Erling Haaland’s Early-Season Goal Tally and Pep Guardiola’s Take on Critics
Erling Haaland has already notched up seven goals in the current season, but it’s clear that he could have had even more if he had been more clinical in front of the goal. Despite his slightly lower conversion rate compared to last season, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is unworried and even finds humor in the situation.
Guardiola humorously quipped, “I will not sleep tonight! He has had incredible chances and he could have scored 14-15 goals, and it would be the same debate. But what is important is what he always said: ‘I have the chance, I have the chance, I have the chance. The problem is when I do not have chances, or I do not get balls or I am in the wrong position.’
Guardiola’s advice is not to overly criticize Erling Haaland. Instead, he suggests directing criticism towards other positions on the team, such as full-backs, central defenders, or even the manager. He firmly believes that a striker who consistently scores goals will prove the critics wrong, and they will eventually owe him an apology.
In other news, Jack Grealish may make a return for Manchester City after missing the last three games due to a knee injury. This injury concern eased some of Guardiola’s worries, especially with Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, and Mateo Kovacic also on the injury list.
Guardiola mentioned, “We need the injured players back because we have a lot of games and we cannot play with the same players. Jack is coming back. He has trained well and maybe he will be ready for some minutes. Kova is almost there, he’s in the last part of the recovery but now we’ve lost Bernardo. John and Kevin are still out.”
Silva sustained a minor injury during the recent Champions League match against Red Star Belgrade, and while it’s not severe, he is expected to be sidelined for a short period. Guardiola stated, “He has a little injury. It is nothing much. The clinical development is good but it could be one week, 10 days, two weeks that he will be out.”
