Guardiola, DeBruyne, and Gundogan respond to Haaland's goalless performance against Bournemouth

Erling Haaland failed to score despite Manchester City thrashing Bournemouth 4-1, his coach and teammates had a lot to say about his performance.

Manchester City secured a routine 4-0 win at home to newly-promoted Bournemouth on matchday 2 of the 2022/23 Premier League season.

The Cityzens started like a house on fire with three first-half goals from Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin DeBruyne and Phil Foden after which a late own goal by Jefferson Lerma sealed a good day for Manchester City.

But it was not a good day individually for City’s new Norwegian striker who failed to score and was hauled off in the 74th minute, replaced by Julian Alvarez.

Pep Guardiola on Haaland

Pep Guardiola offers thoughts on Erling Haaland.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola acknowledged Erling Haaland’s barren day in front of goal and gave reasons for the striker’s inability to score against Bournemouth.

“The most difficult job in the world is when you’re a striker vs a [defence] with three CMs, three CBs and you’re in the middle. We’ll find many of these but it’s a question of time. With the quality we have, we’ll find him,” said Guardiola.

Haaland started his Premier League career with a brace in the first game away at West Ham and was expected to score in his first home league game for his new club but he failed to do so.

Gundogan and DeBruyne talk about Haaland

Two of Manchester City’s goalscorers, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin DeBruyne also offered thoughts on Erling Haaland’s performance.

De Bruyne and Gundogan spoke about Erling Haaland.

“He’s bringing us to a whole new dimension, bringing us a whole new quality, and he’s going to score a lot of goals… Today he assisted me one, so I’ll try to assist him many more in the future,” Gundogan told BBC.

“We are very privileged and pleased to have him. He’s not just a great footballer, he’s also a great character,” Gundogan wrapped up his thoughts on Haaland.

Kevin DeBruyne also spoke about Haaland, “There was not a lot of space, but obviously they’re occupied with him [Erling Haaland], so sometimes there’s going to be space for other #ManCity players. Sometimes if they come closer to us, he will be in more space. That’s the way it works.”

“He played really well [vs Bournemouth]. Obviously it’s so tight. I don’t think in Germany he played a lot of games where the other teams were so defensively narrow, it’s something he has to adapt to and I think he did great,” DeBruyne concluded on Haaland