Erling Haaland: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has nothing left to teach ‘instinctive’ striker

Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free

Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Pep Guardiola believes that he has nothing left to teach Erling Haaland about goal-scoring after his instinctive brace against Copenhagen this week.

Haaland has now scored 19 goals in his last 12 appearances, marking an extraordinary start to life as a Manchester City player.

The 22-year-old now returns to Premier League action against Southampton, where after 14 goals in eight games, he is already only nine behind last season's Golden Boot-winning total.

Guardiola was captured by television cameras celebrating each of Haaland's strikes against Copenhagen with a look of disbelief and explained his reaction on Friday, revealing that he was taken aback by his player's poacher's instinct.

"It's just the deflection and he was there," the City manager said. "Why does the ball go to where he is? This is an incredible instinct. What can I teach him about being here or there?

"He has an incredible sense of strikers that the ball is going to finish. If he goes one second before, the ball won't be there but he has this incredible talent. Deflection? Cross? He is there. That is why I was surprised.

Guardiola added: "How can I as a manager teach him? It's impossible but it's instincts and natural. He did it in Norway, Austria, Germany — you don't have to say anything. He just moves like he smells it.

"Thank you so much for choosing us and to Khaldoon [Al Mubarak], Ferran [Soriano], Txiki [Begiristain] — all the people involved to bring here here because we are fortunate to have him here."

Despite having nothing to teach him, Guardiola still believes that Haaland can improve, but he has also been impressed by how quickly the Norway international has adapted to life in Manchester, and the chemistry he has found with his new team-mates.

"He sees since he is here what we want to do, how we want to defend, attack, the moments you have to do, where are the spaces," the City manager said.

"The connection with Kevin, Phil, Riyad, Gundo, Bernardo, Jack… they play. Erling, like Julian knows when Kevin has the ball he knows what type of passes he likes. It’s natural.

"Everyone can improve. I think he is ready for that. I think everyone knows they can do. The only thing to never stop until we die is [the desire] to improve. We have the chance to always improve until we die and he is not an exception."