Pep Guardiola makes brutal goalscoring joke amid Erling Haaland’s staggering Manchester City form | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has made a brutal joke towards himself over his goalscoring history within the game in comparison to Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian forward finds himself in an outstanding run of form for the club, having registered nine goals in his opening four Premier League matches this season, including back-to-back hat-tricks in the process.

It is a continuation of the form that Haaland has brought with him to Manchester City since first arriving at the club in the summer of 2022, with the 24-year-old now just one strike away from a century at the Etihad Stadium.

Should Erling Haaland score in his next appearance for City, which is likely to come in the UEFA Champions League clash with Inter Milan on Wednesday night, he would break a record set by Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid for the fastest player to reach 100 goals at one club.

Speaking ahead of Manchester City’s return to Champions League action this week, Pep Guardiola was asked whether there is a need for Erling Haaland to improve, despite his staggering goalscoring record for the club to date, and throughout his career.

“He can evolve, but if you tell me that in the next 100 games he will score another 99 goals, for me it’s fine,” Guardiola responded. “So if he doesn’t want to improve, don’t improve! Just score, in the next 100 games, 99 goals and I will be more than delighted and City, and all the organisation of Man City as well, and I think him as well.”

Guardiola continued, “But I think the experience of playing game, after game, after game, after game means he will improve.

“It’s difficult to improve when you don’t play, so as much games as he’s going to play in this club, he will be a better player in a natural way, not because we say something special or he practices something special, in a natural way.”

Asked whether he was surprised by the form shown by Erling Haaland in front of goal so naturally and so soon into his Manchester City career, Pep Guardiola joked about his own goalscoring record when he was a player at FC Barcelona.

“A little bit, yeah. Do you know why? I played 11 years as a professional, as a football player, I was a football player in the past you know, and I scored 11 goals. This guy, in four games, scored nine,” said Guardiola.

“So he has one more game and he can equalise me, imagine if this surprised me?!”

The challenge for Manchester City and Erling Haaland will no doubt be balancing his outstanding form with necessary rest as fixtures come thick and fast for the club across all competitions.

Julian Alvarez’s exit for Atletico Madrid over the summer transfer window meant Manchester City came into the new season without a natural striking back-up to Haaland, and as such will turn to more creative ways of operating without the former RB Salzburg man when he’s rested.