Manchester: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has praised Erling Haaland as the epitome of an all-round goal-scorer. Guardiola believes the 20-year-old striker is setting standards few have ever reached at his age. Haaland will be the biggest threat to Pep Guardiola and Manchester City when Borussia Dortmund take on the Premier League leaders in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal Tuesday at the Etihad. He has already scored a competition-high 10 goals this season. Haaland is also the youngest player to reach 20 goals in the Champions League — at 20 years, 231 days.
Haaland has been heavily linked with a move to Manchester City. They need to replace departing striker Sergio Aguero at the end of the season. Guardiola is clearly a fan of the Norway international.
“At that age, to score this amount of goals is not easy to find in the past, honestly,” Guardiola said Monday. “The numbers, they speak for themselves. When that happens, it’s because he can score right, left, on the counter-attack, in the box. He (Haaland) is a fantastic striker. Everybody knows it. A blind guy realises he is a good striker. It’s not necessary to be a manager to realise (that) about him,” he added.
Guardiola refused to discuss a potential move for Haaland in the off season out of respect for the player and Dortmund. He said last week that City might not even sign a replacement for Aguero because the club cannot afford a top-class striker.
City’s record signing in pounds is Ruben Dias, a centre-back who joined from Benfica for 64 million pounds ($78 million) last year. The club’s policy so far has been to veer away from recruiting ready-made superstars.
Guardiola said the club is open to the possibility of changing that approach. However, he does not believe it would be a game-changer for City, who have never won the Champions League.
“It’s not that spending on one player a lot of money gives you an advantage to win,” he said. “Football is a team game. Everyone makes his contribution — the guys who don’t play, the backroom staff, everyone. This competition will not be won by one player, it is for absolutely everyone,” Guardiola added.
City have been eliminated at the quarterfinal stage for the past three seasons – by Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon. They have only reached the semifinals once, under Manuel Pellegrini in the 2015-16 season.