcast media after the victory.
“Quite impressed,” Guardiola responded when asked about how impressed he was by Haaland’s reaction to being replaced. “In most of the games, after two or three goals, he was replaced by his mate.”
“If he played 90 minutes, maybe he will score more goals but what’s important is he helps us to win games. I would say Sergio (Aguero) and Gabby (Jesus) before had the sense to score goals, but of course his presence in these moments is important.”
Guardiola continued, “He’s an incredible team mate. A fantastic person. Never one bad face, never doesn’t understand a decision, always sad when we cannot win. A joy of a guy.”
Despite Erling Haaland’s staggering 31 goals and three assists for Manchester City in all competitions so far this season, there have been suggestions that the Norwegian international has crippled his team’s overall performance.
This is a suggestion that Pep Guardiola describes a ‘grey vision’ of the reality, as he said, “When he scores I don’t know how many hat-tricks and goals, (people say) he is the solution in our team and when he does not score a goal he is a problem in our team.”
“This is a grey vision of this kind of things. We know his quality, we know each other. He is not a player to be dropped. We cannot play a false nine with him, we have to adapt with him and I think we are doing quite well.”
Manchester City will now spend the majority of the upcoming week resting and preparing for their FA Cup fourth round match against Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium, which will be the first meeting between the two Premier League title rivals this season.
Phil Foden suffered a foot injury in last week’s 2-1 loss to Manchester United in the Manchester derby. The England international has been instrumental in many of City’s recent successes.
Pep Guardiola points out one Manchester City star that he can’t afford to drop
