Guardiola hails Haaland's desire to win

Manchester City coach, the English Premier League champion, Pep Guardiola, expressed his surprise at the great desire shown by the newcomer, the Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, by scoring two goals in his first appearance in the “Premier League” last weekend.

City outperformed fierce competition from several European clubs to sign the 22-year-old Norwegian, who scored 86 goals in 89 matches with German Borussia Dortmund.

Halland quickly refuted any doubts about his ability to quickly integrate into Guardiola's system, which crowned City with the league title in the past two years without the involvement of an explicit striker, and succeeded in scoring two goals in the victory over West Ham.

"He is an exceptional player," Guardiola explained in his press conference on the eve of his team's match against Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, adding, "It is not necessary to tell you, everyone knows that, but we meet many times. He is an amazing opponent and he wants to win."

Halland spoke several times in the first months after his arrival at City about the need to continue improving his performance, as Guardiola aspires to secure several options in attack.

Therefore, he also signed Argentine international striker Julian Alvarez, while Phil Foden and Cole Palmer are expected to get more time this season following the departures of Brazilian Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal) and Raheem Sterling (Chelsea).

"I would like to make these players better," said the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach. "Erling could be a better player and I think he has the will to do that."

"I've never seen a player in 21 or 22 years old - maybe (Lionel) Messi - finish attacks like this," he added.

And Guardiola added, "You can always improve and we will try. When (Haaland) leaves, we want him to say that he is a better player than he was when he arrived."

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