Haaland has ´full trust´ in Guardiola to halt Man City slump

Erling Haaland has “full trust” in the “best manager in the world”, Pep Guardiola, to get Manchester City back on track against Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday.

Guardiola’s side have lost four matches in a row across all competitions, which is the Spaniard’s longest losing run in his entire managerial career.

The Citizens last lost more consecutively between March and April 2006 under Stuart Pearce (six – the fifth game of which was also against Tottenham).

But after putting pen to paper on a new two-year contract extension at the club earlier this week, Guardiola has his eyes firmly set on returning to winning ways on home soil.

And Haaland, who has scored 105 goals in 114 appearances under Guardiola at City, believes they can make up the gap to leaders Liverpool, who are five points ahead.

“When you look at what he’s been doing for the club, he’s not bad, is he? So he’s got my full trust,” Haaland told Sky Sports.

“And if he tells me something, I’d better do it because he knows the best in the end. Everyone knows that. So I’m sure he will find solutions now as well. I’m sure of that.

“[Guardiola] demands us to be at our best in every training session, in every game. And that’s what we need to do. It hasn’t been good enough, losing four games now, but let’s try to win the next.”

The journey continues pic.twitter.com/8aluupvQw9

— Manchester City (@ManCity) November 21, 2024

Haaland went on to praise Guardiola, whose new deal will take his tenure at the club to over a decade, making him City’s longest-serving manager since Les McDowall in 1963.

“He’s the best manager in the world and I think we all know that. And he’s probably the best that ever existed on the earth,” the 24-year-old said.

City have been crippled by a long-term injury to Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, while Haaland has only scored twice in his last six league matches.

Despite his recent run of form, Haaland still leads the division for goals scored (12) and shots on target (32), but he has also missed 10 big chances in the top-flight, with only Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins (11) squandering more.

But after netting four goals, including a hat-trick against Kazakhstan for Norway in the Nations League, the striker is hopeful that the international break will have helped City to regroup and rediscover their form.

“I think it was good for everyone to maybe go to their countries and national teams and restart a little bit,” Haaland said.

“We lost four in a row but how bad is it? It’s not that bad. It’s not like we got relegated. We’re still second place, we’ve still got plenty of games left.”

An unstoppable duo pic.twitter.com/E0klU9pclS

— Manchester City (@ManCity) November 22, 2024