Erling Haaland admits his and Manchester City’s recent performances were not good enough but supported coach Pep Guardiola to “find solutions”.
City have won just once in their last 12 games after losing 2-1 at Aston Villa this lunchtime. Goals from Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers put the hosts in control before Phil Foden scored a late consolation.
Haaland once again played a peripheral role as City struggled to establish themselves in the face of Villa’s heavy pressing, and the Norwegian striker admits improvement is needed both individually and collectively.
Man City have now lost nine of their last twelve games in all competitions…
That’s more than in the previous 106 games combined (8) 🤯 pic.twitter.com/jpznVDfRKh
– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 21, 2024
Haaland – it’s not good enough
He told TNT Sports: “Of course we’re disappointed, it’s not good enough. It’s not good enough of me.
“They are good players, it is difficult to come here but we are Man City, we should be out there. We have to keep going, we have to believe and we have to keep working hard.
“We have to keep going. First I look at myself: I didn’t do things well enough, I didn’t take advantage of my opportunities. I have to do better, I wasn’t good enough.”
The defeat continues what is arguably the biggest crisis of Guardiola’s managerial career, but Haaland backed the Catalan to lead City through the storm.
“He won the Premier League six times in seven years, we will never forget that,” he added.
“He will find the solutions. He did that every year. We still believe in him, we have to work harder now than ever before.
“We know how important self-confidence is and you can see that it affects everyone. That’s how it is, we have to keep going and stay positive even when it’s difficult.”
“We find it difficult to score and we concede goals” 😳
Pep Guardiola gives @julesbreach his analysis of Man City’s 1-2 defeat against Aston Villa…
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/eTiBhWdZgf
– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 21, 2024
We will regain confidence – Guardiola
Guardiola was disappointed with his team’s performance in the second half.
He told TNT Sports: “We do a really good first half, we lost the second half. We changed our pressing because John (Stones) couldn’t continue.
“We had good moments, we had chances, more chances than in the (Manchester) United game, but in the second half we let up and our pressing wasn’t good enough. In the end we found a goal, but too late.
“We find it difficult to score and we concede goals.”
However, he remains confident that City will come out of this situation and regain their confidence.
“Step by step we have nice personalities in the team and sooner or later we will find them,” he said.
