Guardiola reacts to Haaland’s body language in weekend’s PL win

While Manchester City will travel to Denmark to face FC Copenhagen in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 clash on Tuesday, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is less concerned about what will happen in the game but rather having a retrospect on Erling Haaland’s performance in Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Everton in the Premier League on Saturday.

Haaland scored a second-half brace, but he had a very silent first half as Manchester City struggled to break down the visitors. However, Haaland got his first goal of the game in the 71st minute, minutes after the introduction of midfielder Kevin De Bruyne.

The Norwegian added a late goal with five minutes left to play, but Pep Guardiola believes he was disturbed in the first half.

“These two goals will help him a lot, to clear the mind. His body language in the first half was not good. The second half was much, much better. For him, when he scores a goal, his mood is different. After that, he makes more movements and everything. He’s better. It looks like I am complaining about Erling, but it was in general [I meant]. How many games did Erling play, and how many goals? His body language is not a problem. Erling is young, playing in the most difficult position on the pitch surrounded by four or five players with minor space. In the first half, maybe we didn’t have the special delivery players, like Kevin [De Bruyne, who later came on], for example, who can find him.” the manager said. 

The result helped Manchester City keep up with Liverpool at the top of the table although the Reds lead the defending champions with two points. Manchester City will turn their attention to the UEFA Champions League when they travel to Copenhagen on Tuesday for the first leg round of 16 encounters against FC Copenhagen.

Daniel Ademiju Idowu