Despite having many men from his squad at the World Cup, Pep Guardiola was perhaps happy to see that one of his best players had stayed at home but he wasn’t able to provide much of a positive update about Erling Haaland ahead of the cup game against Liverpool.
Speaking with the media, the 51-year-old said: “I had a feeling that the players in the World Cup are in a better condition than the players who are here, Sergio, Cole, Riyad, Erling, they miss a little bit, the players who didn’t go lack the rhythm.
“Those coming back have competed and trained every day, they keep the rhythm and we had holidays”.
It seems that the Norwegian forward may not yet be in his best form ahead of the game at the Etihad Stadium and so we can hope that means he will either not play or won’t be able to perform at his highest level.
Jurgen Klopp will have a similar issue with some of his players who didn’t feature in Qatar not yet being up to full form but let’s hope our lads can click into gear quicker than those from Manchester.
You can watch Guardiola’s comments on Haaland via @footballdaily on Twitter:
🇪🇸 Sergio Gómez
🇳🇴 Erling Haaland
🇩🇿 Riyad Mahrez
🏴 Cole PalmerPep Guardiola says the players at the World Cup are in a better condition than those who were not. pic.twitter.com/XrYpBLmVgW
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 21, 2022