PEP GUARDIOLA ADMITS HE "CANNOT REST" ERLING HAALAND DESPITE WORRYING FORM SLUMP
Erling Haaland has played more minutes than anyone at Man City. With Foden injured, Guardiola admits he has no choice but to play him.
Pep Guardiola says he can’t really rest Erling Haaland right now, even though the goals have stopped coming for his star striker. Haaland’s only found the net once in his last seven games—pretty wild considering he had scored 24 in his first 23 matches of the season. No one in the Manchester City squad has played more than him, either.
Haaland’s racked up 30 appearances so far, just behind Tijjani Reijnders, who’s played 31. But when you look at minutes, Haaland’s way ahead—he’s spent 2,480 minutes on the pitch, 239 more than anyone else. Only once did he start on the bench.
The thing is, City don’t have another true striker apart from Haaland. Guardiola would probably turn to Omar Marmoush, but he’s been away at the Africa Cup of Nations. And after missing a penalty in Egypt’s third-place shootout loss to Nigeria, Marmoush likely won’t make it back in time for City’s Champions League game at Bodo/Glimt.
“I don’t think so,” Guardiola said when asked about Marmoush returning. “We need Erling, and we need everyone. I don’t know when Omar will be back, so Erling will play. He’s huge for us. We’re lucky to have him, given everything he’s done.”
He didn’t sound too sure what would happen in the next match. “We’ll see how they recover—physically, mentally. I can sense how they’re feeling.”
On top of that, Phil Foden picked up what looks like a broken hand during the Manchester derby loss, so that’s another headache. City just brought in Antoine Semenyo for £62.5m to strengthen their attack, but he can’t play in the next two Champions League matches—Bodo/Glimt and Galatasaray—because he’s not eligible.
Guardiola’s definitely looking forward to having Marmoush back. “Omar’s an exceptional player. But it wouldn’t be right to blame the missing results against United or anyone else on Omar not being here. That’s not fair to him or to the rest of the guys who show up every day and give everything.”
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Erling Haaland is feeling a lot better now, but he still needs to get checked after Manchester City’s training on Tuesday before they decide if he can face Nottingham Forest. He missed the Leeds game because he picked up a small knock in training last Thursday, and right after that match, Pep Guardiola didn’t have any updates on Haaland’s fitness.
Even though Haaland’s still not a sure thing for the Forest game, City are pretty hopeful he’ll be back after getting the weekend off. The same goes for Nico O’Reilly. He limped off with an ankle issue during the 1-0 win over Leeds, but he managed to join the recovery session on Sunday.
“Erling feels much better, but we didn’t train yesterday. We’ll see how he is in training today and then make a call,” Guardiola said at his Tuesday press conference.
The city handled things well without Haaland up front. Antoine Semenyo got the only goal, playing alongside Omar Marmoush. Guardiola didn’t seem too stressed before kickoff, either. “He had some problems and a little injury two days ago in training. Nothing serious, but he wasn’t ready today,” Pep said at Elland Road.
Other than that, City’s injury list isn’t too worrying as they keep chasing trophies. Jeremy Doku was back in the squad at Leeds for the first time since his injury, and Savinho came on in the second half, his first appearance since New Year’s Day.
Right now, only Mateo Kovačić and Josko Gvardiol are still out, but Guardiola’s positive about Kovačić since he’s started training again.
“It’s March, and we’re still in all the competitions. That’s special,” Guardiola said. “Last season, we were already out of the Champions League and FA Cup at this point. Now, it’s Newcastle in the FA Cup on Saturday, then two games with Real Madrid. Win, and you keep going; lose, and you’re out. That’s all I’m thinking about.”
City are looking to cut the gap to Arsenal on Wednesday night. Both play at the same time. City hosts Forest while Arsenal heads to Brighton, who just beat Forest. There are five points between them, but Arsenal have played an extra game.
After Forest, City have two big away matches: Newcastle in the FA Cup, then Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16. Haaland has already scored at the Bernabeu, but oddly enough, he hasn’t managed a goal against Newcastle in four tries this season.
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Shay Given suggests Pep Guardiola could mirror Sir Alex Ferguson by leaving Manchester City if they secure the 2026 title.
People are starting to wonder if Pep Guardiola will bow out in style if he wins the Premier League this season, kind of like Sir Alex Ferguson did with Manchester United during his last year.
On Saturday night, Manchester City beat Leeds and pulled itself just two points behind Arsenal. The pressure’s on. Arsenal still lead, and they can stretch that gap to five points again, but they’ve played one more game than City. It’s a tight race.
City are no strangers to chasing down Arsenal; they’ve done it twice before in the last three seasons. Guardiola’s team has the experience, and honestly, that counts for a lot right now.
Arsenal have a great squad, no doubt about it, but not many of their players have actually won the Premier League. That could make a difference as the pressure builds.
Shay Given, who used to play in goal at the top level, thinks Guardiola might walk away from Manchester City if he lifts another trophy. He sees a bit of Ferguson in Pep winning big, then calling it a day. Given talked about it on Premier League Productions: “Arsenal probably have the deeper squad, two or three players for every position. But Pep’s not giving anything away. When someone asked him what Arteta needs to do to win the league, he just said, ‘I’m not going to tell him.’ He wants that trophy for himself.”
It’s pretty simple now: If either team wins all their remaining games, they win the league. Given says he’d back City. He trusts their experience. “They’ve been here before,” he said. “And I’ve got a feeling Pep might leave if they win the league. He’s rebuilt the team; maybe it’s time for someone else to take over, but he’ll want to go out on a high.”
Guardiola and City haven’t stood still. Over the last year and a half, they’ve kept reshaping their squad planning for life after Pep. Marc Guehi, Tijjani Reijnders, Gianluigi Donnarumma, and Antoine Semenyo have all come in. Erling Haaland and Ruben Dias are either at their peak or about to hit it. The city looks ready, whatever happens next.
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