Pep Guardiola said Erling Haaland was more interested in winning than scoring goals as Manchester City wrestled their way past Newcastle.
There were to be no goals for City's No.9 as he missed an excellent chance with a header in the first half, but otherwise it was an all-action performance that included an assist for Bernardo Silva, a number of scraps with opposition players, time-wasting at the end of the match with Jack Grealish, and plenty of teamwork to help the side to a 2-0 win. The smile on Haaland's face as he whipped up the crowd in injury time was telling.
Guardiola knows how important Haaland's goals will be, but only needed to see his reaction to the second team goal to be satisfied with his display. The manager confirmed he had a happy striker in the locker room despite the lack of individual goals.
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"He made a brilliant assist and he fought a lot," said Guardiola. "He's a guy after the game in the locker room, he didn't score but we won and he is happy.
"Look at the way he celebrated the goal from Bernardo. Just take a look.
"When that happens, the body language of these kinds of things, you realise this guys is involved. Of course he wants to score goals and he will score more. But what he wants is wins. We won the game and still we are there."
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