Pep Guardiola has claimed that Erling Haaland is performing at the level of peak Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo after the Manchester City striker’s 17th goal of the season in only 13 games.
After struggling with fitness last season and seeing his goal output fall in successive years since a record-breaking debut campaign with City in 2022–23, it feels as though Haaland is very much back to his best in the first three months of the new campaign.
His 13 Premier League goals, the last two of which came during Sunday’s 3–1 win over Bournemouth, is already more than half of his final tally (22) in the competition last season with 28 games still to go.
City’s next top scorer in the Premier League this season is bizarrely Maxime Estève, who plays for Burnley and was responsible for two own goals when the teams met in September. No other City player has netted more than once in the league—Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders, Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly all have one goal each.
It has brought questions over possible overreliance on Haaland to find the net, but Guardiola insisted after the Bournemouth game that it’s only natural when one player is performing like Messi.
“The last game we played without him against Swansea and scored three goals,” the City boss remarked, referencing last week’s Carabao Cup victory when the Norwegian was left out due to a minor fitness concern—he possibly would have been rested anyway.
“It’s like when you play with Messi or Ronaldo, their influence is so big,” Guardiola added. “Of course, we need the goals from Phil, Tijjani and the other ones who had the chances. You see the numbers of [Haaland]? Of course he’s that level.
“The difference is Messi and Ronaldo have done it for 15 years, but this is the level. The first goal [against Bournemouth], the way he shoots the ball, it’s like ‘I am going to score.’ He has that hunger. It’s top. I’ve said many times how incredibly coachable and manageable he is.
“I am tough sometimes with him, but he is open-minded. He lives for the goals and sometimes the pressure cannot sustain 90 minutes, but that’s normal. Without him it would be tough to be honest, but we are lucky that Omar [Marmoush] is back, and we have fit players, it’s good.”