“He’s played 2,000 more minutes than Ousmane Dembele” – Pep Guardiola raves about Manchester City’s Erling Haaland

Guardiola: Erling is always Erling

Guardiola opened by addressing a period earlier in the season when Haaland visibly struggled for sharpness after returning from international duty with Norway.

“It’s incredible! There was a period where he was so tired when he came back from Norway qualification and struggled, but it’s for the amount of minutes,” Guardiola said.

“For example, I saw the minutes of (Ousmane) Dembele in PSG compared to Erling – he has 2,000 more! It’s a lot of minutes and he carries on – and the moment Omar (Marmoush) was in AFCON, Erling always is Erling, a threat for opponents, set-pieces, sense of goal.

“It’s just we have to bring more players closer to him when we arrive from sides, more players there because we’ll score more and more goals. When he’s alone in the box, it’s so difficult for him to score!”

The comparison with Dembele is a striking one. Guardiola’s point is not simply that Haaland has played a lot of football, it is that he has played considerably more than one of the other elite forwards in European football this season – and has done so while maintaining a level of output that most strikers could not sustain across half that number of minutes.

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What does Guardiola’s assessment mean for City’s run-in?

Guardiola’s observation that City need more bodies arriving into the box around Haaland is a tactical note as much as a compliment, an acknowledgement that the striker’s threat is maximised not by isolation but by support.

Saturday’s win over Brentford showed exactly that, with Marmoush adding a third after arriving late to meet a delightful through-ball from Haaland to cap off a stunning team move.

With the FA Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley and three Premier League games against Crystal Palace, Bournemouth Aston Villa still to come, Haaland’s fitness and form will be central to how City’s season ends. On the evidence of Guardiola’s words on Saturday evening, there is no concern on either front.