Pep Guardiola has denied that Erling Haaland’s recent struggles in front of goal are down to a mentality problem within his squad.
Haaland is in the midst of his longest drought since arriving at Manchester City, though admittedly that is only three games in all competitions long. Before this relative drought, he had notched 21 goals in the Premier League, with his downturn in form coinciding with a difficult run for City.
They are eight points behind league leaders Arsenal, having lost to Manchester United on Saturday, despite having gone ahead. Haaland managed just a solitary shot on target at Old Trafford, but Guardiola has insisted he is not worried about the Norwegian.
“We have played really good with him, so it is not about that. To play better, to create more chances, is to provide more balls for him or the other strikers. This is what we have to work with,” the City boss said of Haaland, 22.
“Our fluidity has not been as good as usual. When we play good it is because of tactical reasons and when we don’t play good it is tactical reasons. I have the duty to find the solution to that. It is not a mentality reason. This group of players? Not at all.
“I want to fight all the titles and in the Premier League there are 60 points left to play and many tough games for everyone. We are going to fight, but we can lose. People understand that in the last six or seven years we are the seventh team for net spend in this country.
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“Our standards make people say, ‘what happened at City if they are not at the top of the league?’. This is not a problem. Accept it and try to be better and work out what we have to do to be there.”
Rather than blame his team or Haaland for the striker’s run without a goal, Guardiola has insisted that the responsibility lies with him. And he hailed the striker’s work ethic as he insisted he would soon get back on track.
“We try to encourage and improve our team that is for sure, but in the same time when everything was a disaster like in the Community Shield when he didn’t score a goal and everything,” Guardiola added on the Norwegian to Sky Sports.
“It was a period in one or two month and every single press conference told me five times about Erling, he impresses. The results, he is the same guy but I would say after the injury against [Borussia] Dortmund, he struggled a little bit about his physicality.
“But what you have to do is just to the strikers, except I would say [Lionel] Messi, all the strikers need the game, our style, the way you play, to make him feel, ‘I’m me again’, and scoring goals.
“So when Erling doesn’t score goals, it’s more my responsibility and not his responsibility. I have to find a way to play better, to create more chances. He’s so positive, incredible work ethic so he’s not a problem.”
