Pep Guardiola has spoken about his striker options (Image: Man City)
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that he does not believe his side lacks an alternative option to Erling Haaland in the final third.
Questions have been raised about the Premier League title holders’ depth up front as we approach the final hours of the summer transfer window.
City have been relatively quiet over the past few months, with their most notable piece of business, aside from the return of Ilkay Gundogan from Barcelona and Savinho signing from sister club Troyes, being the sale of Julian Alvarez.
The Argentina international opted to join Atletico Madrid in a deal worth £81.5million in search of more regular game time, having grown unhappy with playing second fiddle to Haaland last season.
On the surface, it appears that the departure of the versatile forward has left City short of options if they need to rotate Haaland out of their starting 11, but Guardiola disagrees.
Speaking ahead of his side’s clash with West Ham on Saturday afternoon, he explained: “We’re happy with the squad. We didn’t expect Julian [Alvarez] was leaving, well ‘expect’ – I don’t know because he had conversations for a long time with his agent, so it could happen. But always you think he’s going to stay, but at the end it happened.
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Guardiola believes he has sufficient cover for Erling Haaland (Image: Getty)
“Maybe it’s a mistake, I don’t know, but I like to work with not a long, long, long squad. I don’t like to leave a lot of players without playing for a long, long time. And when you have a long squad with no injuries, they can stand for a month without playing, and I don’t like it. When everyone is involved with a chance to play, the performance of the team is always better.”
Guardiola then went on to reveal that he believes five players who are capable of leading the line for his side, including new signing Gundogan and academy graduate James McAtee.
Ilkay Gundogan is viewed as a player who can be deployed as a striker when required (Image: Getty)
He concluded: “In two or three months, Oscar Bobb will be back, and Phil Foden can play in that position, and James McAtee, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva.”
City reportedly scoured the market for any potential striker options who could have become available, including Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi. However, their pursuit of the Japan international has not materialised beyond interest at this stage.
Source: https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1942376/Man-City-news-Pep-Guardiola-Erling-Haaland