Pep Guardiola explains why Erling Haaland did not play as Man City lose to Newcastle | OneFootball

P

ep Guardiola admits he did not pay much thought to the idea of bringing Erling Haaland on against Newcastle in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup defeat.

Manchester City were beaten at St James’ Park despite dominating the first-half thanks to Alexander Isak’s goal after the break.

Though winning a quadruple is unlikely and a feat never before achieved in English football, the idea of City potentially winning it under Guardiola is generally not particularly remote.

Treble winners last season, they have taken the Carabao Cup seriously throughout his tenure but will have to wait until next season at least to reclaim their crown.

Guardiola made a raft of changes for the game, including leaving Haaland on the bench.

Despite their lack of end product in attacking areas, the City boss insists he did not think about turning to the Norway international given the amount of games he’s played recently.

Asked if he considered sending the frontman on, he said: "No. I thought Kyle [Walker had played] a lot of minutes, Erling a lot of minutes. We have a lot of games ahead of us.