Manchester City (opens in new tab) boss Pep Guardiola has compared Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi, discussing a key difference between arguably the two finest forwards he's ever coached.
As City beat Manchester United (opens in new tab) 6-3 in Sunday's derby at the Etihad Stadium, Haaland became the first player to score a hat-trick in three successive home Premier League games (Phil Foden also got a hat-trick on an historic afternoon for City (opens in new tab)).
And the prolific Norwegian's record-breaking start to his City career has – inevitably – prompted comparisons with Messi – who enjoyed four goal-laden years under Guardiola at Barcelona (opens in new tab).
When asked after Sunday's victory whether he saw some of Messi's goalscoring inevitability in Haaland, Guardiola said (opens in new tab):
"The difference is that Erling needs maybe all his [teammates] to [help him] ... Messi had the ability to do it for himself."
Messi racked up 672 goals in 778 appearances for Barca – including an astonishing 73 in 2011/12, Guardiola's last season in charge at the Camp Nou.
Haaland is already only three goals away from 20 for City, netting 17 times in just 11 appearances. Incredibly, the 22-year-old is on course to finish the campaign with over 60 league goals (opens in new tab).
To put into context how utterly crazy that is, the single-season Premier League goals record currently stands at 34: Andy Cole in 1993/94 and Alan Shearer in 1994/95 (those were both 42-game campaigns). Only three players have scored 30 or more in a single season this decade: Luis Suarez in 2013/14, and Mo Salah and Harry Kane in 2017/18.
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