Pep Guardiola praised Erling Haaland ahead of Manchester City’s clash with Borussia Dortmund
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has played with a false nine before, although he had attacking options such as Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi, but says it is impossible with Erling Haaland because he is “too good”.
Haaland will face his former club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League tomorrow night in great form. The Norway international has scored 26 goals in 16 appearances for club and country this season, including two in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Bournemouth.
Guardiola has shown a lot of tactical flexibility throughout his long coaching career and says he was happy not to play with a renowned striker when he was at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but says it is impossible to leave out Haaland.
“I played with false 9s with [Lionel] Messi,” he said. “I played with false 9s with [Robert] Lewandowski, I played like that with Sergio Agüero and here with Phil Foden and now with Erling we can’t play like that because he is too good.”
Haaland thinks what is best for the team – Guardiola
Haaland is firmly on course to break his own record of 57 goals in a season, but Guardiola says he never puts his personal thirst for success before that of the team.
He added: “It is difficult to find a real, world-class player who is incredibly humble and thinks what is best for the team.
“It’s hard to find. When a player has this kind of skill, talent, generosity and kindness, whatever you want to say, and Erling is like that.
“Normally a striker only thinks about goals, goals, goals. Of course he has to score goals, that’s obviously clear. But he signed a contract for 10 years and the more involved he is in many things the better it will be for him and the club.”
Guardiola tried to protect Haaland
The City boss admitted, however, that he does everything he can to adapt his team’s game to keep his star fit.
“I always try to organize the equipment to allow it to run as little as possible,” he said. “He’s so big that he can’t play 90 minutes every three days and perform great actions. I don’t want that.
“I always think about the teams every three days and I manage to control the ball through passing and I can manage the game the way you want: you survive. Less injuries too.
“But when that’s not possible, he has to help us and he is helping us.”
