Erling Haaland wants to use his late miss against Liverpool as motivation for his next Manchester City game — against West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday.
Haaland had a promising, but quiet, domestic debut for City as the Blues were beaten in the Community Shield last weekend, with two late Liverpool games giving them a deserved win. Haaland could have grabbed a consolation late on, but leaned back and hit the top of the bar from six yards with the goal open.
That has led to plenty of questioning this week over how Haaland will start in the Premier League, although the striker himself says that while he was one of those unsure of how he didn't score, he will take it as a positive into the next game.
ALSO READ: Erling Haaland sends message to Alan Shearer about Man City pressure to score goals
“When I look back, it’s like, ‘How can you miss there?’” he told the Athletic. “But, you know, this will probably happen to me again. That’s football. You say you didn’t sleep well and I never sleep good after games.
“But it’s kind of motivation, to score or to do something in the next game. It’s the same when you score two goals – ‘Ah, I want to do it again!’ So actually, no matter what happens it’s motivation and that’s what’s good about it. But, of course, it is not a good feeling! It’s the worst feeling ever!”
Haaland then expanded into his mindset of being a striker at the top level, insisting the key to having the right mentality is to not think too much about each chance or goal.
He explained: “As a striker, I think it’s really important that when you’re in the game to not think too much. If I’m going to go into my next game thinking about the chance I missed last game, it’s not good. You have to go into the game hungry. It doesn’t matter what happened before, if you scored three goals, if you scored zero goals, if you haven’t scored in a while.
“You have to go into the game with the same mentality. And so I think about not thinking too much about it! It’s about using all of it as motivation and not some negative, going into training like this [puts his head down]. You want to be the best in training today. This is also something that helps me a lot, this meditation outside the pitch to just kind of let go of the negative thoughts.
“Maybe it’s to be ready because you know you will get chances. It is about being ready for the next action and not thinking of the last one. Because you never know when you can get the ball — a cross, a deflection, a rebound. The next situation is really important.”
And Haaland offered an insight into his approach that will please Pep Guardiola and the coaches at City immensely, as he insisted he is prepared to buy into the approach that sees the Blues regularly pass up shooting opportunities if a teammate is in an ever better position to score just one pass away.
“You want the team to be well-functioned,” he said. “It’s like a unit and so it’s really important to understand each other, to work hard together so you can achieve things together. As a striker, you have to be a bit selfish.
"But nothing makes me happier than playing in another player on an open goal and he scores. Nothing! And also when he plays to me an open goal. And this is something really important about being selfish. You have to do it in the right way and not too much. In the right situations, yes. But not too much.”
READ NEXT:
