Erling Haaland has enjoyed a fantastic start to life at Manchester City, scoring 12 goals with one assist from eight games across the board this season, but Frank McAvennie says he may be rotated by Pep Guardiola as the matches are coming thick and fast.
The City manager is known for swapping players out on a regular basis, no matter their reputation, as he keeps his squad fresh by having stiff competition for a starting place. It’s why Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus left to join Chelsea and Arsenal respectively, so McAvennie wonders if Haaland will have a problem with it too.
Where will Manchester City finish in the Premier League this season?
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th or lower
He told Football Insider: “Pep will rest anyone, he’s earned that respect and the players just accept it. I don’t know if Haaland would accept getting rotated. He’ll be saying to Pep ‘rotate somebody else, I want to play every game’.”
City welcome Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Wednesday evening and travel to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, so they’ll have two games in three days.
And in October, City face Manchester United (October 2), FC Copenhagen (October 5) (October 11) and Southampton (October 8) in nine days, so players will need to be rested.
Guardiola can’t afford to overuse Haaland as he struggled with injuries at Dortmund and could do with his minutes managed. In his absence, Julian Alvarez could get the nod as he’s proven he’s a capable centre-forward.
In other news, stats show Adedire Mebude could be new Riyad Mahrez at Man City
You actually don’t have a clue what Haaland mind set is so shut up.
And neither do you. Haaland is a big strong “tap in merchant. We need him but hot as much as other members of the team.