Erling Haaland
Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland will not be content with breaking Premier League records if he doesn’t back them up with titles, as the striker scored a second successive hat-trick for Manchester City in the win over Nottingham Forest.
Pep Guardiola said “What he has done in Norway, Austria and Germany he tries to do here,” Guardiola said. “The first ball contact, he scores a goal. We knew it. Julian as well, we have incredible strikers. He always scores goals. He is stoppable when we don’t play good. We try to play in a decent way for the fact that we create opportunities for our talented players up front to score goals. I think what we want is win the titles. Knowing him a little bit, I don’t know if he’d be happy breaking records if we didn’t win titles. If we play good, he’ll have more chances. How good Stones played, Walker, Rodri and Bernardo. This is our target, to help the talented players – Julian, Kevin, Riyad – to show their quality.”
Guardiola also distanced any comparisons between Haaland and Sergio Aguero, despite remarkably similar records when joining City as he scored one fewer than Haaland has in those first five games.
Pep Guardiola said “Sergio is the legend. Nobody can break the position in the hearts of City fans, scoring the most important goal in the modern history. Erling has the quality to be there. What Sergio has done is amazing. But Erling has this talent. When City bought Erling, everybody talked about what he has done in the past. What we wanted to do is help him. Hopefully he can enjoy and score more goals.”
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper said Haaland has the lot but said his three goals were all avoidable from the visitors’ point of view.
Steve Cooper said “Firstly, they are an incredible team, play an incredible way. Players that match both of those things including Haaland. We knew that it was as tough as it gets, not just in our league but in the world domestically. We had to be 110 per cent, had to be perfect. Even if we were it didn’t mean the game would be straightforward. And we weren’t. The three goals in the first half are soft, two set plays, we’re better than that. The second goal we try to build up and let them into the box. That set the tone for the rest of the night. [Haaland] is brilliant, he’s got the lot. On the end of it he scores all the goals. We knew he’s a world-class striker, not the only world class player in the team, they had some on the bench too. You have to back yourselves, I don’t take away from his goals but our guys could do better.”
After scoring three goals in 18 minutes to help City comeback in the second half against Crystal Palace at the weekend, Haaland picked up where he left off with another brutal hat-trick within 27 first-half minutes against Forest. That took his tally for City to nine goals and one assist in five Premier League games since his summer move from Borussia Dortmund – a record no player has previously achieved. And Guardiola said after the Forest win that the records will mean nothing to both Haaland and the club if City cannot win titles to go along with them.
