Guardiola is really a crazy manager. In his last statement he said that he loves Stones like a son and that he will play Stones as a striker in a match without Haaland
He likes to try new things all the time and that adds excitement to football. I'm looking forward to watching a Premier League match with Stones as a striker.
Pep was only joking about that, and he never had the intention to play John Stone as a striker. But it could also happen. Stone was often becoming a supersub. He scored 3 goals from 8 games, which are very very good stats as a CB.
Hopefully, City will get an easy opponent in EFL cup, and we may see Pep play Stones as a striker instead of CB. It seems Pep will rest Haaland in an unimportant game.
Stones as a CF?, Just wait until you see that. What do you think was the main reason that triggered Gabriel jesus to join arsenal?. From what i read, he I started having issues the very day pep played Zinchenko as a false 9, while he was on the bench. Don't know how true, but that's crazy. I think pep has what it takes to do whatever he wants with his players. This is why we see city going for versatile players, though haaland is the only none versatile players in the team.
Haaland needs to improve his dribbling skills to support in his delivery up front. I think what matters to him is only shooting now, he missed a chance to make it 2 because he couldn't beat the defender and his moves were very much predictable and read comfortably by the defender.
IMO, haaland style of play at City is quite different when he was at Dortmund. His main job at city is to score, outplay defenders with his height and intimidating size. Though, there are some occasions where he always ghost, especially when they are up against a top side. I don't think the dribbling thing is for him. He has good feets, so scoring is not a problem and it hasn't been.