JAKARTA - Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland has the talent to break the record set by Manchester City's all-time top scorer Sergio Aguero following his 6-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Thursday morning.
Haaland became the first player to score nine goals in the Premier League's first five appearances after scoring their second hatick which both broke Aguero and Mick resulting in eight goals in England's first five major league games.
The three goals from this Norwegian player became the first twice-in-a-tight hatick to happen in the Premier League since Harry Kane did it for Tottenham Hotspur in 2017. Haaland also scored three goals against Crystal Palace last weekend.
And the beginning of Haaland's life at the Etihad Stadium has started a debate about whether he can break Aguero's 260 goals while in City.
"Sergio is a legend," Guardiola was quoted as saying by Antara from the ESPN website. "Nothing can break his position in the hearts of City fans, scoring the most important goals in modern history. Erling has the quality to be there."
"What Sergio has done is incredible. But Erling has this talent. When City bought Erling, everyone talked about what he had done before. What we want to do is help him. Hopefully he can enjoy and score more goals."
But Guardiola insists Haaland will only consider his time at Manchester City as a success if he wins the trophy even if he continues to break the goal record.
"What he's been doing in Norway, Austria and Germany, he's trying to do here," Guardiola said. "Ahead of the ball first, he scored a goal. We already knew that."
"He always scores goals. He can be stopped when we don't play well. We try to play in a decent way because we create chances for our talented players up front to score goals."
"I think what we want is to be champions. Because I know a little bit, I don't know if he's happy to break the record if we don't win. If we play well, he has more chances.
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