Manchester City lost to Wolves 2-1 at Molineux – and it was a bad day at the office for Erling Haaland.
The 23-year-old was virtually anonymous on Saturday.
It is not uncommon for Haaland to stay on the periphery of games.
He can be quiet and still score two or three goals in any given game.
But against Wolves he was well and truly nullifed by Craig Dawson, Max Kilman and Toti Gomes. This was something Pep Guardiola acknowledged after the game.
The Norwegian just couldn’t get any joy.
Credit must go to Gary O’Neil’s side. They defended extremely well, and made it hard for City to create chances of good quality.
It was frustration for Haaland, but yesterday he sent a message of defiance on social media…
Erling Haaland sends message to Manchester City fans on Instagram after struggling in Wolves defeat
Haaland didn’t post on Saturday evening. Presumably, he was keen to observe a short period of reflection.
He really was totally quiet against Wanderers, and he had to have been very frustrated.
On Sunday though, Haaland broke his silence – and sent a message to City fans via his Instagram account
He wrote: “Always grateful for your support. We will learn from yesterday and make sure we do better next time.”
There has been some criticism of Haaland this season.
The striker has spurned quite a lot of chances.
But he’s still produced a haul of eight goals in just seven Premier League appearances.
Haaland will use Wolves frustrations as fuel
Haaland was extremely well marshalled by Wolves on Saturday and he was probably very annoyed about that after the game.
Haaland will have been hoping to score a couple against Wanderers having been quite wasteful in recent games.
But he just didn’t get the opportunities.
But everyone knows the kind of mentality he has.
He will be absolutely determined to bounce back. And he will have the opportunity to do so against RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Wednesday.
