Pep Guardiola handled Erling Haaland perfectly last night | OneFootball

After Erling Haaland scored Manchester City’s third goal just before the hour mark during City’s 4-nil win over Slovan Bratislava there was no need for City’s top scorer to stay on the pitch. His job was done and the game was won. There was no need to keep Haaland on the pitch after that. Pep Guardiola substituted Haaland after his goal and replaced him with James McAtee. In my opinion, Pep Guardiola handled Erling Haaland perfectly last night.

Manchester City’s first task last night was to pick up a win over Slovan Bratislava. That was more important than anything else heading into last night’s match. Pep Guardiola picked a strong starting eleven to do this job against the Slovakian champions. After 58 minutes the job was done. City had wrapped up their first win of this season’s Champions League campaign with over 30 minutes of the game remaining.

With Erling Haaland having put away City’s third there was no need for him to stay on the pitch. Guardiola felt the same and took his top scorer off with his work done for the night. Given the importance of Haaland to Manchester City any chance to rest their star striker needs to be taken. Guardiola did just that last night.

Speaking after Manchester City’s dominant win Pep Guardiola explained why he substituted Haaland last night. He explained that after Haaland suffered a knock against Newcastle the chance to rest his number 9 was taken. He added: “Erling is never disappointed with his manager. As a manager I am more secure, and more happy when Erling is on the pitch. I will keep him on the pitch all the time but at 0-3 the game was almost over and with the amount of games we have to take care of him. He had a big knock last game against Newcastle, so that’s why after 0-3 , the fantastic goal, with the pass from Rico and after that it’s better.”

Pep Guardiola handled Erling Haaland perfectly last night. Get the game won and take off City’s most important players. Who knows how valuable missing the final 30 minutes of last night’s game could prove to be for Haaland. But it can’t hurt given how many games the world champions and Erling Haaland will play this season.