Manchester City were beaten by Man Utd at Old Trafford and it was an afternoon when the Blues struggled to get Haaland involved.
Manchester City added the missing piece to their jigsaw in the summer, but by slotting in Erling Haaland at the top of the puzzle there is a growing feeling that it has created problems elsewhere, rather than providing a clearer picture.
It’s impossible to quibble with Haaland’s 21 goals in 17 Premier League appearances, but having signed a goalscoring machine in the summer, something they’ve been missing in recent years, it hasn’t yet led to the panacea of combining City’s sublime football with an added bite in the final third.
After Saturday’s Manchester derby defeat City are five points worse off than they were at this stage of last season and, despite Haaland’s heroics, have scored only two more goals.
The Norwegian had only one sight of goal at Old Trafford, but he did drop deep to help outnumber United in midfield, providing Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw with a dilemma as to whether to follow him.
Haaland had 20 touches against United, but only five of them were in the penalty area. All nine of the other City players to complete 90 minutes had at least 61 touches and Pep Guardiola is calling on the rest of his team to find their striker a little more often.
“At the moment we have that process because when teams are sat in their 18-yard box it is more difficult but we have to find him a little bit more, yes,” he said.
“He had enough touches [against United] but it’s true that when you are looking at areas and you have to look at him. But we will do it.”
Rather than calling any specific player to get Haaland involved more often, the City boss wants everyone to be looking for him, once again repeating the mantra that everyone can defend and attack in his system.
But Guardiola was still content with the performance, if not the result at Old Trafford. The Blues have now won just half of their eight games in all competition since the World Cup resumed and they broke up for the tournament by losing at home to Brentford.
The midweek defeat to Southampton in the Carabao Cup was as poor a performance as City have produced for a long time, but Guardiola felt his team were more recognisable in the derby, despite the inconsistent results remaining a problem.
“I could recognise my team. That is all I can say. At Southampton…what is this? What is this team? But this was the opposite. I recognise my team from many, many years,” he said.
“I would say the inconsistency was in terms of results but not performances. In general, not against Southampton, we were consistent in our games.
“Of course against Everton we played better, they had one shot on target and we drew. They punished you when before it didn’t happen, we always found a way to get the results. Play good or bad, we always had that chance. I think this is our strength and we have to improve but in terms of performance, I think we are consistent.
“But we lost at Anfield when we scored a goal that was disallowed, in this match against the top, top clubs the margin is so minimal. But I want to recognise my team, to say ‘we do what we do, we work and we talk and we plan’. But this is a business, I know that.
“All my reflections about this and we lost….we lost, my friend. Don’t explain any theories. In other games we won and maybe we didn’t (play as well).”
