Guardiola: I want Haaland to break all records

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola praised Erling Haaland, saying that the records achieved by his Norwegian player is a good thing for the Premier League title holder. Haaland scored two goals in his team’s 3-1 victory over struggling Leicester City yesterday, to equal Mohamed Salah’s record for goals in a season consisting of 38 matches.

Guardiola said in a press conference, “I want and I want him to be able to break all possible records. This means that he scored a lot of goals, which helps us. But I think he wants to win titles.” He added, “But it is impressive, we still have eight matches left and he is close to breaking all records.” In his first season in the Premier League, Haaland raised his score to 32 goals, the same as Salah’s score in the 2017-2018 season.

Haaland, 22, became the first player in the English Premier League to reach 45 goals in one season in all competitions during City’s 3-0 victory over Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday. And after raising his score to 47 goals, Guardiola brought out the Norwegian striker to give him a rest before facing Bayern in the second leg on Wednesday.

The popular player remained for a long time on the pitch of the Etihad Stadium after the match, waving to the fans. The Spanish coach said that Haaland’s handling of his replacement was “excellent as usual,” noting that the striker returned to competitions after a thigh injury. He added, “You see his body language, his face during the match. He’s like John (Stones) both came back from injury, and after 45 minutes it was good for them to have a little rest.” Stones opened the scoring against Leicester with a left-footed shot from 20 yards.