Erlinghaaland felt that he should have scored three goals in his Premier League debut, but was happy to score for Manchester City. City's two goals by Haaland saw them win a routine 2-0 victory over West Ham at the London Stadium on Saturday. After being brought down by Alphonse Areola, the pre-season signing from Borussia Dortmund took only 36 minutes to open his account.
He scored his second goal 19 minutes into the second period when he seized a Kevin De Bruyne through ball and slid past Areola. Although West Ham was a strong opponent, Haaland was not surprised that his new team got on the ground quickly despite losing the Community Shield to Liverpool.
He said that the performance was "as expected". It should've been more today, but yeah. OK start.
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Guardiola Happy with Haaland
Haaland felt strongly that he should have had more goals than his two stated ones, as demonstrated by his choice in explicit language. "I believe if you saw [Ilkay Gundogan] the chance before I went away, I should have been there but f ***** it." Haaland replied "S ***, sorry" when asked by the interviewer if he was "steady with language".
Pep Guardiola was pleased with the contribution of his new striker and added: "Erling scored two goals, it was significant for him, for me, for us, and for everyone." Haaland's pace and precise finish for the second goal evoked comparisons to Thierry Henry on social networks. Guardiola even mentioned this apparent similarity in his interview.
Guardiola's response to the criticisms made by the Norwegian after his performance against Liverpool was somewhat depressing.
"Officially he has talent, but listen, one week ago, when he missed the chance [against Liverpool], he was a failure '... now he's going be Henry or [Cristiano] Ronaldo?"
It takes time, it is the first Premier League match, he's 22 and has a long career ahead of him. When he retires, he will hopefully spend many years here at Man City, but then we will analyse what he did. Be calm.
