Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has admitted that Wolves successfully restricted Erling Haaland on Saturday.
Speaking after his side’s surprise 2-1 defeat (via City’s official website) at the Molineux Stadium, the Catalan boss gave his two cents on the £51 million (Sky Sports) man.
After Manchester City suffered their first loss of the season to Wolves, Pep Guardiola said that Erling Haaland had a quiet afternoon.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola admits Wolves tamed Erling Haaland
Branded as ‘amazing’ by Ilkay Gundogan, Gary O’Neil’s side would likely have had a specific plan in place to restrict the Norwegian superstar, who is regarded as the best striker in the world.
However, the 23-year-old barely got a sniff in front of goal as he witnessed the visitors get picked apart at the back on the break by the hosts.
Now, Pep Guardiola has also not run away from the fact that Manchester City talisman Erling Haaland had a day to forget against Wolves.
“It is not easy when he has three players”, he said.
“There are a lot of players there, it’s not easy but it happened.”
Erling Haaland was not to blame
While Pep Guardiola is right, the former Borussia Dortmund hitman was the least of the problems for Manchester City against Wolves.
The Leeds-born goalscorer, like any striker requires service to have an impact and City were painfully predictable in their latest outing.
A major reason behind this was the fact that almost all of the Sky Blues’ attack went through from the wide areas, especially as Jeremy Doku was constantly given the ball to try and create a moment of magic.
The Belgian winger was also far from his best as he rarely linked play up with the likes of Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez in the middle of the park to try to diversity his side’s threat in the final third.
As a result, Haaland was simply a passenger as the treble-winners looked uncharacteristically toothless going forward.
