Haaland targets improvement after barren spell
Erling Haaland said tiredness was no excuse for his poor goalscoring run in 2026 as he demands more of himself to keep Manchester City in the hunt for four trophies.
Erling Haaland said tiredness was no excuse for his poor goalscoring run in 2026 as he demands more of himself to keep Manchester City in the hunt for four trophies.
Haaland scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner from the penalty spot as City beat Liverpool 2-1 on Sunday to remain six points behind Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
The 25-year-old has netted 28 times in 36 games for City this season.
But he has not scored from open play in the Premier League since December 20 and has just three goals in his last 13 appearances.
“Of course, I haven’t scored enough goals since the start of this year and I know that I need to improve,” said the Norwegian. “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.”
Pep Guardiola said last month that Haaland was “exhausted” by a gruelling schedule with City still involved in four competitions.
Guardiola’s men will face Arsenal in the League Cup final next month, are into the last 16 of the Champions League, and face fourth-tier Salford in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
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“I don’t want to speak about why I haven’t performed. I don’t think there’s any excuse. Fatigue is a lot in the head,” added Haaland. “It’s a lot of games. Look at the schedule, it’s not easy and for me, it’s about staying fit, that’s the most important thing, and trying to be ready to help the team.”
City looked set to fall nine points behind Arsenal at the top of the table until a chaotic finale at Anfield.
The visitors trailed to Dominik Szoboszlai’s brilliant free-kick with just six minutes of normal time remaining until Haaland teed up Bernardo Silva to level.
Haaland then kept his cool in a frenzied atmosphere from the spot to rekindle City’s hopes in the title race.
They can ramp up the pressure even more on Arsenal with victory over Fulham on Wednesday to halve the deficit at the top before the Gunners face Brentford 24 hours later.
“We’ve seen before that the title race is not over until it’s over,” said Haaland.
“Right now I need to focus on Fulham because there’s still many games (to go).”
