Manchester City went four points clear at the top of the table yesterday, but the result was somewhat overshadowed when Ilkay Gundogan missed a penalty, which was passed onto him by Erling Haaland.
Haaland, who is obviously in deadly form right now, is City’s designated penalty taker.
Or he at least tends to be when Riyad Mahrez is not on the pitch.
But yesterday, after City got a penalty for a foul by Pascal Struijk on Phil Foden, it was Gundogan who stepped up to take the spot-kick.
Haaland gave the German the ball, with Gundogan on a hat-trick.
The midfielder went to Joel Robles’ left, and his effort hit the post.
Afterwards, Pep Guardiola could be seen shouting at Haaland that he should have been the one to take it.
Gundogan said in his post-match interview that Guardiola had told both players off.
It became a bigger deal than it perhaps should have. Because Leeds went and scored after it through Rodrigo to set up a bit of a nervy finish.
Thankfully though City got the win, which is all the really matters.
The incident was discussed on Match of the Day last night. Both Ian Wright and Alan Shearer were left slightly bemused at Haaland giving the ball to Gundogan.
Wright said: “It’s the kind of thing for me, what happens is what could happen, and what experienced people are saying why the main penalty taker should take it.
“He takes it, and to be fair I think the ‘keeper gets a fingertip to it. But he missed and then Leeds go and score.
“I know for a fact that if that happened (at Arsenal), and we missed because I gave it to someone else, Tony Adams would probably not be happy with that. I know George Graham definitely wouldn’t be.”
Shearer added: “I don’t care whether it’s 2-0 or seven, if you’re the penalty taker, you’ve got to go and take the penalty.”
Erling Haaland should have taken the penalty for Man City against Leeds not Ilkay Gundogan
It was quite surprising to see Haaland giving the ball to Gundogan for the penalty against Leeds.
He is the best penalty taker City have and has a much, much better record than Gundogan.
You can understand that he wanted Gundogan to get his hat-trick.
But, even though the intentions were nice, it wasn’t the right thing to do.
Simply because the game was not completely sewn up at 2-0. Obviously Rodrigo then goes and scores to cut the deficit.
Ultimately it didn’t matter. But there was potential for it to have been costly and you can understand the manager’s frustration.
There is obviously a chance that Haaland himself could have missed had he taken it. But given the state of play at the time he, as the better taker, should have taken it.
