The striker has played more minutes that any other Manchester City player this season but Guardiola ‘needs’ his top scorer to lead the line
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Pep Guardiola has admitted he is struggling to give Erling Haaland a rest by saying he “needs” his top scorer, even as his goals have dried up.
Haaland has only scored one goal in his last seven games – after getting 24 in his first 23 matches for Manchester City this season – and is the player Guardiola has used most.
The striker has made 30 appearances for City this season, second only to Tijjani Reijnders, who has played 31 times, but he has been on the pitch for 2,480 minutes, 239 more than anyone else, and only one of his outings has been as a substitute.
Guardiola said he is struggling to give Haaland a rest
Guardiola said he is struggling to give Haaland a rest (Getty Images)
But Haaland is the only senior specialist striker in the City squad and while Guardiola sees the versatile Omar Marmoush as the natural deputy, the Egyptian has been away at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Guardiola does not expect Marmoush back in time for Tuesday’s Champions League game away at Bodo/Glimt after his tournament in Morocco ended with him missing a penalty in the third-place play-off defeat to Nigeria.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “We need Erling and we need all of them. I don't know when Omar comes and Erling is going to play. Erling is so important for us. We are lucky to have Erling with what he has done.
“We'll see what happens next game. We have to travel to Norway right now and go in there and see how they recover. Not just physically, how they... I can smell how they feel.”
City also have an injury concern with Phil Foden after he went off with a suspected broken hand in the Manchester derby defeat on Saturday.
While Guardiola bolstered his attack with the signing of Antoine Semenyo this month, the £62.5m winger is ineligible for the next two Champions League games, against Bodo/Glimt and then Galatasaray.
And Guardiola is looking forward to getting Marmoush back, adding: “Omar is an exceptional player. But he will be so poor for me to say there is a why we didn't get results [against Manchester United] or the previous night because Omar is not here. So it's not fair for him, not fair for the team, not to all the guys are here day by day to try to do it.”