Guardiola hails ‘fantastic’ Haaland forward of Manchester City-Dortmund conflict

Manchester City supervisor Pep Guardiola has praised Erling Haaland because the epitome of an all-round goal-scorer and believes the 20-year-old striker is setting requirements few have ever reached at his age.
Haaland would be the greatest risk to City when Borussia Dortmund arrives at Etihad Stadium for the primary leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday, having scored a competition-high 10 targets this season.
He can be the youngest participant to succeed in 20 targets within the Champions League _ at 20 years, 231 days _ and he received to that milestone in simply 14 video games, additionally a document.
Haaland has been closely linked with a transfer to City, which wants to exchange departing striker Sergio Aguero on the finish of the season, and Guardiola is clearly a fan of the Norway worldwide.
“At that age, to score this amount of goals is not easy to find in the past, honestly,” Guardiola mentioned Monday. “The numbers, they converse for themselves. When that occurs, it’s as a result of he can rating proper, left, on the counterattack, within the field, while you dominate, while you make counterattacks, within the headers.
“He is a fantastic striker. Everybody knows it. A blind guy realizes he is a good striker. It’s not necessary to be a manager to realize (that) about him.”
Guardiola has refused to debate a possible transfer for Haaland within the offseason out of respect for the participant and Dortmund, and mentioned final week that City may not even signal a alternative for Aguero as a result of the membership can’t afford a top-class striker.
City’s document signing in kilos is Ruben Dias, a middle again who joined from Benfica for 64 million kilos ($78 million) final yr, and the membership’s coverage to date has been to veer away from recruiting ready-made superstars.Guardiola mentioned the membership is open to the opportunity of altering that strategy however doesn’t imagine it could be a game-changer for City, which has by no means received the Champions League.
“It’s not that spending on one player a lot of money gives you an advantage to win,” he mentioned. “Football is a crew recreation. Everyone makes his contribution _ the blokes who don’t play, the backroom workers, everybody. This competitors won’t be received by one participant, it’s for completely everybody.
“So far, the club has decided to spend not close to 100 million (pounds) for a player. Maybe in the future it is going to happen if the club decides it is necessary to improve the team for the next 5-10 years, for many reasons. But so far, the club, the organization, the CEO, the sporting director, decides, `Don’t do it.’”
City has been eradicated on the quarterfinal stage for the previous three seasons _ by Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon _ and has solely ever reached the semifinals as soon as, underneath Manuel Pellegrini within the 2015-16 season.
That is a big underperformance for a membership that has spent closely underneath its Abu Dhabi possession since 2008 and has been the dominant drive within the Premier League for the previous decade. City leads the Premier League by 14 factors and is in sight of a fifth title since 2012.
“We are already a big club. Not (a big) team, but a big club, a big organization. We are already,” Guardiola mentioned. “But everybody right here _ myself, the gamers _ wish to attempt to do higher than we’ve completed on this competitors by way of the historical past of Manchester City, particularly since we’ve been collectively.
“Of course, we want to do it but for the fact that we want to, want to, want to, want to, we are not going to do if we don’t play good. We analyze Borussia Dortmund, who they are as individuals, as a group, as a team, the different systems they play, the same as we have done Leicester last game (in the Premier League on Saturday). After, guys, the football belongs to you.”