After Everton Brace, Pep Guardiola Makes ‘Tiring’ Erling Haaland Admission

Published 02/12/2024, 12:23 AM EST

Manchester City kept the ball rolling against Everton. The defending champions clinched a seamless 2-0 victory away from home to keep themselves in the 2023–24 title race. While Erling Haaland stole the spotlight with his brace, Pep Guardiola revealed that the Norwegian superstar came back tired from his injury. Yet, he remains confident in the striker’s ability to produce, insisting that Haaland is, in fact, ‘fresh.’

Although the 23-year-old had already made a return against Burnley and Brentford, he fired blank. The former Borussia Dortmund man finally broke his deadlock for the second half of the season on Saturday at Goodison Park. During the press conference, Guardiola was questioned about what it means for him to have both Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne return. He said, “I said they are fresh, of course. Erling came back for pre-season and said, ‘I’m still tired’, no [time to] refresh for this schedule, it’s normal. Now, he’s fresh because it has been two months.”

While insisting that his side doesn’t change their playing style in the absence of both Haaland and De Bruyne, he acknowledged that the Everton game is a testament to the fact that the duo does help his side win games. “Without them, maybe we could not do it. They have special qualities, they have the ability in the final third to create something that is not in the statistics, not in the books, not in the genius managers and so on. They [goals] are from them. Be it 90, 30 or 45 minutes, [they] do it better,” he concluded. While the duo helped their side with a win, unexpected criticism lies in the air.

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Despite Haaland’s brace and City winning three points, the Cityzens have been slammed for not scoring early!

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1998 WC winner isn’t impressed with Erling Haaland and Co’s win against Everton

Frank Leboeuf expressed his dissatisfaction with Manchester City’s performance against Everton. Speaking on ESPN, he said, “They had to wait for the 70-second minute to get the goal and the shot on target.” Surprisingly, the Sky Blues managed to fire just 3 shots on target throughout the game. However, the slamming doesn’t end here!

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Such low numbers for shots on target come after the fact that Pep Guardiola and Co. managed to enjoy 72% possession. Leboeuf added, “It was maybe one of the worst games that I’ve seen from City this season.” City will now fly to Denmark as they prepare for their Champions League RO16 1st leg against Copenhagen. Let’s see what happens there.

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I first kicked a soccer ball when I was 12. My early exposure to playing the sport earned me many accolades at the zonal and district levels. I still remember my first goal, where I scored a 90+5 minute header like Sergio Ramos did in the 2014 Champions League final against Atletico Madrid.

Edited by:

Jayant Chhabra

After Everton Brace, Pep Guardiola Makes ‘Tiring’ Erling Haaland Admission

1998 WC winner isn’t impressed with Erling Haaland and Co’s win against Everton

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