Erling Haaland insists the Community Shield defeat to Liverpool in July has inspired his incredible start to the season after the striker smashed Michael Owen’s 24-year hat-trick record.
Erling Harland said: “Confidence is good, it’s always been good. After we played against Liverpool in the Community Shield it was still good after. I think it was good that match happened, that something happened and [I thought] I have to be a bit more ready. It could’ve been more and in the second half [against Manchester United] we should’ve been tighter, worked a bit harder, because it was a bit sloppy at times. We lost the second half and this is not good so we still have to work. It’s been good, I felt it a little bit before the game that something special is going to happen and we saw today that some special things happened. It was nice. On Friday I felt it in the whole training ground. It’s these games I want to play in. These are the best games where there’s a bit extra.”
Sunday’s treble makes Haaland the fastest player to record three Premier League hat-tricks, but the extent to which the former Borussia Dortmund man shattered the old record beggars belief. Previous holder, Michael Owen, took 48 games to score three hat-tricks for the Reds when he bagged against Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest during 1998.
