Guardiola finally acknowledges that a Manchester City player won’t play Tottenham in the FA Cup
Before Manchester City and Tottenham play in the FA Cup, Pep Guardiola has already given an update on Erling Haaland.
The remarks were delivered by the 53-year-old during his press conference.
What then did Pep Guardiola have to say regarding Erling Haaland? Let’s examine this.
Guardiola’s remarks regarding Haaland
The Norway international participated in a full training session in Abu Dhabi as Manchester City started a warm-weather training camp, as reported by The Times earlier this week.
But Haaland feels that Friday’s excursion to north London is too soon.
Tomorrow he’s not ready, but he’s near, according to Guardiola, as reported by Tyrone Marshall of the Manchester Evening News. He trained here for the last few days, and the training camp was good. He isn’t flawless.
You can see why Manchester City is reluctant to put Haaland back in the starting lineup.
During his tenure at Borussia Dortmund, the Norwegian was plagued by a series of recurrent injuries, missing 33 games for the German powerhouse because of various issues.
Guardiola is, understandably, exercising extra caution with his lucky charm since, at this point in the season, a loss for the Manchester City No. 9 would be devastating.
Haaland has made just 22 games this season, but he has already scored 19 goals and provided five assists despite his recent absence.
Not just Haaland is absent.
Additionally, Guardiola declared that Manuel Akanji would not play in Friday’s FA Cup match.
During the 5-0 FA Cup third round victory over Huddersfield, the Switzerland international, who played alongside Haaland at Borussia Dortmund, sustained a knee injury.
Not all bad news, though, as Guardiola did mention that Ederson and John Stones will travel with the team.
Hopefully, Manchester City will have enough firepower to defeat Tottenham in N17 this Friday, even without Haaland.
