Guardiola makes Haaland comparison with Messi
Karan Tejwani
- Updated: 3 Oct 2022 16:59 BST
- 5 min read
Erling Haaland has had a flying start to life at Manchester City, and he added to it with a hat-trick in his first-ever Manchester derby, as his side won 6-3 over Manchester United.
The forward also provided two assists for Phil Foden’s goals and proved his overall quality in a dominant display against his club’s city rivals.
The three goals took Haaland’s record to 17 goals in 10 games across all competitions for the club, proving that he’s arguably the summer’s best transfer and he’s made a great team even better.
Pep Guardiola, his manager, believes he can get better, and feels he’s still not at the same level of Lionel Messi, who is the greatest player he has coached in his career, by his own past admissions.
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Guardiola managed Messi for four years between 2008 and 2012 and the Argentine won the Ballon d’Or in each of the full seasons he worked under the coach.
He was also the highest goalscorer in all of Guardiola’s teams as they won three league titles and two Champions League honours in that spell, in what was a fruitful spell for the club.
Speaking after the game to the media, Guardiola said Haaland wasn’t yet on the same level as Messi but he can get there in the coming years.
“The difference is, maybe that Erling needs all his mates to do it. It is unbelievable. [But] Messi had the ability himself to do it,” the coach said to the media.
Pep on Haaland or Messi 🤔pic.twitter.com/4VuXYsmOwu
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) October 3, 2022
Guardiola has always been full of praise for Messi, even after he left Barcelona, once suggesting that he never wanted to take the player away from the Catalan club, despite various links.
Messi is now at Paris Saint-Germain having spent much of his career in Spain, and there have been rumours of a return to the club as he enters the final months of his contract in the French capital.
- Using SCISports data to compare Haaland with other players who played more than 450 minutes as centre forward. Interact with the image by pressing on the other dots to see who Haaland is outperforming
Haaland, meanwhile, is on a record-breaking run: he became the fastest player to reach three Premier League hat-tricks with his latest trio of goals against Manchester United.
He’s scored 14 so far in the Premier League, with the one-season record being 32 set by Mohamed Salah in 2017/18, and the rate he’s going at, he looks on course to beat it.
