‘Erling Haaland was born to score goals!’ – Man City star backed to match last season’s incredible figures

Erling Haaland could easily match last season’s record-breaking numbers after hitting a hat-trick against Fulham, according to Juanma Lillo.

The Norwegian striker banged in a hat-trick and provided an assist at the Etihad as the Citizens made it four top-flight wins on the bounce.

Haaland has become the fastest player to reach the mark since Cole did so in 43 games. The Norway international achieved the feat in just 39 appearances. He laid on the assist for Julian Alvarez’s opener, and then scored twice himself, one a slotted finish and the second a penalty. He then made it 51 when he added a third later in the game.

“This guy was born to score goals so it would be no surprise if he gets those same figures, but it doesn’t matter,” said City assistant coach Juanma Lillo. “He’s great at providing for other players, he gave one assist today, he has this importance to other players, it’s not just about scoring goals. I’m more impressed by other figures as well, not just if he ends up scoring. I always looked at his intelligence as well as his goal-scoring.”

Haaland missed a penalty last week at Sheffield United but made no mistake from the spot against Bernd Leno to score his second goal. Lillo, who is taking charge of City while Pep Guardiola recovers from back surgery, praised the striker’s personality.

“Erling is a strong character, there was no doubt in our mind he was going to take it, he’s scored many goals from penalties, had we got another penalty in the previous game we’d have given it to him,” he said. “The penalty he took last week wasn’t a bad penalty, he hit it low, it hit the post, they can easily hit the post and go in.”

Lillo also revealed he had told Haaland, who had not scored in the first half, to stay calm and try to score, adding: “Today in the first half none of the team played well, we didn’t find the freshness and our opponents kept the ball well, it would have been difficult for any No. 9. I said in the break: ‘This is not an easy game, but you can still help us by scoring and he scored three’.”

The striker will be in international action for Norway against Jordan and Georgia on September 7 and September 12. City return to Premier League action on September 16 away to West Ham.