Topics: Manchester City, Erling Haaland, Pep Guardiola, Premier League, Football
Pep Guardiola has revealed the one thing that Erling Haaland changed this summer in order to become even better.
On Saturday Erling Haaland continued his extraordinary start to the season by scoring a hat-trick in Manchester City's 3-1 win against West Ham.
The 24-year-old has now scored seven goals in three outings this season, having scored against Chelsea on the opening day and then a hat-trick in City's 4-1 victory against Ipswich Town.
With 70 goals in 69 Premier League appearances, Haaland is undoubtedly among the best strikers to have ever played in the division.
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However, following his record-breaking 36-league goal debut campaign in 2022-23, Haaland's second season at City felt somewhat disappointing.
That feels like a ridiculous thing to say of a striker who scored 27 goals to win the Premier League Golden Boot, but in 2023-24 Haaland was certainly less ruthless in front of goal and had several games in which he didn't really get involved.
City manager Pep Guardiola was reluctant to speak about Haaland's 'struggles' during the season, but earlier this summer he revealed that the Norwegian star wasn't in the best condition last term.
"After the [2022-23] treble, he struggled to handle it, and maybe not too many holidays,” Guardiola said last weekend.
"I remember at the beginning he said, ‘Still I’m tired, still I am a little bit drained’."
Guardiola also admitted that he wasn't always happy with Haaland's all-round game.
"We need him. This is not negotiable. If you [Haaland] don’t score a goal, it’s fine, but you need to do it [pressing]. "Especially when we link up with him, he has to control the ball better but we are working with him on it. Hopefully he can do it."
Haaland produced one of his best all-round performances against West Ham on Saturday, but it wasn't by chance.
"He [Haaland] stays 20 minutes or half an hour after training sessions to work on finishing, close control, short passes," Guardiola revealed after the match, as reported by The Athletic.
"Last season, not even once was he there [doing extra work], because he didn’t feel good; tired, niggles, most of the season."
It may seem like a minor change to his routine, but Haaland appears to be reaping the benefits of doing extra work after training.
