'Every time' Angry Pep Guardiola wants immediate Erling Haaland change for Man City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was not happy as he brought up the treatment that Erling Haaland has had this season

Pep Guardiola blasted the treatment that Erling Haaland gets from defenders as he accused referees of going against their word for this season. The Manchester City manager vented on Tuesday after a controversial and lengthy VAR decision that went against his team and complained more generally about the decisions that his star striker gets when speaking on Friday ahead of the Manchester derby.

Haaland leads the Premier League scoring chart again this season with 20 goals from 21 appearances, and one goal on Saturday will be enough to sit him alone as the player with the most goals in the history of the Manchester derby. He bagged two against United back in September and has scored at Old Trafford previously.

However, the No.9 was described as 'exhausted' by his manager earlier this week and is without a goal from open play since the win over West Ham before Christmas. Guardiola thinks Haaland has been hindered by what he sees as unfair treatment from officials when he was told at the start of the season that the striker would be protected.

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"He is the only striker in the world that makes more fouls than defenders do on him. That is his biggest attribute. That is really good," the City boss said sarcastically. "He is only the striker in my life that he makes more fouls to defenders than defenders to him. I’ve never seen this. At the beginning of the season the referee said it would be the opposite. But it is the opposite of that.

"Have you seen what happens in the boxes, not just with Man City? I don't know how keepers can survive with the pushing and what happens there with keepers today. I don't understand that and I don't understand that every time Erling touches an opponent it's a foul from Erling."

Haaland was adjudged to have been offside and interfering with play when Antoine Semenyo put the ball in the net from a corner at Newcastle on Tuesday, a decision that needed nearly six minutes of checks and another viewing from the referee before it was disallowed. Guardiola jibed that ref chief Howard Webb would be in touch to explain the decision, but is still yet to hear from him or anyone else about the controversy from St James' Park.

Guardiola's comments will pile further pressure on the match officials for Saturday's game, which include one of the main men from the Newcastle game. Stuart Attwell was on VAR duty for that match and will take up that role again for the derby.

Attwell was at the centre of another derby controversy in 2023 at Old Trafford when he was referee and ruled that Bruno Fernandes had not been active in play when he ran towards a ball from an offside position only to pull out at the last second to allow Marcus Rashford to strike the ball and score.