Why was Pep Guardiola angry with Erling Haaland at half time in Manchester City’s win at Burnley?

A new Premier League season, the same old Erling Haaland. Manchester City were first up in the English top flight on Friday against newly-promoted Burnley and came away with a comfortable 3-0 victory, with the Norwegian goal machine inevitably on the scoresheet.

Haaland starts with Burnley brace

It took the striker just three minutes to get his first goal of the campaign, prodding into the net from close range after Rodri’s header across goal. In true Haaland fashion, he wasn’t hugely involved in the game immediately afterwards, but popped up just over half-an-hour later to double his team’s advantage, firing Julian Álvarez’s layoff in off the crossbar in inch-perfect fashion.

Why was Guardiola unhappy with Haaland?

Those unsurprisingly proved to be the two defining moments of the forward’s performance, although he was also involved in an eye-catching exchange with Pep Guardiola at half time, the City boss seemingly furious with his player as they walked off the field.

Immediately after the referee had brought the first half to an end, Haaland was seen angrily gesturing to teammate Bernardo Silva, who passed up the chance to play a ball in behind the Burnley defence for the Norway international to run onto, instead opting to keep possession.

What did Pep say to the City striker?

Seconds later, TV cameras belong to UK broadcaster Sky Sports captured the tail end of Guardiola’s rant at his striker. “You weren’t moving with three minutes left. With one minute left we had to make long balls, completely opposite, it’s the right tempo right now.”

The former Barcelona coach explained after the match that he wanted to his players to keep the ball at that particular point of proceedings, to ensure they didn’t give Burnley any encouragement before half time. “Two minutes before, we had two actions which were long balls forward and we lost it. With one minute left, you have to finish (the half) at 0-2″.

Former Barcelona coach sympathises with Haaland

Guardiola, however, also revealed that he had sympathy for his star striker: “I understand Erling because he wants the ball, one against one, to score more goals, but at that moment, Bernardo took the right decision”.

Haaland also played the incident down and revealed he’ll use the pair’s “talk” to keep improving: “I try to focus everyday, and I say it all the time that it’s a pleasure to work with Pep,” Haaland told Sky Sports. “I have to keep on developing because I’m still young, don’t forget! I don’t think there’s anyone better to learn from”.