Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has vowed never to drop Norwegian striker Erling Haaland after seeing another hat-trick in a perceived problem for the Citizens.
How was everything?
The prolific Norwegian striker has been a revelation in the PL this season, with a treble against Wolverhampton Wanderers – his fourth of the campaign – taking him to 25 goals in the English top flight. The Citizens had to tweak their system a bit to include the 22-year-old, leading some to speculate he could be the cause of an uncharacteristic struggle for consistency as a team, but Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has no doubt Erling Haaland will be a key man for the Citizens when it is available for selection.
What did Guardiola say about Erling Haaland?
The Spanish coach told reporters of his No. 9 star after seeing him down Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City’s edge closer to the Gunners at the top of the Premier League table that the numbers are unbelievable. According to Pep Guardiola, Erling Haaland lives 24 hours for his profession, work, passion, love. Haaland doesn’t push too hard when things are going well or badly. Elling is stable. The Norwegian striker feels defeated.
This is really good and he is not a player who will take the ball 10 meters behind the box. It’s not his ability. Pep says that Eling Haaland needs to get the balls delivered as much as possible from the fantastic players around him. The first goal is because Haaland is there. Delivery from De Bruyne is fantastic. They know each other.
Pep added to the puzzled questions that were asked about the presence of the Norwegian player on the Manchester City side: “Look, when we lost the competition (Community Shield) against the Reds, all the debate (in the week), 10 days before the Hammers, he didn’t will adapt to the PL.” According to him, when Erling Haaland played and scored, Guardiola does not know many goals, he is the decision and all the teams and when he does not score, he is a problem in their team.
It’s a beautiful vision of such things. They know its quality. They know each other. Erling Haaland is not a player to fold. They can’t play false 9s with him. They have to adapt some moves with him. And they are doing well. The numbers are quite similar, when they were champions for many years here, apart from the season they got 100 points. So there they are. The Spaniard says improvement, improvement, improvement. This is what they must do.
A little about the topic
Erling scored his fourth Premier League hat-trick for the Citizens in what is only his 19th appearance, the fewest games taken to score four hat-tricks in competition history (the previous record was Ruud van Nistelrooy’s 65 applications).
What will happen after this?
Norway national team player Eling Haaland has failed to find a goal in just seven of his 26 appearances for the Citizens, with 31 goals recorded in all competitions, and the Gunners will be in his line of sight on Friday when Arsenal visit the Etihad Stadium for clash of the fourth round of the FA Cup heavyweight division.