DeBruyne, Gundogan and Guardiola comment on Haaland’s goalless display against Bournemouth

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.

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.

“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