Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was frustrated with Erling Haaland at half-time of their Premier League opener against Burnley on Friday night. Despite City leading 2-0 thanks to a Haaland brace, Guardiola was involved in a frosty exchange with the Golden Boot-winning striker as he made his way to the dressing room at the interval.
Haaland himself was not happy as the whistle blew to signal half-time, seemingly annoyed with team-mate Bernardo Silva for not passing the ball to him. Guardiola then stormed on to the pitch to remonstrate with his striker, including some wild gesticulations, despite him scoring twice in the first 45 minutes. Sky Sports caught it all on camera.
The Catalan tactician, spotting that he was being filmed, walked over and shoved the camera out of the way after glaring down the lens. Sky Sports expert and Manchester United legend Gary Neville reacted: “There will be some people who love the intensity of that, the relentlessness of it, showing why he’s a genius.
“There will be others asking why he’s doing it in a public forum with the cameras on. I’ve played with one of the most intense managers in the history of the game but he would have always done it in the dressing room.”
Commentator Jamie Carragher added: “We’ve seen Pep do that with players before. The only thing watching this game, I think, can City get the ball into Haaland earlier? He’s finding himself one-vs-one.
“Maybe Pep’s not so much frustrated with Haaland but the demand is to get him more involved. The ball needs to come into him earlier so he can get more involved.”
The incident came despite the Norwegian centre-forward making a brilliant start to the 2023-24 campaign. After scoring 36 times to win the Golden Boot, and the title, in his debut season last year, he scored within four minutes at Turf Moor here as he swept in from a Rodri header across the box.
The second, which came in the 36th minute, was a lovely finish swept into the far corner off the underside of the bar after Haaland was set up by Julian Alvarez. The No 9 had a mere six touches in the first half but still managed two well-taken finishes.
Ahead of the match, Guardiola declared that he didn’t want the 23-year-old – who scored 52 goals in all competitions on the way to helping City win the treble last term – to worry too much about his goalscoring form.
He said: “I will advise him don’t put too much pressure on the goals and so on. What I say to Erling is come back at your best because he’s 1m90cm and try your best physio and mentally.
“If you score fine, if you don’t score fine. Try to improve your details, quality and the skills in spaces like you can be a better player. And if the team is going to help you to give you as much help as possible to score the goals, this is what they have to do.
“I don’t want Erling to score 50 or 60. Try to be as happy as you was last season, relax and get to your best after holidays, after [pre-season in] Asia. Training better, every game you play demanding yourself to make the effort then the goals, as he knows, will come along naturally. Don’t force it.
“But we have to do, him and everyone, to make the situations happen. We have to do something, create chances, defend well, score goals, don’t concede, be safe at set pieces, we have to do something to make it happen.”
