Manchester City manager, Josep “Pep” Guardiola thinks Erling Haaland is similar to Cristiano Ronaldo in his scoring ability. However, Pep still considers Lionel Messi the most complete player.
Pep Guardiola played Erling Haaland from the first minute when Man City visited St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton headquarters, to play Week 30 of the 2022-2023 Premier League, Saturday (7/4/2023). In the previous week match against Liverpool, Guardiola rested Haaland because the striker was not 100 percent recovered from a thigh injury.
During the game with Man City, Guardiola gave Haaland playing time until the 69th minute, before being replaced by Julian Alvarez. Before leaving the field, the Norwegian striker scored two goals, in the 45th and 68th minutes respectively. Haaland’s second goal was awe-inspiring because it was created through an acrobatic kick.
Those were Erling Haaland’s 29th and 30th goals in his debut season in the Premier League with Manchester City. The 22-year-old bomber only needed to score five more goals to break Andy Cole’s record (1993-1994) and Alan Shearer (1994-1995) as the top scorer in a Premier League season.
Overall, Haaland has now scored 44 goals in all competitions this season or 200 goals in his professional career. The above notes make Haaland compared to the two best players of this decade, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Regarding Haaland’s comparison with Ronaldo and Messi, Pep Guardiola has his own opinion. According to the manager from Spain, Haaland is more similar to Ronaldo in his scoring capacity as a striker. “In terms of scoring ability, he (Haaland) is quite similar to Cristiano,” said Pep Guardiola.
Guardiola considers Haaland and Ronaldo to be goalscoring machines. Meanwhile, Messi is the most perfect player of the two because he can play in multiple positions. “But Messi is a more complete player. Messi can play anywhere, while Cristano and Erling are machines,” said Guardiola. “Erling knows that the two players dominate for two decades, not just one or two seasons. They win titles and do everything,” added Guardiola.
Meanwhile, Man City ended the match against Southampton with a 4-1 win. Two other Man City goals were scored by Jack Grealish (58′) and Julian Alvarez (75′ -penalty). The victory made Pep Guardiola’s troops put pressure on the current Premier League leaders, Arsenal. Man City sits in second place with 67 points from 29 matches. They temporarily narrowed the distance to five points with Arsenal (72 points).
