Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been handed a first opportunity to respond to Erling Haaland\u2019s outburst of emotion following the midweek outing.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian striker was visibly frustrated after City let their advantage slip late on in France, with Haaland openly criticising his teammates\u2019 second-half display during a post-match interview.<\/p>\n
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His comments came after scoring twice in the opening 45 minutes to take his Champions League tally to 52 goals in just 50 games, only for City to concede late on through an Eric Dier penalty.<\/p>\n
Erling Haaland\u2019s frustrations echoed wider concerns within the squad about consistency as the forward insisted that \u201cstupid mistakes\u201d had cost Manchester City and warned that points dropped in the group stage could prove costly later in the competition.<\/p>\n
The draw against Monaco also highlighted Pep Guardiola\u2019s wider balancing act with questions asked in some quarters over the decision to withdraw Rodri in the second half, with the City boss later defending his rotation by pointing to the Spaniard\u2019s knee troubles.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, the manager has urged patience with newer faces such as Nico Gonz\u00e1lez, emphasising that Manchester City\u2019s evolution will take time as different players develop their own identities in the team.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media ahead of Manchester City\u2019s return to action against Brentford this weekend, Pep Guardiola was asked for his thoughts on Erling Haaland\u2019s public showing of frustration with reporters after the 2-2 draw with AS Monaco.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us, we were [frustrated]. We want to win, we could not do it,\u201d Guardiola said. \u201cWe did many, many good things and other ones that we can do better.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBut it\u2019s normal and we\u2019ll work on it. We want to win and we had chances to score a third. Yeah, it\u2019s not a problem I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing on whether Manchester City fans would have appreciated the reaction from their leading striker and a member of the club\u2019s leadership group, Guardiola said, \u201cWe are honest. But fans like it when we win, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Guardiola will be hoping Haaland\u2019s drive and honesty can serve as a rallying point for his squad rather than a source of distraction, with the Norwegian already established as a vocal presence in the dressing room.<\/p>\n
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With Brentford up next, Pep Guardiola faces a crucial decision on how much to rotate his squad after a demanding European trip, but ahead of a much-needed international break for stars not selected for national team duties.<\/p>\n
The absences of Abdukodir Khusanov, Rayan A\u00eft-Nouri, and Omar Marmoush, along with the cautious management of Rayan Cherki\u2019s fitness, only add further intrigue to this weekend\u2019s selection.<\/p>\n
Erling Haaland, meanwhile, will be expected to continue his prolific run, with supporters now eager to see whether the striker\u2019s frustrations can be channelled into another match-winning performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been handed a first opportunity to respond to Erling Haaland\u2019s outburst of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[95454,8839,49,48,92987,75832,563,75835,21083,95453,75838,561,82],"class_list":["post-191047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-abdukodir-khusanov","tag-as-monaco","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-eric-dier","tag-erling-haaland","tag-manchester-city","tag-omar-marmoush","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-rayan-cherki","tag-rodri","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}