He takes a lot of responsibility on himself - Pep on Haaland | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola had paid a fulsome tribute to Erling Haaland and stressed that the star striker cares deeply about his own contributions to City’s success.

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Haaland bagged a vital penalty winner in a 2-1 weekend victory at Liverpool which put us just six points behind Arsenal and also put the giant Norwegian on 21 goals in the Premier League so far this term.

Guardiola was hugely impressed with the composure of the No.9 in slotting away in the caldron of Anfield and insisted the goal and victory will have thrilled the fab forward more than most.

“I know it’s not easy,” the boss said in his pre-match press conference.

“Anfield in the 91, 92 minutes, in the situation we have, taking it there, making this composure and his body language with his eyes with fire in that, it’s not easy.

“That defines the good players.

“He takes a lot of responsibility on himself, he wants to help all the time.

“The way he celebrated the goal, you know he desperately wants to help the team and the club.

“But as I said to him – don’t too much pressure on. Go there and rely on your instinct, rely on your movements, anticipate the actions like your instinct has better than anyone in the world.

“Strikers always make the turn around and come back.”

Guardiola said that Haaland is having to deal currently with the expectation that comes with his unbelievable first three years in the sky blue which has seen him break goalscoring record after goalscoring record and help the Blues to six major trophies including a Treble triumph.

And despite some questioning his goals tally in recent weeks, the boss insisted City wouldn’t be where we are now – challenging on four fronts – without the brilliance of the talismanic forward.

“The problem with Erling is he has to deal with his own numbers and expectations,” said the manager.

“It’s not easy to do that for many, many years. This is the challenge for him.

“When your expectation is five goals per season you can improve, improve.

“We won the Treble because he arrived. He scored I don’t know how many goals in that first season and the expectations are there.

“When he doesn’t score for four or five games, it’s what happened, what happened, what happened.

“We cannot forget that in the last games he maybe doesn’t have the numbers he wants but we are in the position we are thanks to him.

“For three quarters of the season, if he didn’t score Erling, I don’t know who will score.

“We are in the position in the Champions League and especially the Premier League, without Erling it would not be possible.”

Celebrate Lunar New Year at City v Fulham!

As our closest home Premier League game to Lunar New Year, we’ll have plenty of celebrations as City welcome Fulham to the Etihad Stadium.

Kick-off is at 19:30 (UK) on Wednesday 11 February but there’ll be lots to see and enjoy before the action gets under way on the evening.

Tickets for this game are now on general sale, starting at £30 for adults and £15 for Under 18s. You can get three per person here!

And if you choose to make it a special evening in one of our hospitality areas, there’ll be even more to enjoy on top of elite football on the pitch!

Prices start from £180, while there’s an offer available when booking in the Legends Lounge or a Platinum Box experience - contact the sales team or enter the code Fulham%20 at checkout to access.

Get your tickets here!