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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has insisted he has no concerns about Erling Haaland after he was unable to strike a debut goal against Liverpool.
The Premier League champions fell to a 3-1 defeat against Jurgen Klopp’s side at the King Power Stadium, with the Norwegian seeing both an effort disallowed and hitting the frame of the goal.
Plenty of expectation has been placed upon Haaland following his big-money move to English football and, with Liverpool’s own expensive recruit Darwin Nunez starting on the bench, the stage was set for the forward to make an impact.
City’s number nine was unable to do so, while Nunez came off the bench to win a penalty and score Liverpool’s third, but Guardiola remained confident his new recruit will be firing in goals throughout the course of the campaign.
“He had chances, two or three in the first half, one at the end, fought a lot, made the movements,” he told a news conference.
“Good for him to see the reality, a new country, new league. He was there. Today he didn’t score, other days he will score.
“No [worries about the chances that he missed]. He has the quality. He has an incredible sense. We had just two weeks, the team was good in the States. I am really comfortable. The season starts now.”
Haaland’s big moment came in the latter stages of the match, where the former Borussia Dortmund man struck the crossbar from point-blank range but, while it will likely lead to jibes from rival fans, Guardiola downplayed the incident.
“He is strong, he missed it, another time he would put it in the net. What is the problem? It happened, it is football,” he added.
“There was another goal disallowed because the ball was out of the line and he scored. He would do it. It’s good to understand sometimes, he needs that situation to understand okay, this is what to do. It’s good.
“I am not concerned or worried about that. He would be happy if we won, he scored goals, everyone would be, but the reality is it is a long 11 months.
“We have two, three months ahead of us before the World Cup, so intense, and then after that this season is every three days, four days, and Erling is going to score, I am sure of it.”
