Despite acknowledging that Erling Haaland might have joined the “wrong club,” according to Jamie Carragher, Pep Guardiola claimed he is happy to have the striker at Manchester City.
The Norwegian, who has an incredible 32 goals in 30 games this season, scored again on Wednesday as the Blues defeated Arsenal 3-1 to move atop the standings. If Haaland scores again on Saturday when the Premier League winners travel to Nottingham Forest, he would tie Sergio Aguero’s record of 33 goals for City in a single season as the most goals by a City player.
Which makes Carragher’s remarks from two weeks ago all the more strange because he said that Haaland doesn’t benefit from Guardiola and his lack of transitional play.
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Guardiola and Carragher’s rift
“He’s come from a league and Borussia Dortmund where it’s a counter-attacking league and it’s end to end and you see that blistering pace. You don’t see it [at City]. He may have actually picked the wrong club to actually get the best out of him. We’re not seeing everything of Haaland and Manchester City now,” said Carragher, after City lost 1-0 at Tottenham Hotspur.
Guardiola was asked on Friday whether he understood the pundit’s opinion and replied: “Yeah, absolutely. I understand it. What can I say? I am open to all opinions.“
“We have his argument but it is important that he feels so happy here. His commitment – not because he scored 26 goals – is incredibly well respected. It was a surprise for us, a really big surprise.”
“We know his stats, his numbers when he played in Dortmund.” Guardiola said. “We are, all of us, really surprised. How we see him as a boy, because he is a boy and that makes us so proud of him. We want to help him.”
“All opinions are more than welcome and Jamie Carragher says that, he will have his reasons. We are delighted to have him and we are delighted he chose us because at the end he had all the world in his hands to choose where he was going to play, to stay in Dortmund or go to Madrid or Barcelona or other teams in England but he chose us and that is why we are more than happy.” Guardiola said.
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