Pep Guardiola made sure every Manchester City player was aware of Erling Haaland’s outstanding defensive performance against Newcastle. The Norwegian striker was unable to add to his goal total on Saturday night, but he did produce an assist for Nico O’Reilly and put in a monster defensive shift, winning more duels (12) than he has in a Premier League game.
The attempt took Haaland to the floor by full-time, but he was quickly embraced by teammates, and Guardiola emphasized the No. 9 to the entire squad. While he has criticized the forward’s work rate in previous games this season, he had nothing but admiration for him on Saturday as City took advantage of the opportunity to put pressure on Arsenal at the top of the table, Reported by Manchester News.
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“I’m not a big fan of putting Erling to defend, but he helped us, and I know after that how the people hug him and celebrate him and say they’re grateful to help us because Newcastle allowed us to do that,” said Guardiola. “I’m only sad for him because there are a lot of actions that could have made the last pass to him and didn’t find him, and it’s difficult for him to run, run, run and fight.”
“They don’t give [him] the ball to score goals, but sometimes the game is like that, and he’s a fantastic, generous player, so tonight was a performance, and I’ll never forget what Erling has done for us. Sometimes I criticize him, but today I told him that it would not be possible without you. “Erling has been outstanding today.”
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