Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland will be an all-time Man City great
Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland has to the potential to write himself into Manchester City folklore after his incredible assault on the Premier League continued with a second successive hat-trick.
The 22-year-old bagged a 26-minute first-half treble to put Nottingham Forest to the sword in a 6-0 win, just four days after doing the same to Crystal Palace.
He is now the first player in the Premier League era to score nine goals in his first five games and looks set to challenge Andy Cole and Alan Shearer‘s record high of 34 goals in a season.
Pep Guardiola believes Erling Haaland will become an all-time great at the Etihad Stadium
Erling Haaland has scored nine goals in his first five games which is a Premier League record
Haaland has a long way to go to catch up with City record scorer Sergio Aguero, but Guardiola says the Norwegian can become a club great.
“Sergio is the legend. Nobody can break the position in the hearts of City fans, scoring the most important goal in the modern history,” he said.
“Erling has the quality to be there. It’s not about him or Sergio. 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.
“What he has done in Norway, Austria and Germany he tries to do here. He’s talented, we knew it.”
The Norwegian scored a first-half hat-trick in Manchester City’s 6-0 win over Forest
Even at this early stage it looks like only an injury will stop him from claiming the Premier League Golden Boot, but Guardiola says winning the title with City would mean more.
“I think what we want is win the titles,” he added.
“If the record and the goals help to win it will be be perfect. Knowing him a little bit, I don’t know if he’d be happy breaking records if we didn’t win titles.
“I think he wants to be part of that. The better we play, he’ll have more chances to score goals.”
This was not just the Haaland story as fellow new striker Julian Alvarez marked his first league start with a second-half brace.
Julian Alvarez is all smiles after netting his first Premier League goals since his move to City
“Julian as well, we have two incredible strikers. An incredible sense of smell to score goals,” Guardiola added.
“I have the feeling that there is not one person who is not happy for Julian’s two goals. We’ve seen from day one in training about him.”
City are trying to sign Borussia Dortmund defender Manuel Akanji before Thursday’s transfer deadline, but Guardiola says the move has not been completed.
“The club tell me the deal is still not done, but we are going to try,” the Spaniard added.
