City’s poor run is on everyone and not Haaland: Guardiola

Manchester City’s dismal run of form, with one win in eight Premier League games, is down to the whole team and not one player, manager Pep Guardiola said on Tuesday, with struggling striker Erling Haaland not to blame.

City’s current streak, which leaves the champions seventh in the standings and 12 points off leaders Liverpool, coincides with Haaland scoring just twice, after the Norwegian netted 10 times in their opening five games.

“It’s about us, it’s not just about one player,” Guardiola told a press conference ahead of Thursday’s game with Everton.

“So when in the past we scored goals and Erling was so prolific in helping us, it’s because of the team. And when you have problems at the back, in the middle, it’s for everyone.

“If it was just one player, the reason why, it would be easy. It’s not about that. Erling is so important for us, will be so important for us, has been, and we try to do the things better, to use him better.”

Guardiola is still uncertain if John Stones, Matheus Nunes or Ederson will be fit when City host Everton, and while the coach was unable to pinpoint a single reason for their poor run, he was optimistic of a return to form in the near future.

“All the tendency to say we don’t run, we don’t fight, the reason why is this one, this situation or this player or this manager or this,” Guardiola said.

“It’s not about that. It’s many little details or big details that all together make us not as good as we were.

“But we have another opportunity on Boxing Day to try and win time for the players to come back and in a certain time we’ll be better.”

Everton may be 15th in the standings, 11 points behind City, but they do have a better defensive record than Guardiola’s side, and have kept five clean sheets in their last six games.

“Sean Dyche always has a really good defensive structure, really good patterns defensively, offensively,” Guardiola said.

“And when they are able to do it against Arsenal and Chelsea, that means they are really good because they have good transitions and of course at set-pieces, long balls, they are really, really strong.”

While City players will have some time with their families over Christmas, with the team playing on Dec. 26, there are sacrifices to be made.

“We train today, we train tomorrow night. We stay over here and we are going to play on Boxing Day,” Guardiola said.

“Today we’ll be at home with the families and tomorrow we’ll be with the families during the morning and the night we’ll be here.

“Hopefully they want to be here because it’s our job and our duty.”

Meanwhile, Everton manager Dyche has insisted there’s no chance of his side being lulled into a false sense of security against faltering Premier League champions City.

Everton are on a run of just two defeats in their last 12 matches, having lost their opening four league games of the season.

“They (City) have enjoyed so much success under Pep (Guardiola) over the years that everybody seems to be under this impression that it’s when, not if, it turns back,” said Dyche.

“I don’t know all of Pep’s history, but I think it’s unlikely he’s had too many spells like this.

“You’d think at some point it happens, even to the best, and he is arguably one of the best ever, but for him to have a testing period actually shows how tough the game is even for the top sides.”

The 53-year-old Englishman added: “The details, even for the top teams, if you don’t get them right, then things don’t work out for you. They’ll be trying to correct that.

“We’re in the process of correcting somewhat what we were doing. We still need to win more games, obviously, and score more goals.

“It’s not like you go there and think, ‘We’re going to win just because’. We’ve got to go and deliver a performance. We’ve got to play hard, we’ve got to play strong.

“They haven’t all become terrible players overnight. He (Guardiola) certainly is not a terrible manager.”

Agence France-Presse