Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has disagreed with a "theory" that striker Erling Haaland was not involved in the game enough against Nottingham Forest, amid questions over the forward’s most recent performances.
Since arriving in England, Haaland has had an outstanding goalscoring record. The 22-year-old has scored 26 times in 23 Premier League appearances so far this season.
But Haaland is now goalless in his last two in all competitions. After drawing a blank in last week’s 1-1 draw against Forest, the striker also failed to get on the scoresheet in the Champions League clash vs Red Bull Leipzig as City again drew 1-1.
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His performance in the latter game has led to questions over how involved he is in the game if he’s not scoring. Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Guardiola hit back at questions over Haaland’s displays in the past three games, including the draw against Forest.
The game at the City Ground saw the Norwegian miss some chances to increase Man City’s lead before Chris Wood’s equaliser six minutes from time. That’s something Guardiola pointed to when talking about the striker’s recent outings.
“In the last game against RB Leipzig, you are right, but Nottingham no and Arsenal, no. So don’t make the one game to make a theory because he had the chances in Nottingham in the first and the second half," he said.
“But of course we have to and we will improve. We talk about that many times and it’s going to happen.
“Striker is the most difficult position in the world because you have two players just focussing on him and now we really have extra, so it’s not easy to do that. I would like to see in my period here, the strikers that we had like Sergio (Aguero) or Gabriel (Jesus), when he played proper, proper striker not in the false nine, how many balls did they touch?”
Haaland will look to be back on the scoresheet when Man City take on Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon (5.30pm kick off). It’s a game Forest fans may be keeping an eye on with the Cherries in 17th place in the table four points behind the Reds in 13th.
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