Erling Haaland has continued smashing goals right and left after joining Manchester City this summer from Borussia Dortmund. The striker, who had amassed a whopping 86 goals in 89 games for Dortmund, has so far accumulated a staggering 19 goals in just 11 appearances for City. His new teammate Manuel Akanji who joined City on the deadline day has now backed him to breach the 50-goal mark in the Premier League. Akanji was also mates with Haaland at Dortmund and knows the striker better than anyone else in the City team right now.
Haaland has truly taken Manchester City to a whole new level, making them favourites to achieve a three-peat of Premier League titles. Moreover, the reigning English champions had to fork a mere £51 million to acquire the services of the Norwegian, who was also being chased by a host of top European clubs. The son of former City midfielder Alf-Inge Haaland followed in the footsteps of his father and joined the Sky Blues.
Akanji backs Erling Haaland to net 50 goals, while holding the formula to stop him
Erling Haaland is on his way to break a number of records this season, having already eclipsed Michael Owen’s record of fastest player to bag 3 Premier League hat-tricks. While the former Liverpool striker needed 48 games to achieve the feat, Haaland breached the mark of 3 hat-tricks in a mere 8 games. He also became the fastest player to double figure goals in the English top flight, after netting 10 in his first 6 games itself.
Akanji is now brimming with confidence that his pal will easily bang in 50 plus league goals this season, while also lifting the Premier League golden boot. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah currently holds the record of most goals in a 38-game campaign, scoring 32 during the 2017/18 season. Haaland is well placed to surpass the Egyptian, and could also topple Alan Shearer and Andy Cole’s record of 34 goals which are the most in a single English top flight season.
On the other hand, Akanji also boasts that he knows the formula to stop his teammate and he often does that City training. But at the same time he wishes the opponents don’t figure it out as City needs Haaland to put the ball in the back of the net more frequently. While speaking on talkSPORT, the center-back said:
“If he [Haaland] stays healthy then I think there is nothing that can stop him [from scoring 50 goals], yeah. I try to stop him in training and I know how I do it – but I hope other defenders can’t do it and he keeps scoring. So I’m not going to give them any help. We need a finisher and it really helps the team a lot.”
Akanji’s claims are well justified as well, since the 22-year-old striker has already racked up 14 goals in just 8 Premier League appearances till now. At this rate, there is certainly nothing which can stop Erling Haaland from netting a record 50 goals this Premier League season. The youngster is now fresh from scoring a brace in the Champions League against Copenhagen, and will be desperate to add to his tally of 19 goals against Southampton this weekend in the league.