Manchester City striker Erling Haaland spoke to reporters after his starring role in a landmark win at Liverpool
Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland(Image: 2025 Visionhaus)
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Erling Haaland admitted he has not been good enough in the last six weeks as he vowed to give Manchester City 'what everyone deserves and expects' from him. The Manchester City striker rejected the offer of tiredness to explain his form as he stressed there were no excuses for his recent performances.
Haaland came up clutch for City in the last 20 minutes at Anfield, heading forward for Bernardo Silva to equalise before keeping his cool to slot an injury-time penalty. The turnaround on Merseyside allowed the travelling fans to see their first victory at the ground since 2003 - the victory in 2021 was behind closed doors during the pandemic - and also catapulted the Blues back into the title race with Arsenal.
The penalty moved the Norwegian onto 21 Premier League goals for the season, leaving him four ahead of Brentford's Igor Thiago in the race for the Golden Boot. However, the goals had dried up for Haaland and he still has none from open play in his last nine league games.
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That period has largely coincided with Omar Marmoush being away with Egypt for the African Cup of Nations, as well as the most congested part of the season. If Haaland has looked tired since the turn of the year, it is easy to see why - but the 25-year-old isn't looking to use that as he instead focuses on improving to fire City closer to Arsenal.
"I haven't scored enough goals since the start of this year, you can say, and I know that I need to improve," he said. "I know I need to be more sharp, better at all of this and this is something that I have to work on. I have to keep going because this is what everyone deserves and expects.
"I don't want to speak about why I haven't performed. I don't think there's any excuse. Fatigue is a lot is in the head. It's a lot of games. Look at the schedule, it's not easy, and for me, it's about staying fit, don't get injured. That's the most important thing. And try to be ready to help the team."