Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has revealed why he denied Erling Haaland the double hat-trick chance against RB Leipzig in the second leg Round-of-16 match of the UEFA Champions League at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
Haaland completed his hat-trick in the first half and then scored twice more within 12 minutes of the second half. The Norwegian striker scored five goals within 35 minutes and broke multiple records.
Meanwhile, Guardiola revealed he wanted to keep Haaland hungry for the upcoming matches and thus brought Julian Alvarez in place of Erling Haaland in the 63rd minute.
“If he achieves this milestone at 22, 23, it will be boring his life,” Guardiola joked. “He wouldn’t have a target to reach in the future. Here and everywhere. That’s why I make a substitution. I didn’t know about Messi with Leverkusen (when he scored five against them in 2012), but I make a substitution because normally when the game is over we want them to play.
“He scored five goals. The problem is every time we don’t score two or three he will be criticized. This is the reality.”
The gaffer also showered praise on Haaland’s all-round game which helped the team in their defensive formation.
“Most of the time, when he scores hat-tricks after 60-65 minutes I make a substitution,” Guardiola said. “Today he scored five but touched 30-35 ball contacts. This is what we’re looking for. When you’re involved in a game defensively, the ball comes to score goals you’re more clever, more precise. Gundogan scores goals, he can do it. Sometimes it’s his fault, sometimes he doesn’t move.
The veteran manager feels the lanky forward didn’t play well against Crystal Palace after they had registered a narrow 1-0 win.
“For example at Crystal Palace he didn’t move, I said ‘you didn’t play good today’. Other days it is our fault like in Leipzig we didn’t find him. Sooner or later we’re working a bit, everyone we try to make the process quicker.
“Once we break the holding midfielder we have to be quicker. People think it depends on the line-up we’ll play slowly, comfortable. The mentality is always been so so aggressive. Sometimes we cannot do it because the opponent is there.”
The Sky Blues will next take on Burnley in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.
