Manchester City striker Erling Haaland concedes he will miss “big chances” in the future but insists it won’t affect his self-belief.
Haaland was guilty of spurning a gilt-edged opportunity in Sunday’s Manchester derby, volleying over from a yard out, but put it behind him to fire home City’s third in a convincing 3-1 win.
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Asked about his form, and how he mentally copes with missing a chance like that, he said: “Last year I got 36 goals and I was the top scorer. This season’s top scorer has 18 goals so you can think about it two ways if it has been a good season or not for me. I think we are doing pretty good as a team, that is my main focus of course.
“I have missed a lot of chances and I will still keep missing chances but I will still score goals.
“I’ll probably miss a big chance in the future and people will criticise me. Should I think about that? No, I should try to score goals and help the team.”
Haaland admitted he hasn’t always found it that straightforward.
“It’s been a challenge for me,” he added. “When I was young I would start crying if we lost and I missed a lot of chances so I have been working on it a lot. I demand a lot from myself and I know my team-mates and manager demand a lot from me. It is something to work on.
“It’s a mental thing, I don’t have any exercises, it’s something I have been working naturally on.
“If you overthink something it’s not good. If you stress on something it’s not good. My life is mainly about football so that’s my focus. I have one career and my focus is to be the best version of myself.”
ERLING 💬 Live everything in life, if you overthink it’s not good. If you have stress, it’s not good. My life is about football so that’s what I focus on. I have one career, my focus is to be the best player I can be. PIC.TWITTER.COM/XFH0L8IEWJ
— Manchester City (@ManCity) MARCH 5, 2024
Haaland accepted there are things he can work on to improve his game further.
“There are a lot of things I can get better at, people say I am good at scoring goals but I missed the biggest chance ever two days ago so I can become better at that.”
