Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has shouldered the blame amid Erling Haaland's struggles in front of goal.
Haaland is still the leading scorer in the Premier League, nine clear of his closest challenger, but has scored just once in his last six outings in all competitions. If the Norway striker fails to find the net against Bournemouth on Saturday, he would equal his unwanted City record of three straight games without scoring.
The former Borussia Dortmund man has also seen his perceived lack of involvement come under scrutiny, with some commenting on the number of touches he took in the midweek draw with RB Leipzig. As City battle to keep pace with Premier League leaders Arsenal, though, Guardiola has set out his stall.
"It's our fault. Erling has been good all season," Guardiola told reporters on Friday. "It's not metrics. When I finish the game, one second later I know if he was involved or not and who should be involved more or not.
"I don't need numbers or metrics, I know exactly. Yes, of course it depends on us. We need to look for him a little more.
"In the last game, you are right [he didn't touch the ball enough] but against Nottingham [Forest], no. He had the chances in the first and second half. We talked about that many times, it's going to happen."
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After joining City from Dortmund over the summer, Haaland scored a remarkable 15 goals in his first nine Premier League games. He leads the way with 26 in the competition, while his five Champions League goals leave him three behind the tournament's leading scorer, Mohamed Salah.
All five of those goals came in the group stage, though, with the 22-year-old drawing a blank in Leipzig. He also failed to net as City dropped league points against Nottingham Forest and Tottenham, but Guardiola has tried to put the struggles into context.
"Striker is the most difficult position, one man has two defenders and with Erling it's more," the former Bayern Munich manager added. "Lately in the last game I would agree, I said more control, more passes. Really intense in the first half, in the second we dropped a little bit and that's why we struggled.
"Against Leipzig, you're going to struggle. In that game, we should have looked for him more. It's fine [if he's frustrated], I'm frustrated too, you get frustrated in your life too sometimes I'm sure. Happiness is overestimated!”
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