MANCHESTER, England (AP) — With Erling Haaland on the verge of an extraordinarily quick scoring milestone, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola knows he cannot expect too much more from his star striker.
Guardiola doesn’t think he’ll need to.
“The experience of playing game after game, they will improve,” Guardiola said of Haaland’s scoring numbers.
The Norway international has 99 goals in 103 games for City since joining in the summer of 2022.
No. 100 could come against Inter Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday.
“The more games he plays for this club, he will be a better player," Guardiola said. "And in a natural way. Not because we did something special or he practices something special, just a natural way.”
Haaland scored 52 times in 53 games in all competitions in his first season after arriving from Borussia Dortmund. That amazed Guardiola, because he said Haaland had muscular problems in the first few months and he “struggled a bit.”
This season, Guardiola continued, Haaland is free of injury and mentally fresh after having the summer off because Norway didn’t qualify for the European Championship.
By following up back-to-back hat tricks with two goals against Brentford in a 2-1 win in the English Premier League on Saturday, Haaland has nine goals in his opening four games of the season.
“I don’t expect every single game he scores three, two, three, two goals,” Guardiola said. “The moment it happens, it’s not a problem because I know the quality is there.
“But the difference to last season is he’s good, no problems, and when a player has that feeling, he can perform his best.”
Wednesday's match is a repeat of the 2023 Champions League final, which City won 1-0 — thanks to a second-half goal from Rodri — to become European champion for the first time.
Guardiola said he watched the game back for the first time on Monday but won't use it as a motivational tool for his players.
“About the inspiration and emotions, I'm so cold on that,” he said. “This is the first of eight games in the group stage. Tactically we just need to be present.”
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
The Associated Press
