Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland could have already scored 15 goals this season – and jokes that he ‘cannot sleep’ over the Norwegian’s missed opportunities

Pep Guardiola revealed that Erling Haaland could already have scored 15 goals this season but claimed that obsessing over missed chances is futile.

Haaland is netting more than a goal a game in the Premier League, with seven so far in his defence of the Golden Boot, yet might have doubled that total in all competitions.

The 23-year-old was wasteful during victory over West Ham last week before scoring late on and was frustrated by Red Star Belgrade in midweek.

Haaland’s big chance conversion is 29 per cent, having recorded 60 per cent at the same stage last season and he has missed nine of those opportunities in the past two games.

‘He has had incredible chances and could have scored 14 or 15 goals,’ Guardiola said. ‘That means we are playing well.

Guardiola claimed Haaland could already have scored 15 goals already this season 

‘Always I have the sense of if the team is doing quite good by the number of chances Erling has. When he is not involved in chances, something wrong has happened with our process and dynamic.

‘My advice is don’t criticise Erling too much. Criticise the full back, the central defender or the manager, but never the striker who scores goals because he will and then you will be in a position where you have to apologise to him.’ 

After smashing records last season, Haaland is three goals ahead of Odsonne Edouard, Evan Ferguson and Bryan Mbeumo in the Premier League and there does not appear to be an obvious challenger for the Golden Boot.

Guardiola joked that he ‘cannot sleep’ about the Norwegian’s missed opportunities, although did suggest he has gears to go in reaching peak fitness.

‘Every week he is much better,’ the City boss added. ‘He’s an important, tall figure so it’s always more difficult to get the rhythm without pre-season, because we went to Japan and South Korea. There wasn’t much time to train.

‘When you win the Treble maybe you think, “I’ll wait a week longer to be completely fit.” It is a question of time. The most important thing is that he is not to get injured. Unfortunately that happened with some of them.’ 

City expect Jack Grealish to play some part of Saturday’s clash against Nottingham Forest after a thigh injury has kept him out for three weeks, but Bernardo Silva is missing with a muscle problem sustained on Tuesday night.

John Stones, Mateo Kovacic and Kevin De Bruyne remained sidelined and Guardiola warned that their 100 per cent record so far counts for nothing.

‘We have to be careful against Forest,’ he said. ‘We are optimistic we can do what we have to do, with our people, to make the sixth win in a row. When we arrived here seven years ago we made six from six and we finished third. It’s just the beginning. The competition is hard.’