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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Simon Bajkowski

Erling Haaland has already given Man City example to Pep Guardiola

The right response.

Those were the words Erling Haaland used on social media to accompany images of Manchester City's second-half comeback against Tottenham. Having looked down and out at half-time trailing by two goals, City roared back to win 4-2 to close the gap at the top of the table to five points.

Haaland's goal was not enough to save him or the team from criticism from Pep Guardiola, with the manager exasperated that something fundamental for winning is missing from the group. Haaland was accused of not making the runs in behind Spurs that he was asked to make, and was not included on the list of players hungry to win something this season.

ALSO READ: The major Man City change behind Guardiola screeching U-turn

Guardiola is in uncharted waters at City, having never before needed to demand such a public reaction from his squad to get out of a funk. After his explosive press conference on Sunday will be to see who has kept or lost their place in the side.

That said, it is hard to think that the criticism of Haaland will lead to anything as extreme as him not playing. City remain a better team with him on the pitch and he took his tally to 13 from home games.

On top of that, the manager knows all of his squad fairly well and it would be unfathomable to throw him out and then see his career rise again on another needless battle. It's early days, but the thinking from Guardiola appears to be to keep City's goal machine in his team.

City's No.9 has already shown his standards too. When the team earned a 3-0 win over Leeds on December 28, Haaland was adamant that he should have had at least three more. The Norwegian is one of the most committed to keeping himself resting and recuperating in order to focus on the football task in hand.

"I said to my teammates I could have scored five and that's the truth," he said immediately after that game. "That we win is the most important thing. Arsenal are at the top and we have to hunt them.

"I was at home on my sofa a bit mad that I wasn't playing at the World Cup. I was a commentator in my own home about the World Cup but nobody was listening to me. I recharged my batteries and watching other people scoring and winning games at the World Cup motivated and irritated me. I'm hungrier than ever."

While Guardiola may not be in full agreement with the assessment on hunger, Haaland is doing more than most to create something - something even more important when chief creators Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden do not feature.

The desire to make something happen will give Guardiola another reliable name for his teamsheet.

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