{"id":39383,"date":"2024-12-25T02:23:44","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T23:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=39383"},"modified":"2024-12-25T02:23:44","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T23:23:44","slug":"guardiola-city-doesnt-run-or-fight-haaland-is-not-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/25\/guardiola-city-doesnt-run-or-fight-haaland-is-not-to-blame\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardiola: City Doesn\u2019t Run or Fight.. Haaland Is Not to Blame"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola emphasized on Tuesday that striker Erling Haaland is not solely responsible for the defending champions\u2019 dramatic struggles this season.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">City, winners of the Premier League in four of the past five seasons, are experiencing their worst spell in recent history. Their 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on Saturday marked their ninth defeat in 12 matches across all competitions.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Haaland, last season\u2019s top scorer with 27 league goals, has failed to find the net in five of his last six matches.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Norwegian striker admitted to \u201cTNT Sports\u201d after the Villa defeat: \u201cI look at myself first. I haven\u2019t scored the chances I\u2019ve had. I need to do better; I haven\u2019t been good enough.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">However, Guardiola defended Haaland, who has scored 108 goals since joining the club in 2022: \u201cWe\u2019d be worse without him. He needs better service in the right areas.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He continued: \u201cIt\u2019s about us, not one player. When we used to score goals, and Erling was at his best, it was because of the team.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Guardiola stressed the importance of collective responsibility: \u201cWhen you have issues in defense and midfield, the blame is on everyone. It\u2019s a team. It\u2019s not about one player.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager reiterated that Haaland is crucial for City\u2019s success: \u201cHe\u2019s very important to us and will continue to be. We need to improve in utilizing him better.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Guardiola explained that City\u2019s recent results aren\u2019t due to a lack of effort: \u201cIt\u2019s not that the team doesn\u2019t run or fight, nor is it about a specific player or coach. It\u2019s the small details\u2014sometimes big ones\u2014that mean we\u2019re not as good as we were. But we have another chance on Boxing Day.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">City is seventh in the league with 27 points, 12 behind leaders Liverpool, who also have a game in hand.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola emphasized on Tuesday that striker Erling Haaland is not solely responsible for the defending champions\u2019 dramatic struggles this season. City, winners of the Premier League in four of the past five seasons, are experiencing their worst spell in recent history. Their 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on Saturday marked their &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39384,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39383\/revisions\/39384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}