Guardiola: “City Must Involve Haaland In More Games”

Erling Haaland must be more actively engaged in Manchester City’s play, according to Pep Guardiola.

The Norwegian striker only had a few half-chances and 19 touches during Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League loss to Manchester United, indicating his lack of form.

Haaland has now gone three games without scoring; this is hardly a catastrophe, especially considering that he only came in as a substitute against Southampton, but it is a decline for a guy who scored 27 goals in his first 21 appearances.

More apparent, though, has been Haaland’s effect on City’s system after they became acclimated to and proficient in using a false nine during the previous two seasons.

Guardiola is not likely to concur with that, but he is still trying to integrate his £51 million summer acquisition completely.

Guardiola added, “At the moment we have that process because it is harder when opponents are camped in their 18-yard box, but we do need to find him a little bit more, sure.

“He got enough touches (against United), but it’s true that you have to watch at him when you are scouting areas. But we’ll carry it out.

Since the World Cup, City has struggled to be consistent, drew at home to Everton on New Year’s Day before losing consecutive games against Southampton in the Carabao Cup and Manchester United in the league.

However, Guardiola argued that these discrepancies were not the result of the system change brought about by Haaland’s entry.

The discrepancy, he noted, “was in terms of outcomes but not performances.” “In general, we played consistently, (but) not against Southampton.