Sports
Prolific Manchester City striker Erling Haaland says he can still improve despite having scored 80 goals in 84 appearances for the Treble winners.
Last week the 23-year-old Norway international scored five in City’s FA Cup fifth-round win at Luton.
He won last season’s Premier League Golden Boot and is top of this season’s standings despite missing nearly two months with a foot injury.”There’s a lot of things I can become better at,” he said.Despite scoring in Sunday’s Manchester derby, Haaland referenced his incredible miss – when he somehow put the ball wide of an empty goal when he was barely three yards out – as evidence there is more to do.”People say I’m good at scoring goals but I missed the biggest chance in the world ever two days ago. I can also become better at that,” he added.Haaland appears to have immense mental strength.His staggering scoring statistics come despite being top of the Premier League’s ‘big chances missed’ metric with 26.At the weekend, he put the miss he spoke about out of his mind to seal City’s victory over United as they maintained their quest to become the first English club to win four successive top-flight titles.It has not always been the case.”It’s been a challenge,” he said. “When I was young, I would start crying if we lost and I missed a lot of chances. I’ve been working on it a lot and it’s been a challenge.”I demand a lot from myself and my team-mates demand a lot from me.”Haaland could hardly have had a better debut campaign in English football last season – his 52-goal tally is the most anyone has scored in all competitions in the Premier League era.Only Everton’s Dixie Dean, who scored 63 goals in 1927-28, has ever scored more in a single English season.Despite his immediate success, Haaland has maintained his focus and determination.”You can think about it in two ways,” he explained.”One, I came here and won it all, the other I’m 23 years old and got the taste of it, how it is to win everything, and when I feel this, I want to win it again. Easy as that.”Haaland said he is “very happy” at City, adding he was aware he might be making “a massive headline” as he avoided talk of a contract extension, insisting he was solely focused on a big week that ends with Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.Before that, Danish side FC Copenhagen visit Etihad Stadium in the Champions League last 16. City lead 3-1 from the first leg, against a club Haaland knows well.”I was on trial in 2016,” he said. “I was interested and I even got a number nine Haaland shirt, which I still have at home. A couple of guys from the club wanted me then but not everyone. It didn’t happen – sad for them.”
BBC
6th March, 2024.
C.E.
