Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick in Manchester City’s massive 6-3 derby win over Manchester United on Sunday.
Etihad boss Pep Guardiola made a statement that Erling Haaland ‘always looks starving’ after the Norweigan’s hat-trick against bitter rivals United on Sunday with trebles from the 22-year-old and Phil Foden giving the reigning Premier League champions all three points. This means they’re now just a point behind Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table.
Both Haaland and Foden were virtually unstoppable as City blitzed United, while the final scoreline actually camouflaged a hammering for the Red Devils that could easily have been much more brutal.
Post-match Guardiola lavished praise on the Norway international while also expressing a belief the 22-year-old ‘always looks starving’.
“It is. The numbers speak for himself. He has done this before here,” he said.
“It is not our way. Always we try to help him in our environment. We have this incredible sense that he always looks starving and is so competitive. The
“He sees 10 players running without the ball with effort for each other so he wants to do it. They visualise it, they see it.
“It’s why we have success in the last few years. Behind it is effort and desire to do it.”
Guardiola also lauded Foden, saying: “His desire, how he runs, is the main thing.
“He deserves to play every time and then he has quality. He is a young player and it is a reality. He deserves everything.”
However, Guardiola admitted he wasn’t impressed on his side’s overall performance as City conceded three goals in the second half.
He continued: ”It was really good [in the first half]. We scored four goals and could have scored more.
“After half-time it was more difficult. It was a great victory, a great game, everyone was happy in the stadium and we enjoy it against our rivals. It was a good afternoon for us.
“In general it was really good how aggressive we were but of course when they have Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen they have quality.
“We were aware of the spaces and our players up front made the difference in the first half.
“We can win or lose but there are many things we can do better. Some players were not good today so they have to improve.
“Perfection doesn’t exist, it’s impossible. But we must try to look there. We did good, we can do better, many, many players had sloppy passes.
“This is not good. We have to be more consistent. In some areas we were still not good.”
As for Erik ten Hag, the Dutchman was fuming while lamenting his side’s ‘lack of fight’ as they slumped to another disappointing defeat to their fierce rivals.
“It’s quite simple, it’s a lack of belief,” he said.
“When you don’t believe on the pitch then you can’t win games, that is unacceptable.
“We get undisciplined at following rules and you get hammered, that’s happened today.
“For me it was a surprise. We were not on the front foot, we were not brave on the ball and there were spaces to play but we were not brave enough.
“All the credit to City, but it’s nothing to do with City, our performance was not good.
“It had to do with the belief as individuals and as team.
“From the first minute I felt it and at half-time we changed things and we changed attitude.
“We saw a different Manchester United after half-time and we scored goals, we created some more. On the ball we were more brave, we came in the opponent’s half and we scored three goals.
“In this moment I can’t think about positives. We let our fans down, we let ourselves down and we’re hugely disappointed.”