Manchester City's goal scorer Erling Haaland has worried the already worried fans of the “citizens”. During yesterday's match with Portugal, the striker signaled that he wanted to be substituted, then left the pitch limping.
This was Norway's last match during this long break for national team commitments in the Nations League. Now Haaland will immediately return to Manchester, where they will do everything possible to recover for Sunday's visit to Liverpool. The match is of utmost importance not only because City are currently top of the table with a full complement of players, but also because it will be the team's first match since the independent commission found the club guilty of most of the charges of financial irregularities. The atmosphere at “Anfield” will certainly be very hostile towards the “citizens”, so it is important that Haaland, who has seven goals since the start of the season, is on the pitch.
Norway coach Stale Solbakken has again revealed that the problem in this case is more related to fatigue and he had an agreement with Haaland that my participation in this match would end after about 60 minutes.
“We hoped after the conversation we had the day before that he would play about 60 minutes, but he lasted 65. He played 90 minutes against Denmark and in the first match with Portugal. He was tired in the Wales game. He could probably come on for the second half. That was one of the options discussed, but he had very bad memories of situations like that. He has already come on in a League Cup game and it wasn't a good experience. I'm very happy he managed to get 60 strong minutes," Solbakken said.
Liverpool also have serious problems after the internationals, with Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo questionable after injuries.