Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has explained that his decision to take off Erling Haaland in his side’s thumping of Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League was made to take care of the Norwegian goal-machine, Soccernet.football reports.
Haaland grabbed City’s third goal of the match in the 58th minute, registering his 42nd Champions League goal in just 41 appearances. The Norwegian was then brought off just two minutes later, to be replaced by James McAtee.
McAtee went on to justify his involvement in the 74th minute after scoring his first Manchester City goal to round off a resounding 4-0 victory in Slovakia on Tuesday night.
Quizzed after the match whether Haaland had been frustrated to be taken off, Guardiola told City’s media channels: “Erling is never disappointed with his manager.
“As a manager I am more secure and more happy when Erling is on the pitch.
“I will keep him on the pitch all the time but at 0-3 the game was almost over and with this amount of games we have to take care of him.
“He had a big knock in the last game against Newcastle [United] so that’s why, after the fantastic goal with the pass from Rico [Lewis], it was better [to take him off].”
City will be back in Premier League action on Saturday when they will play hosts to Fulham. Guardiola will be hoping his side can get back to winning ways after back to back draws against Arsenal and Newcastle United respectively.
With Haaland having notched a whooping 11 goals in only eight appearances in all competitions so far this season, it stands to reason that the City boss will be looking to do everything he can to protect his star striker and help him maintain this outrageous vein of form for as long as possible.