On Tuesday, Erling Haaland set several records, but according to Pep Guardiola, he doesn’t believe Haaland can solve Man City’s European issues
The Spanish manager believes that the reason for Manchester City’s Champions League shortcomings has been their defense rather than the absence of Erling Haaland.
On Tuesday evening, Haaland scored an amazing five goals while City thrashed RB Leipzig 7-0, enabling them to advance to the quarter-finals with a total score of 8-1.
Guardiola insists on the importance of ‘build up’ for Man City
Guardiola has been striving to achieve Champions League glory with Manchester City, but his efforts have fallen short thus far. Last season, they were defeated in the semi-finals, while the previous year, they lost in the final against Chelsea.
However, the Man City manager claims that the absence of Haaland, who has scored 39 goals this season, has not been the cause of their problems.
“Always we have scored goals here’ he told reporters. “We scored four goals against Real Madrid. We scored six goals against Monaco. We scored four goals against Tottenham here.
“The problem is not that we do not score goals. The problem is that we conceded stupid goals in the past. We gift them. Most of the time, we gift them.
Haaland set multiple records, one of which was surpassing the club’s previous record by scoring 39 goals this season.
Pep added: “In this competition, one of the reasons is the build-up, but to play the four central defenders in this way does not mean you are a defensive team. It is difficult for people to understand.
“Nathan [Ake] is so focused for 90 minutes, so stable here [in the head]. Ruben [Dias], Manu [Akanji], they are so stable here. John [Stones] as well. That is what we need in this competition because the chances they had today, we gave them. The process with Edi [Ederson], we have to be careful. We have to do it but we have to be careful.
