‘Pep have finally understood’, ‘He receives no service!’ – Man City fans react as Guardiola makes Erling Haaland admission after Derby lose

Pep Guardiola conceded Manchester City may not be getting the best out of Erling Haaland after the Norwegian failed to find the scoresheet again.

Haaland has already broken a slew of records with his extraordinary performances, becoming the first player to score 20 Premier League goals before the turn of the year – even with a break for the World Cup. The forward has not been used as much recently with Guardiola mostly resting the player for cup competitions, but his goalscoring has slowed.

City’s No.9 failed to find the net at Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last week, was unable to change the game at Southampton, and went goalless again in the Manchester derby. Jack Grealish’s goal looked set to have given the Blues the victory.

City’s dip in form in recent weeks has sparked debate over Haaland’s position in the team and how City can get the best out of him. Guardiola admitted after defeat at Old Trafford that the service he has may have to improve if he is to start scoring more goals again.

“Maybe we have to find him a little bit more in the final third,” he said. “We tried to drop him knowing [Luke] Shaw and [Raphael] Varane would follow him.

“It’s not easy to create chances, United here the last few games concede one goal in the Premier League. We scored one, we had the last pass, the last cross, the last little bit moments, I give a lot of credit to United for the quality they have and the players they have.

These Guardiola’s comments were shared on Twitter by City Xtra and it attracted plenty of attention from the club’s supporters.

@Sashank: “Oh you have finally understood we need to find him more in the final third and scout his runs better. Maybe you’ll have more than a one way plan next time?”

@DxBruyneSZN: “We literally never passed him the ball ffs”

@jaybvtches: “He receives no service!!”

@MainuKhaleel: “And why didn’t he bring on Alvarez? 🤦”

@CashFlows333: “He never got played through at all today, Nunez gets so many chances in 1 game it ain’t fair ffs.”

@HBFutbol: “He made so many runs in behind but we just passed sideways or backwards”

@Tunde_Ogungboye: “Haaland was forced to drop deep because his players weren’t giving him those ball to run at. On several occasions Haaland makes the run but we decide to pass back. We had a lot clear cut chances to make Haaland work but we didn’t and that is our fault. We got what we asked for.”