Pep Guardiola has defended Erling Haaland after his recent form dipped. The former Dortmund forward scored nine goals in City’s first four league games, including back-to-back hat-tricks against Ipswich and West Ham.

Haaland then netted his 10th league goal of the season in a 2-2 draw at Arsenal on September 22. Which was marred by a post-match “humility” drama.

The Norwegian international has since played seven more Premier League games. Playing the full 90 minutes in each, but scoring just twice, as City have lost five straight games.

” I would say that the reason we haven’t scored enough goals is not because of Erling Haaland,” Guardiola said. ” If it weren’t for Erling, we would have had even more problems!”

Guardiola has seen his team lose five games in a row in all competitions as the Catalan suffers. The worst run of his entire managerial career. The results have left City already eight points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool in the table. สมัคร ufabet And down in 10th place in the Champions League standings ahead of the next round of fixtures.

Guardiola has spoken about his team’s problems ahead of City’s next game against Feyenoord in the Champions League. The City boss has refused to lay any blame at Haaland’s feet, insisting matters would be even worse for his team if they did not have in the Norway international at the Etihad Stadium. Haaland hasn’t been at his very prolific best this season but has still managed 12 goals in 12 Premier League games for the champions and three in four in the Champions League.

“Erling will be scoring two or three goals in the near future, you will see. He’s always done that.”