New Manchester City signing Erling Haaland has confessed he is already enjoying working under ‘crazy’ manager Pep Guardiola.
Haaland joined from Borussia Dortmund this summer and needed just 12 minutes of his pre-season debut to grab his first unofficial goal for the club, tapping home from close range as the Premier League champions saw off Bayern Munich 1-0.
After the win, Haaland gave a little insight into his first impression of Guardiola, insisting the Spaniard is a different breed of manager.
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Haaland:
“Guardiola is a bit crazy, and I like that.”
“I cannot tell you too much about this after one week but I’ve been training well and I’m ready for what is next.”
Haaland also admitted he was not surprised to see himself make such an immediate impact for his new team,
confessing that he has been picturing himself leading Guardiola’s team for a while now.
“It was a good feeling to get started again after six weeks without football,” he continued.
“I’ve been watching a lot of City games over the last years and they’ve been without a striker,
so of course I’ve been seeing myself in these [goalscoring] situations, so I’m not surprised.”
Guardiola opted to withdraw Haaland from the game before half-time as part of his plan to manage the Norwegian’s fitness ‘niggles’
– the hamstring issues that restricted him to just 24 appearances in the Bundesliga last season – but Haaland insisted this was nothing to worry about.
The striker explained:
“I’m not perfect fitness-wise. These were my first minutes.
[But] you saw that I’m good and ready. To beat Bayern feels good, and the quality is good. It was a real test before Liverpool in a week.”
