Stop blaming Haaland for Man City’s problems!

James Shearman

• Updated: 14 Jan 2023 17:54 GMT
• 3 min read

Having won four of the last five Premier League titles, Manchester City look out of sorts in the 2022-23 season.

And this week epitomised everything that's wrong with Pep Guardiola's side at the moment.

City lost 2-0 to Southampton in the EFL Cup quarter-final on Wednesday and, more importantly, lost 2-1 to Manchester United in the league on Saturday.

MORE: Erling Haaland at Man City: Goals, assists, results & fixtures in 2022-23

Jack Grealish put the champions in front, before Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford completed a second-half comeback.

The result leaves City five points behind leaders Arsenal and just a point ahead of rivals United.

Rather incredibly, a lot of the blame has been put on summer signing Erling Haaland.

Haaland has scored 21 goals in 17 Premier League games. How can it be his fault?

Stop blaming Haaland for Man City’s problems!

Erling Haaland has been blamed for Manchester City's struggles, despite scoring a ridiculous amount of goals.

And the reason being is that the goals aren't shared around like before, with the Norwegian scoring 46% of the team's total.

England international Phil Foden has scored seven times in the league, while Kevin de Bruyne and Julian Alvarez have three each.

Contrast that to last season, where De Bruyne (15), Raheem Sterling (13), Riyad Mahrez (11) and Foden (9) shared the load, and it is an easy conclusion to make.

But City have scored 46 goals in 18 league games in 2022-23, compared to 44 at this stage last season. That's a positive. It doesn't matter where they came from.

Instead, the issue is clearly the defence. Guardiola's side conceded nine in their opening 18 league games last season, versus 18 in 18 this season.

That's not Haaland's fault. Instead, it will have plenty to do with the chopping and changing of the back four.