Haaland

Jack Grealish has admitted his amazement at the form of Erling Haaland after he added a brace to his tally during the 5-0 Champions League victory over FC ...

I’ve played a lot recently so I'm thankful to the manager. "I’m loving it at the moment. I’m playing with freedom and confidence. Hopefully he can carry this on and fire us to glory." [Mahrez](https://www.mancity.com/players/riyad-mahrez), Julian Alvarez and an own goal by Davit Khocholava ensured our 100% winning record in Group G continued at the Etihad Stadium. I was just laughing, like how?!

It's early October. And yet Erling Braut Haaland already has 19 goals for the season, 14 in the Premier League and five in Europe. He's scored these 19 goals in ...

This extends right through to the architecture of the club. He tells us that this is a side built on an unusual sense of the collective, even to the point where the players are free - and actively encouraged - to tell their manager where he's going wrong. The men’s and women’s teams of all ages train on the first-team pitch and are all permanently based at the stadium. And of all the accolades and trophies coming his way, none will compare to that. The average age of the first XI in the league last season was 20.7 and 33-year-old Kian Hansen started 25 matches. Beyond the actual results, last night's edition of the Champions League turned into a self-contained Goal of the Week competition. Liberated by Chelsea's switch to a back three, he took clear and total possession of the entire right flank, managing to score one, make another, and keep Rafael Leao quiet for almost the entire game. And the key point of that blueprint? As a neutral, Haaland's compelling, in the same sort of way a video of a tree falling over is compelling. He contains both parts of the ideal striking partnership: the earth-shaking presence of the big man and the snaffling goal sense of the little man. Chelsea moved the ball quickly, threatened from all angles, and over the course of the evening they essentially overpowered Milan. At that point, we'll all be able to make a round of Halloween jokes - oh no, Guardiola was the scientist; this is Guardiola's Monster - but after that, we've got a serious problem.

Alan Shearer, Andy Cole and Sergio Agüero will have their names replaced in the record books if Haaland keeps this up.

As for his fellow countrymen, Haaland has surpassed Steffen Iversen and Josh King, who both scored two hat-tricks in the Premier League, and matched Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who scored three in his 235 Premier League appearances. If Haaland keeps scoring hat-tricks at this frequency, he will break Agüero’s record of 12 in the Premier League – which he set over the course of a decade – by the end of April. [against Fulham on the opening weekend of the season](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/aug/06/fulham-liverpool-premier-league-match-report). Shearer scored five hat-tricks for Blackburn in the 1995-96 season, which remains a record for a single campaign. If Haaland continues at his current rate of 1.75 goals per game, he will rack up 66 goals this season, almost doubling the existing Premier League record of 34 that was set by Andy Cole in 1993-94 and matched by Shearer the following year. [Three goals against Manchester United on Sunday](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/oct/02/manchester-city-manchester-united-premier-league-match-report) means that Haaland has scored 14 in his first eight Premier League matches, which includes the unique achievement of consecutive hat-tricks in three home league games. [City’s first match of the season](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/aug/07/west-ham-manchester-city-premier-league-match-report) then scored a further seven times in his next four games, breaking the record – previously shared by Sergio Agüero and Micky Quinn – for the most goals scored in a player’s first five games in the competition. Haaland is more than halfway to that number already with 31 games to play this season – and he will take a four-week rest while many of his opponents are in Qatar for the World Cup. The Englishman scored three hat-tricks in the space of 10 matches between November 1994 and February 1995; Haaland has sliced that milestone in half. For individual hat-tricks in the last five years, only Agüero with six, and Raheem Sterling and Salah with four each, have scored more than Haaland. In fact, in the last five years, City have racked up more than the combined total of Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, who have amassed 16 between them. You could say that Erling Haaland has hit the ground running.

Having missed out on signing England captain Harry Kane last summer, with Tottenham digging their heels in over his valuation, Pep Guardiola went after Haaland ...

We do not know if it will be like that, but I think he would like to test his abilities in the big leagues." [Premier League](https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about/premier-league) by storm following his switch from Borussia Dortmund, with 14 goals coming in his first 10 appearances in all competitions. Well that was one subject his father and former City player, Alf-Inge, addressed while speaking on a documentary entitled 'Haaland - The Big Decision' which screened this month on Scandinavian streaming service Viaplay.