Pep Guardiola admitted he was not the right man to give advice to a striker after Erling Haaland failed in Manchester City’s 1-1 draw on Saturday.
City lost ground in the title race, with Rodri scoring a late equalizer against Chelsea after former Citizen Raheem Sterling opened the scoring for the Blues. Haaland started in attack for City after recovering from a recent foot injury, but was frustrated in his attempts to add to his 16 Premier League goals of the season. The Norwegian has now missed 21 big chances – an unwanted record he shares with Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez – but Guardiola is not worried. “It’s good that he had nine shots, he’s going to score in the next game,” he declared after the meeting.
Guardiola scored one goal per year
“Look, I was a football player. I played 11 years and scored 11 goals. What a statistic, huh? One goal per season, those are my statistics. So I’m not the right man to give advice to the attacker and tell him what to do. We created chances, he had chances and in the next match he will score. »
While this is a magnanimous statement from Guardiola, Haaland continues to be linked with a possible move to Real Madrid, and the Catalan coach has a history of not getting the best out of his attackers. Sergio Aguero recently admitted it took him a season or two to adapt to his demands at Man City, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic publicly fell out with him at Barcelona.
