Erling Haaland struggled once again against Aston Villa, with the Manchester City striker only scoring once in his last six matches – but his manager Pep Guardiola refused to let him take the blame
Erling Haaland struggled once again against Aston Villa, with the Manchester City striker only scoring once in his last six matches – but his manager Pep Guardiola refused to let him take the blame Erling Haaland struggled once again against Aston Villa, with the Manchester City striker only scoring once in his last six matches – but his manager Pep Guardiola refused to let him take the blame
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola responded to Erling Haaland’s claim that he is to blame for the team’s woeful run by insisting everyone needs to do better.
City’s dreadful run of form continued at Villa Park on Saturday as goals from Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers condemned them to a 2-1 defeat, which was their ninth loss in 12 matches. Haaland struggled once again up front, with the former Borussia Dortmund star only netting once in his last six matches for City, despite being the Premier League’s joint-top scorer with 13 strikes.
The 24-year-old has been unable to lift City out of their recent rut and he chose to blame himself after the Villa defeat, saying he needed to do more and be more clinical to help his team-mates get back into their groove.
“Of course, we are disappointed, it’s not good enough. It’s not good enough from me,” he told TNT Sports. “We have to continue, we have to believe and we have to keep working hard. We have to continue. First I’m looking at myself, I haven’t been doing things good enough, I haven’t been scoring my chances. I have to do better, I haven’t been good enough.”
Haaland woes up front come despite him smashing in 108 goals in 122 games for the reigning Premier League champions, which has seen him collect the golden boot in each of the last two seasons.
But Guardiola dismissed Haaland’s comments despite his honest and humble admission. The Spaniard insisted City would be a worse team without the forward and called on his team-mates to give him better openings and deliveries to get him back to his goalscoring best.
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“I don’t agree with him,” Guardiola said after the game. “Without him he would be even worse but I like players to be that way. It’s the only chance we have to get better.
“There are two options: like I judge myself, the only other situation is blame your side. That depends on them. I don’t agree with Erling because he tried and he needs to be delivered the right balls in the right spots but now we recover and we fight for the next one.”
City have a much forgivable run of fixtures to come as they look to end their nightmare run. They play Everton at home on Boxing Day before games against Leicester and West Ham – then they face League Two side Salford at home in the FA Cup.
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