Pep Guardiola believes Erling Haaland ‘shut up’ his critics with his match-winning goal for Manchester City against Brentford.
City recorded 25 efforts on goal, with 11 on target against Brentford to follow 31 attempts against Chelsea on Saturday – of which nine fell Haaland’s way without resulting in a goal. Haaland was more clinical against Brentford but from fewer chances, ending his run of four games in five without a goal, sprinting free and converting past Mark Flekken.
Guardiola insisted there was nobody he would rather have had running past Kristoffer Ajer’s unfortunate slip, before advising anyone criticising his performance against Chelsea that Haaland was always going to prove them wrong sooner or later.
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Haaland lost his grandmother last week, and Guardiola accepted that his personal loss has naturally affected the striker. But he praised his striker for proving the difference between City and a stubborn Brentford side.
“Top scorers and strikers score a lot of goals, don’t criticise [them], because he will shut your mouth. Sooner or later always he is there,” Guardiola said of his striker, admitting he is still not back to his best physically.
“He was out for two months, he had an incredibly tough week last week – he lost his grandmother, it is not easy for a human being. He’s not in his best shape, it’s normal with two months [out].
“We spoke about the moment [Haaland’s bereavement] and I realised this later, but he didn’t say anything about the passing away of his grandmother. We talk about how he feels, of course for his father. In this type of games like Brentford, you need Erling. Today we could not use Kevin because he had niggles in his hamstring and I didn’t want to take risk.
“But this type of games, the second goal for example in Brentford was an assist from Kevin. You need these kind of players, but John and Manu were amazing today. They play amazing.”
