Pep Guardiola reveals reason behind benching Erling Haaland & Kevin De Bruyne against Aston Villa

Manchester City beat Villains 4-1 to maintain pressure on Arsenal and Liverpool

Erling Haaland was rested, according to Pep Guardiola, since the Manchester City manager started him on the bench for their pivotal match against Aston Villa.

His choice was prompted by the harsh criticism the Manchester United great Roy Keane levelled at the City striker, calling his “general play” “poor” and “almost like a League Two player.” Keane’s comments made news. His remarks were inspired by the fact that Haaland was benched when Villa visited the Etihad Stadium on Sunday and failed to score in the dull 0-0 draw with rivals for the title Arsenal.

But before Wednesday’s Premier League game, Guardiola was questioned by TNT Sports about whether or if he just decided to manage the minutes of both Haaland and teammate Kevin De Bruyne by benching them both.

“Yeah,” the City boss replied. “In two-and-a-half days we have another game at 12:30 [away to Crystal Palace ]. ‘They could play and rest other players. We put the players out to win it not just to rest players. We need fresh legs, and we only played three days ago against Arsenal. We needed it because of the schedule, so we needed the rest.’

“I think all the teams at the top have a big squad, a good squad, and of course we have it. Today we decided for this line-up for this tough opening and [we will] go for it.”

During his news conference on Tuesday, Guardiola responded to Keane’s criticism by saying:

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“He’s the best striker in the world. He helped us win last season and the reason why we didn’t create many answers from Erling is we need more presence in the final third with more people.

“We played an exceptional game, I reviewed the game against Arsenal but we just missed more people in the final third. The quality and different skillset we have, Haaland is exceptional.”

He added: “Some actions he missed, sometimes it’s the managers, sometimes the opponent is really good, there are many many reasons. In football there is not just one reason, sometimes where you have success or you don’t have success, there are many reasons, it’s football, it’s a team sport.”

But Jack Grealish was in the City starting lineup, and after failing to impress against Arsenal, Guardiola gave him a hard time on the pitch. The England international’s manager told the media, “I had the feeling that he [Grealish] is back,” which gave him the go-ahead to play against his previous team, Villa. Desire in training, in mood, in many things. I’m happy now.

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