JAMIE CARRAGHER hilariously trolled Pep Guardiola after Manchester City’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa.
That’s by declaring the Spaniard must have heard his opinion on how to get the best from Erling Haaland following last weekend’s defeat at Spurs.
Carragher and fellow pundit Micah Richards were less than complimentary about City’s performance when they were dominated in London a week ago.
The result saw the defending champs drop more points in their title race with Arsenal.
And both Carragher and Richards expressed their annoyance over City’s failure to ping long balls for star striker Haaland, 22, to chase down behind enemy lines.
Liverpool legend Carragher even suggested 31-goal Haaland may have joined the wrong club last summer.
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
However, it appeared Guardiola got the message for today’s win against Villa.
Haaland came off at the break with a possible injury after bagging an assist in the 3-1 victory at the Etihad.
And he played a key role in the first-half by opening up space for teammates with his movement off the ball.
Haaland was also treated to a lot of clever passes by pals including Kevin de Bruyne, who was very quiet last Sunday.
Most read in Football
HOW TO GET FREE BETS ON FOOTBALL
And Carragher trolled Guardiola by insisting the world-class tactician must have tuned into his rant on Sky Sports before taking down notes.
Carragher tweeted: “That’s how you use Haaland! He’s that quick and powerful it doesn’t even need to be a good ball.
“City should play that ball 5/6 times a half, if they don’t it’s a waste of Haaland’s strengths!
“Pep watched Super Sunday last week @MicahRichards.”
Carragher was particularly scathing with his assessment of City and Haaland after last weekend’s defeat at Spurs.
He said at the time: “Haaland was very frustrated and I’ve felt this even when he was scoring all his goals at the start of the season.
“He’s obviously still well ahead in the top goalscoring ranks, but I think we’ve only seen 60 percent of Erling Haaland.
Haaland may have actually picked the wrong club
Jamie Carragher
“You think of that goal he scored at West Ham on the first game of the season, where there’s space in behind, he makes that run.
“Now I know that’s not there that often because of the way City play, but he’s come from Borussia Dortmund where it’s a counter-attacking league and it’s end to end, and you see that blistering pace that he’s got.
“We don’t see it [now]. He may have actually picked the wrong club, to actually get the best out of him.
“We’re not seeing everything of Erling Haaland. And Manchester City now, not because of Erling Haaland, we can say they’re a different team, but they’ve scored exactly the same amount of goals.
“He’s scored 25 league goals, but Manchester City as a team have scored the same amount of goals [as this time last season]. But they’ve conceded more and it’s far easier to counter attack them as well.
“So they’re a different team, and a lesser team with Erling Haaland in the team. But again, it’s not his fault. Manchester City as a team will not play end to end football.
“It’s not Pep Guardiola’s way. His players don’t have the energy or the power or the pace to play end to end.
Read More on The Sun
“They build up slowly and they push the opposition back to the edge of the box and they play from there, and when they lose it they win it back quickly, and they keep people hemmed in.
“Now, Erling Haaland has scored 25 league goals. A lot of those are coming across and he’s putting it in. But we’re not seeing the full package of what this player can do because of the team that he’s actually gone to.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
