City must 'play better' to help Haaland, says Guardiola | OneFootball

Manchester City needs to “play better,” and then “he will start scoring again,” replied coach Pep Guardiola when asked this Tuesday (27th) about striker Erling Haaland’s poor form, ahead of the match against Galatasaray in the Champions League.

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Haaland has scored just one goal in his last nine games, and not from open play: a penalty against Brighton (1-1) on January 7th, in the English Premier League. The one responsible for this goal drought is “the team,” not the player, Guardiola said in a press conference. “They need to play better, create more chances, and he will score.”

“Never underestimate strikers, the goal scorers, because they will always prove you wrong. We want him to score goals for the rest of his life, for sure,” added the Spanish coach.

City’s Difficult Moment

After the 3-1 defeat to Bodo/Glimt last week, Haaland seemed to attribute his drop in performance to fatigue. “I always give my best every time I step onto the pitch, and I step onto the pitch a lot because we are playing an absurdly large number of matches,” the player told TNT Sports.

The 25-year-old striker started on the bench in the 2-0 win over Wolverhampton, something rare. Guardiola did not want to reveal whether his number 9 would be ready to start Wednesday’s match against Galatasaray, for the eighth and final round of the Champions League group stage. “I didn’t have dinner with him last night, so I don’t know, we’ll see,” he replied.

The defeat in the last round dropped Manchester City (11th, 13 points) out of the top eight positions that grant direct qualification to the Champions League round of 16. A win over Galatasaray, therefore, may not be enough to secure a spot in the Top 8.

* With content from AFP

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.