Pep Guardiola provides major Manchester City injury update ahead of Liverpool clash
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has dropped a worrying hint over Erling Haaland’s fitness ahead of the big Premier League game against Liverpool this weekend.
Haaland was an unused substitute at the Bernabeu last night as Man City lost 3-1 to Real Madrid to exit the Champions League in the new playoff round.
It was a bit of a surprise not to see the Norway international making the starting line up, but Guardiola spoke about the decision after the game.
Having gone off in the win over Newcastle United at the weekend, it seems Haaland still had some discomfort and wasn’t quite fit enough to start in Madrid.
Discussing Haaland’s fitness, Guardiola said after the game: “Erling, yesterday, tried to train after the action against Newcastle in the last minutes.
“Probably, with the images (scans) we have done, it’s fine but he has discomfort walking, for example with stairs, and we spoke yesterday and this morning and he said he’s not ready, he doesn’t feel good.
“Not far off, was close but not enough. He trained a bit yesterday, but we spoke yesterday, this morning, and he said he doesn’t feel good so another one.”
He added: “Of course Erling is massively important for us, you don’t need to be a manager to realise, but it is what it is, during the seasons it happens, we are used this season to many cases and it could not be differently today.”
Can Man City beat Liverpool without Erling Haaland?
Haaland is one of the very finest strikers in world football on his day, so it looks like an almighty ask for City to beat this in-form Liverpool side without him.
Reds fans who land tickets for this game might not have a better chance of witnessing a win at the Etihad Stadium than this weekend, with Guardiola’s side looking really low on confidence in what has been a surprisingly difficult season.
Despite having so much quality in their squad, at least on paper, it perhaps looks like Guardiola and this group of players have gone as far as they can together.
Liverpool look a lot stronger now, though of course an away game at City is never likely to be easy.
Some might even argue it would help City if they ended up having to start the game without Haaland, as it could give them a new dimension that makes them a bit more unpredictable.
Still, overall you’d probably rather have one of the best finishers in the world fully fit and available for a big game like this.
The post Pep Guardiola provides major Manchester City injury update ahead of Liverpool clash appeared first on CaughtOffside.