Man City 4-0 Bournemouth: No Erling Haaland goal but Kevin de Bruyne stars
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says it will take time to get the best out of Erling Haaland when he faces packed defences, after seeing the striker have only eight touches as his side thrashed Bournemouth.
After scoring two goals against West Ham last week, the £51.2m signing was often a peripheral figure on his home debut, but the power of City’s attack meant it made no difference to the defending champions and they still swept the Cherries aside with ease.
The Norway striker had to wait 18 minutes for his first touch, but used it to set up Ilkay Gundogan for City’s opener, and Guardiola was not concerned by his lack of involvement overall.
“Erling plays the most difficult job in the world, when you are a striker against a team defending like Bournemouth with three central defenders and two players in front of them,” said Guardiola. “You are in the middle, how can you survive that?
“So it is difficult, we know. And we will find many of these situations, but it is just a little bit of question of time.
“With the right movement and the right tempo, and with the quality of the players that we have behind him to assist him, we will find him – I don’t have any doubts about that.”
De Bruyne dazzles again
City had dominated since kick-off, and it did not take long for more goals to follow Gundogan’s opener.
The impressive Kevin de Bruyne made it 2-0 with a dazzling solo strike, running to the corner of the area before bending the ball into the bottom corner with the outside of his boot.
And Phil Foden made sure of the points before half-time, running on to a De Bruyne pass and letting fly with a shot that Cherries keeper Mark Travers got his body behind, but could not keep out.
Bournemouth spent most of their time defending in a compact 5-4-1 formation, and only forced home keeper Ederson into action once, through a Ben Pearson snap-shot from the edge of the area.
They never looked remotely capable of staging a comeback in the second half, which had turned into a stroll in the Manchester sunshine for the home side long before Jefferson Lerma’s own goal made it 4-0.
Lerma was trying to stop Joao Cancelo’s low cross from reaching substitute Bernardo Silva, but only succeeded in sending the ball spinning past Travers to complete an afternoon to forget for his team.
No Haaland goal – but no problems for City
It already seems somewhat surprising to see City score four times without Haaland getting any of them, but this victory was a reminder of the goal threat that runs right through this team, not just from their new striker.
Bournemouth were under threat from the first minute, when Nathan Ake headed wide from a corner, with Rodri nodding over from the same source soon afterwards.
Riyad Mahrez and Foden also forced saves from Travers in the opening 10 minutes, although Haaland may feel Foden should have squared the ball to find him unmarked in front of goal instead of shooting.
If Haaland was getting frustrated at his lack of involvement, he did not let it show – instead using his power to hold off his marker and set up Gundogan for a cool finish that sent City on their way.
De Bruyne’s brilliance created their second and third goals, but Haaland’s chances of getting on the scoresheet remained limited.
After the Norwegian’s heavy touch from a Ruben Dias pass into the area – when Travers collected the ball before Haaland could control it – the Cherries keeper tipped over his lob when he did get a shot away.
Haaland’s last chance came and went when he screwed wide from a Jack Grealish pull-back with 20 minutes to go, and he was replaced by Julian Alvarez moments later.
The former Borussia Dortmund man’s eight touches – including just two passes – were the fewest of any player who started the game, but he was still given a standing ovation from the home fans. On this evidence, City remain hard to stop even when he is not at his very best.
