Erling Haaland reveals he was frustrated watching Man City last season as ‘no one was there’ to score

Erling Haaland has revealed he was left frustrated watching Manchester City last season, knowing exactly what he could bring to the team.

Haaland has been a revelation in his first season in England, scoring 52 goals in 52 games to put City on the brink of a historic treble.

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Much was expected from the Norwegian sensation after his £54million move from Borussia Dortmund, but he’s exceeded all hopes and broken numerous records along the way.

Prior to his arrival, Pep Guardiola relied upon a striker-less system, and has often struggled to fit pure goalscorers into his team, leading to clashes with Samuel Eto’o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

But when boyhood City fan Haaland watched the team last term, he knew he was going to fit in perfectly.

Speaking to Between the Lines ahead of Saturday night’s Champions League final – live on talkSPORT – he remarked: “I knew the team really well when I came, I’ve been watching City for as long as I can remember.

“The year before they scored 100 goals so for me coming into City as a striker I knew I could do it, but of course I didn’t expect to score this many goals.”

When shown his goal map of strikes inside the area, Haaland said with a smile: “It’s a good thing to be good at tapping balls in.

“Last season, I watched so many times when crosses would go through the whole box and no-one was there. I was imagining myself being there and thinking I’d slide that in. 

“I was thinking of that when I came here. I’m not the one that’s going to create chances but I have my role in the team.

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“And that’s this. My job is to help the team put the ball in the back of the net.”

Presenter Rio Ferdinand then asked if Haaland watched his performances to learn from them, to which he answered: “I don’t watch my games back at all, actually.

“I try to think of the next game, not too much about how I did and what I did wrong. 

“I try to attack the next game. I did that [watched games back] a bit when I was younger, but I was overthinking a bit when I did it so I stopped. 

“I don’t watch anyone [opponents] I just try to focus on the next game and not think about what happened but what’s going to happen.”