Pep Guardiola has clarified his choice to bench Erling Haaland for Manchester City’s important match against Aston Villa.
City host Villa on Wednesday night with the chance to go top of the Premier League as the title race comes to an exciting end.
This is one of the Citizens’ hardest matches, having lost the reverse fixture back in December and with the Villans currently fourth in the table.
However, Guardiola has not chosen the strongest starting lineup, making four changes from the goalless draw against title rivals Arsenal last Sunday.
One of these changes is forced, with Nathan Ake out with injury, but Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Mateo Kovacic have also been benched.
Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku, Julian Alvarez and Rico Lewis will start instead.
Considering the quick turnaround, changes were anticipated, but striker Haaland is rarely benched and this decision is even more surprising due to how passionately Guardiola defended the 23-year-old after he was called ‘a League Two player’ following a poor performance against Arsenal.
Explaining his team selection, the manager told TNT Sports that it was simply a matter of resting players amidst the fixture pile up: ‘Yes [it’s just a matter of managing minutes].
‘In two-and-a-half days at 12:30 we have another game [against Crystal Palace].
‘I think all the teams who are top have the biggest squad and of course we have it. Today we decide on this line-up for this opponent, a tough opponent and we’ll go for it.’
Former Tottenham and England goalkeeper Paul Robinson believes Guardiola has made the right decision, saying on BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘If Erling Haaland had scored at the weekend and there hadn’t been comments made about his general performance, then him being on the bench tonight would have been classed as Pep Guardiola rotating his squad.
‘We have also seen Kevin de Bruyne on the bench occasionally this season. They have Crystal Palace at the weekend and Real Madrid next week in the Champions League.
‘But given the comments around Haaland this week it seems that Pep is doing what he thinks is best for the team. I’m the manager, I’m leaving him out, that is what I’m going to do.’
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