Pep Guardiola has opened up on the connection between Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland as the Manchester City stars combined brilliantly in the club’s 6-2 win at Luton.
Haaland scored five goals at Kenilworth Road as City progressed to the next round of the FA Cup in emphatic fashion, with De Bruyne the provider for four of the Norwegian’s haul.
The two have formed a formidable chemistry since Haaland’s arrival at the Etihad in 2022 and have now directly combined for 16 goals in all competitions.
Guardiola praised the performance from his side and believes Haaland’s finishing and De Bruyne’s vision are the perfect compliment to one another.
“I think Erling needs a guy with the vision, the quality and generosity,” Guardiola said.
“Kevin is a less selfish player in front of the goal, and if he could have helped him score another one, he would do it.
“And Kevin needs the movement from Erling but of course we know how aggressive they are.
“Stefan [Ortega Moreno] was amazing with the long passes – not just for Erling – to the players in between.
“As much as we can we make every player has three or four touches and we can make extra passes and move the structure that they have and they did it really well.”
City’s big win was the perfect warm up for Sunday’s Manchester Derby at the Etihad, though Guardiola is expecting a different challenge against Manchester United at the weekend.
“It’s a completely different game – when you have these up and down transitions when you can have metres behind them to run it’s difficult to control, but they have courage to do it,” he said.
“What can I say? The passing was good, the goals were good and we had two or three more chances to score more. The players played really well.”
