Why Erling Haaland Was Dropped From Manchester City's Starting Lineup

Pep Guardiola has dropped Erling Haaland from the starting line-up for Manchester City's Premier League game against Wolves amid a run of eight games without scoring from open play. Haaland had started all 22 of City's previous league games, scoring 20 goals. But he last hit the net against Brighton from the penalty spot in early January and has not scored in open play since December.

Haaland has not been left out of a City line-up since starting on the bench against Bayer Leverkusen on November 25 while he has not sat out an entire game since City's Carabao Cup tie at Swansea on October 29. And Guardiola admitted last week following the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Newcastle that Haaland was "exhausted". The Norwegian hitman badly under-performed during City's resounding 2-0 defeat at Manchester United and missed several chances in the shock 3-1 defeat at Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League on Tuesday. And Guardiola has finally taken action by leaving his top scorer out against Wolves, who are bottom of the Premier League table.

Guardiola explained to Sky Sports why he had left Haaland out: "There are a lot of games. I want to, a little bit, clean his mind, his body. And yeah, the selection is always because I believe that for today it is the best."

Haaland spoke openly about his poor form and City's recent downturn in results following the defeat in Norway. He said: "I don't have the answers. I take full responsibility of not being able to score the goals I should do. I just apologize to everyone; every single Man City supporter and every single supporter that traveled today, because in the end it's embarrassing.

"Bodo they played some incredible football and in the end it's deserved. Honestly, I don't know