Fans have been wondering why Man City’s coach Pep Guardiola substituted Erling Haaland and prevented his double hattrick against RB Leipzig. The Norwegian striker was surely in brilliant form and was practically destroying his opponent like it was simply child’s play. H
e registered five in Manchester City’s 7-0 win over their opponent and guided his team easily to the Quarterfinals, and not only that, he also became the third player to score five goals in a Champions League fixture after Lionel Messi (for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen) and Luiz Adriano (for Shakhtar Donetsk against Bate Borisov). He could have achieved more, but, despite of these things, coach Pep Guardiola substituted him in the 63rd minute, and Julian Alvarez came into play.
Why did Pep Guardiola substituted Haaland?
Pep Guardiola was asked about this thing during post-match presentations, where the coach said that if Haaland achieves this milestone at this young age, the rest of his career would certainly be boring. He would’ve had a target to reach in the future, here and everywhere. That’s why he makes a substitution.
However, Pep Guardiola also said that he wasn’t aware of Messi’s record, but he carried out that substitution because normally when the game is done, they want them to play. Haaland scored five goals. The problem is every time they don’t score two or three; he will be criticized. This is the reality.”
There is also a bigger picture in this regard, where Guardiola highlighted Haaland’s movement on the pitch that primarily allowed the Norwegian to be more involved in the game. He said that Haaladn scored five but touched 30-35 ball contacts, and that is what they are looking for. When someone is involved in the game decisively, the ball reaches to you, you score goals, and you become more precise and clever.
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