Haaland, Messi, Lewandowski, Aguero: Who has the best strike rate for Guardiola? | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has worked with a seriously impressive list of superstars during his managerial career – but none can match the strike rate of Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian international joined Guardiola’s Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund and has wasted little time marking his mark in England.

Across all competitions, Haaland has notched 15 goals in 22 appearances for his new side.

His record in the Premier League, though, is particularly staggering. In just 11 top-flight outings, Haaland has found the net on 17 occasions, claiming a trio of hat-tricks in the process.

Speaking after Haaland grabbed a brace in Saturday's 3-1 victory over Brighton, Guardiola admitted that his star man would 'definitely' break the Premier League all time seasonal goalscoring record this term.

"We don't have to be a genius," began Guardiola, per Goal. "If he continues in this rhythm, with the average every game, he's going to break the record, definitely. But in football maybe you score and in a few days stop to score. I don't know.

"I didn't speak with him, I think he's happy when the team wins and not when they lose. All the strikers I have seen in my career, Samuel Eto'o, [Lionel] Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Sergio Aguero, they all have incredible ambition to score goals. It's normal. He has to be like that."

That Guardiola was able to reel off the names of five of the finest goalscorers in modern history when referring to his past experiences speaks to the sheer quality of players he has worked with during his career.

In addition to Eto'o, Messi, Lewandowski, Muller and Aguero, the 51-year-old Spaniard has coached the likes of Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Villa.

It's some notable company to be mentioned in, but Haaland's goals-per-game ratio under Guardiola proves that it's entirely justified.

The data gurus over at Squawka recently shared a graphic comparing the strike rates of 10 of the biggest name forwards to have worked with Pep - and Haaland was top of the list by a significant margin.

You can check out the rankings below.

With a goals-per-game ratio of 1.47, Haaland has been exactly three times as prolific for Guardiola as Ibrahimovic was at Barcelona (0.49).

Haaland is also currently finding the back of the net at nearly two-and-a-half times the rate that Aguero did under Pep at the Etihad.

The Argentine striker hit 124 goals in 182 games during Guardiola's reign. At his current strike rate, Haaland will match that same number in a little over 84 matches.

Prior to Haaland linking up with Pep, seven-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi would have been the runaway leader on this list. Averaging close to a goal every game, his 211 strikes in 219 outings is an outrageous feat.

Compared to Haaland, though, his ratio of 0.96 looks positively pedestrian. It takes a lot to make Messi look human, but the City favourite's numbers are managing it at present.

Can Erling Haaland maintain his scintillating form?

Admittedly, Haaland's overall goal tally is the joint-lowest on the list (with Villa). However, barring injury, it's tough to see how he can be stopped at present.

The current Premier League goalscoring record for a single season stands at 34 (shared by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer). Haaland already has half of that total after 11 games.

It's also worth remembering that while many of his Premier League rivals will be heading off to the World Cup next month, Haaland will have the luxury of a recovery period as Norway have not qualified for the showpiece tournament in tournament in Qatar.

The man is an absolute cheat code and is going to take something remarkable to prevent him tearing up the Premier League record books.