Manchester City will play against Copenhagen and Guardiola asks Haaland to improve.
After 77 days without scoring a goal, Erling Haaland scored a brace against Everton in the Premier League the past weekend. Manchester City struggled to find a goal in the first half against Everton, something Pep Guardiola felt frustrated. Guardiola speaks about Haaland specifically on the performance against Everton. Guardiola talks highly about Haaland’s goals against Everton, but he wants his striker to improve in a certain aspect of his game.
Pep Guardiola mentions that the player lacked body language in the first half against Everton. Guardiola classifies his body language as “not good.” Guardiola says, “These two goals [vs Everton] will help him a lot, to clear the mind. His body language in the first half was not good. The second half was much, much better. For him, when he scores a goal, his mood is different. After it he makes more movements and everything. He’s better. He has to learn that if he doesn’t score, he has to have the right body language. He has to have this mood where he’s positive and he’s saying: ‘OK it will come, it will come.’”
Guardiola continues as he says, “It looks like I am complaining about Erling, but it was in general [I meant]. How many games did Erling play, and how many goals? His body language is not a problem. Erling is young, playing in the most difficult position on the pitch surrounded by four or five players with minor space. In the first half, maybe we didn’t have the special delivery players, like Kevin [De Bruyne, came on in the second half], for example, who can find him. Because he is so young, in that moment he has to be positive.”
Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland start against Copenhagen today
After not starting together against Everton the past weekend, Haaland and De Bruyne start in the Man City lineup against Copenhagen today in the Champions League. The last game they started together was last week’s Premier League game against Brentford, where they both grabbed an assist to Phil Foden, who scored a hat trick. Foden is also in the lineup.