Why Erling Haaland is not playing for Man City against Liverpool | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Erling Haaland failed a fitness test on Saturday after feeling discomfort in his knee after training.

The Norwegian, who barring a dramatic late-season turnaround looks set to lose his Premier League Golden Boot crown to Mohamed Salah, hobbled off in the latter stages of City's 4-0 win over Newcastle last weekend and failed to play any part in the midweek Champions League defeat to Real Madrid.

Haaland was at least named in the squad for City's trip to the Bernabeu, but was a glaring omission from the teamsheet announced for the visit of Premier League leaders Liverpool.

"Yesterday after training he didn't feel good," Guardiola told Sky Sports of Haaland's absence. "During these nine years we played many seasons without really important players and we survived.

"This season, we have had a lot of injuries and we could not survive, but in specific games we have to do it."

Omar Marmoush fills the sizeable gap left up front by Haaland / David Ramos/GettyImages

City are also without long-term injury casualties Rodri and Manuel Akanji, as well as John Stones, who looks set to spent a couple of months on the treatment table recovering from a thigh injury.

Guardiola handed another start up front to Omar Marmoush, who grabbed a first Premier League hat-trick against Newcastle, and recalled Kevin De Bruyne into midfield after dropping the veteran Belgian on the bench for the game with Real Madrid.

Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden and Savinho were named alongside De Bruyne in City's midfield, supported by new midfield anchor Nico Gonzalez, who was one of four big-money signings in January. Another, centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov, was named in the backline alongside Nathan Ake, with Ruben Dias dropping to the bench.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot recalled Curtis Jones to his starting lineup in place of Diogo Jota, while Cody Gakpo was named on the bench after missing the Reds' narrow 2-1 win over Wolves last weekend.