Pep Guardiola defended Erling Haaland after Manchester City’s Champions League win at Young Boys, which saw Erling Haaland score a brace.
After Manchester City defeated Young Boys, Pep Guardiola jumped to the striker’s defense, saying that some people wаnted Erling Haaland to fail.
In the Champions League Group G match, Haaland had eight shots, made five of them on goal, and scored twice. He had plenty of force behind his penalty that slipped past the goalkeeper, but he also shown a great deal of skill in his curling effort to end the game for City after he had Julian Alvarez’s pass called back.
“People expect he has to score four goals. People want him to fail,” Guardiola said after the game when asked about the missed chances rather than the goals.
“I’m sorry, he will score goals all his life.”
The goals were Haaland’s first in six European games for City, with his penalty his first of the season in the Champions League from his 16th shot. His long-range goal vs Brighton at the weekend came after two goalless games in the Premier League but ensured he still hasn’t gone more than two games without scoring in the league.
With 11 goals and two assists from 13 games this season, Haaland may not be as prolific as he was last season, but Guardiola insisted that the striker’s overall contributions to the team are always improving.
Elaborating on his earlier comments in his press conference, Guardiola said: “Erling has the pressure after last season but he has to seven goals every single game and it is impossible. He is happy and he will score a lot of goals, people want him to fail because he doesn’t score 50 goals. We know it but it doesn’t matter.
“He made the second goal really good, What is important is creating chances and maybe in the right moment of the season he will be there even better than now. He has already scored a lot of goals in the Premier League, more than people who are getting a lot of compliments.”
After protecting his striker from external noise, Guardiola went on to sаy he doesn’t judge Haaland on goals even if others do.
“He is there in the Champions League again. We are really pleased,” Guardiola said.
“I told him many times I don’t judge him to score goals, I know you want to score but he is involved in the last games, he is participating more in the process. I don’t want him to stay in the box just and score a goal.
“As much as he is involved in the goal, when the ball arrives in the box you will be more clever to do it and hopefully he can still have the desire. I don’t have doubts about that.”