Manchester City have two of the best forwards in the world competing for a place in the same team.
Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez have both impressed for City this season (Image: 2022 Manchester City FC)
Pep Guardiola is confident Erling Haaland can shake off his injury issues and last the course with Manchester City this season.
Haaland missed 16 games for Borussia Dortmund last season with muscle problems and Guardiola had praised City’s medical team for their handling of the striker since his £51million move to the Etihad in the summer.
The 22-year-old missed a couple of games with a foot injury before the World Cup break and could train only briefly with the Blues during their winter training camp in Abu Dhabi, but he returned to action with a goal against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup last week.
Haaland will lead the line against Leeds United on Thursday, with Julian Alvarez still basking in the glow of a World Cup triumph, but Guardiola is confident the injury issue that has affected him recently at City won’t prove to be as problematic as last season.
“The injury is completely different to last season. It was a knock on his foot in Dortmund, when we played them in the Champions League,” said Guardiola.
“The doctor said he damaged his ligaments in his foot and it’s so painful. It’s not easy to recover, that’s why he struggled.
“But muscular issues [that he had at Dortmund], it’s perfect and now it’s much, much better, now it’s a question of time. Of course we need him and, yeah, it’s good.
“I think he will be ready [for Leeds]. Day by day he’s getting better, as much. He can train and he will get his condition.”
Alvarez played second fiddle to Haaland in the first half of the season, but he scored four goals for Argentina on the way to winning the World Cup and will return to City with his stock enhanced.
Guardiola has occasionally fielded his two forwards together, but Alvarez might find himself on the bench again between now and the end of the season, although he will take his seat amongst the replacements as a world champion.
The City boss believes the forward will return a better player for his World Cup journey, but admits he doesn’t know if he will react differently if he’s left out in the future.
“Maybe, I don’t know. I didn’t speak with him, I didn’t see him. But I would say, right now, the players who are not going to play the next game against Leeds, they will be grumpy with me, they will be upset, sad, that’s normal,” he said.
“What I can say is that we’re so happy for Julian and I’m pretty sure to have lived this experience, to play under pressure in quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final, one game you are in or you are out, playing these types of games? What an experience for him. Of course, he’s our player, so it’s perfect for us.
“It’s like Messi, no? He has to win the World Cup to maybe get the credit or get the position he deserves. But Argentina could have lost on penalties to Holland and to France, so they would not be world champions, but he would be exactly the same outstanding player.
“Julian, of course, is a completely different player, but he doesn’t need to play a World Cup or win it for us to know exactly how he is as a player. Of course, for him it’s absolutely unbelievable, the age he is, to be a world champion.
“Thanks to Argentina, he will come back a better player. That is magnificent for us, and after that we’ll see what happens, day by day. But it’s important to have him with this amount of games, with injuries, whatever, to have Julian is so important.”
SOURCE: manchestereveningnews.co.uk
