Pep Guardiola is urging Manchester City players to provide Erling Haaland with more opportunities as they look to build on their perfect start to the season.
Haaland scored a hat-trick at the London Stadium, bringing his tally to seven goals in the opening three matches, showcasing his clinical finishing.
Despite being underutilized for much of the second half, a precise pass from Matheus Nunes allowed Haaland to seal the game after West Ham had threatened to equalize.
Guardiola is pleased with Haaland’s performances and fitness, noting that the 24-year-old is staying on the pitch for an extra half-hour after training sessions this season to work on his finishing and first touch.
While it may seem daunting that the Norwegian can still improve, Guardiola believes there is room for enhancing the service Haaland receives.
“He’s playing much better in everything,” he said.
“The details. He stays 20 minutes or half an hour after training sessions with shots, first controls and through to the keeper.
“Last season not even once was he there because he didn’t feel good – he was tired, he had niggles for most of the season.
“At the end he’s so smart [and] he needs the team to give him more balls in the final third.
“With Rico [Lewis], Kevin [De Bruyne], [Ilkay] Gundo[gan], [James] McAtee, we’re going to create those situations because they move really well in small spaces.
“The last goal or the first goal where Bernardo passed him the ball with space behind, he’s unstoppable.
“There’s no central defender [who can do it], not even with a gun. It’s impossible, he’s so powerful.
“In small spaces that happens quite often against us, we need players with good crosses, we are still not so clever. Jeremy arrives in the final third and we are not precise enough.
“In small spaces when we create and we improve in that department, he will be able to have more chances.
“After that, we know how clinical he is. Everybody knows it.
He added: “Erling’s unstoppable, there’s no central defender, not even with a gun, to stop him.”
“Always Erling scores goals and it’s what he has to do.
“We are happy for another hat-trick, the quality of the finishing but he was involved with the game today.
“He didn’t lose one ball and he played unbelievable – not just with the ball but also defensively and offensively. He gave an extra pass.
“I’m really pleased for him but now officially pre-season is over and the national break starts the real season so we see how he recovers for this amount of games.
“We’re really pleased to have one title already [the Community Shield] and nine points – the season starts after 10 or 11 fixtures.
“But it is important for us after the short preparation for most of the players and after winning the Premier League last season we see that they are still there, they want to compete and play good and understand the processes.”
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