Away against Newcastle Pudding is difficult to team, Manchester City is cautious but shows the big picture

In the early morning of January 14, Beijing time, the 21st round of the Premier League will stage a key battle. Defending champions Manchester City take on the Magpies away from Newcastle. In his pre-match press conference, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola revealed that Kevin De Bruyne, who returned in the FA Cup last time, is likely to start, but Norwegian centre-forward Erling Haaland will remain sidelined. Manchester City's pudding duo are playing side by side, at least not for this month.

The two teams met in the first leg of the season, with Manchester City winning 1-0 at home and Alvarez scoring the only goal of the game. Haaland had a game-high four shots and two on target, but failed to find the back of the net under tight guarding. The two sides met again in a narrow way, with Manchester City welcoming back Kevin De Bruyne but Erling Haaland remaining sidelined. Guardiola explained: "De Bruyne is ready to start, you can see that he is very good, the trip to Abu Dhabi is good for him, I saw him yesterday and he feels good and full of energy. He's playing well, even better than before Huddersfield and he's getting better. ”

However, Guardiola did not mention Haaland too much, only confirming that he will continue to be sidelined. In fact, Haaland was back in training at last month's Club World Cup, but he was not included in the squad for any of the games. If you count the game against Newcastle, the Norwegian centre-forward has already missed seven games, setting a new record for a break since he joined Manchester City. It is clear that Manchester City are still cautious about Haaland's use and will not let him risk it unless he is fully rehabilitated from his injuries.

Newcastle are a tough team with players who are very good at hand-to-hand combat, and giants such as Arsenal and Liverpool have suffered from them. Although Joelinton, one of the Newcastle Butchers' peerless duo in this game, was exempted due to injury, Manchester City still did not dare to take it lightly. If Haaland were injured again in the game, it would really be worth the cost.

However, the use of Haaland was cautious, but it allowed Manchester City to show the big picture. They don't put players injured for a few points, which is something that most teams can't do. In fact, Manchester City have always been like this with Haaland. Last season, Pep Guardiola replaced Haaland many times when he was just one step away from a hat-trick, so there is also a joke about Haaland's "2 goals become 1 red". However, Manchester City's harvest is also very rich, Haaland played 53 games in all competitions, scoring 52 goals and nine assists, setting a new career high in appearances and goals, and Manchester City also won the European treble for the first time in the team's history under his leadership.

This season, Manchester City's reinforcements have not been very strong, and De Bruyne has been out injured for a long time, resulting in a big fluctuation in the team's record in the Premier League. However, now that De Bruyne has returned, Haaland is temporarily unavailable, but he is also recuperating and looking forward to exploding. When the pudding combination is combined again, Manchester City, which was red in the third line last season, will also officially announce their return.