Pep Guardiola strictly trained Man City stars in the rain to welcome Nottingham Forest
Pep “loses sleep” because of Haaland’s performance
SGGPO3 hours agoCoach Pep Guardiola joked that Erling Haaland’s form is giving him sleepless nights. The Norwegian star has scored 7 goals in 5 Premier League matches of the new season, but Pep thinks he can score more goals if he is cooler in the penalty area.
Erling Haaland is seeing a much lower chance conversion rate compared to last season.
Haaland will still lead Man.City’s attack in the match welcoming Nottingham Forest on Saturday, with the form of scoring 7 goals in the opening 5 Premier League matches (a hat-trick). But the opportunity conversion rate of this 23-year-old super striker has decreased significantly compared to last season.
For example, in the most recent 3-1 comeback victory at West Ham, last season’s top scorer had a series of scoring opportunities, at least he had 3 clear opportunities but could not beat the opposing team’s goalkeeper. , and it took until the 86th minute to celebrate the winning goal. Looking back at the first 5 matches in the Man.City shirt last season, Haaland scored 9 goals, of which he scored two hat-tricks.
During the press conference before the match this Saturday, coach Guardiola joked that Erling Haaland’s poor form was giving him sleepless nights: “I won’t sleep tonight!” He has had incredible chances and could have scored 14-15 goals so far. That’s also why there’s a debate going on.”
But when he gets more serious, the Man.City coach predicts that those who are criticizing the Norwegian star will owe him a deep apology this season: “But the important thing is that he always says ‘ I still have a chance. The problem only happened when I didn’t have a chance, didn’t get the ball or was in the wrong position.’ So my advice is not to criticize Erling too much. It’s okay to criticize a full-back, a centre-back or a coach, but never criticize a striker who scores a lot of goals because he will try to prove you wrong. And then you will be in a situation where you have to apologize to him.”
Coach Pep Guardiola launched a subtle “encouragement” tactic and is now just waiting for Haaland to react.
Meanwhile, midfielder Jack Grealish was able to return after missing the last three matches with a knee injury, which also prevented him from playing internationally earlier this month. The 28-year-old English attacking star has now returned to training, easing coach Guardiola’s worries after he saw Bernardo Silva this week join an injured list that also includes Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Mateo. Kovacic.
Coach Guardiola added: “We need the injured players to return because we have many matches left, and we cannot play the same squad in every match. Jack will be back on Saturday. He has trained well and will probably be ready in a few minutes. Kova is also in the final stages of recovery. But now we have lost Bernardo while John and Kevin are still out on the field.”
Bernardo Silva left the field visibly upset at the end of the first half of Tuesday’s Champions League win over Red Star Belgrade. Since then, coach Guardiola has provided very little information about the Portuguese player’s problem, other than confirming he will have to sit out for a short time: “He has a small injury. Nothing much. The clinical progress is good, but it could be a week, 10 days, two weeks and he will have to sit out.”