Pep Guardiola insists Manchester City cannot rely on Erling Haaland to fire the club to Champions League success.
City begin their Champions League campaign with a trip to face Sevilla on Tuesday evening, with the Premier League champions favourites to win an elusive European title this season.
The arrival of Haaland from Borussia Dortmund has increased expectation at the Etihad, following a brilliant start to his career in English football.
The 22-year-old has scored ten goals in just six Premier League games for City, while his record in the Champions League – where he has scored 23 goals in just 19 appearances – has raised hopes that Haaland can fire City to success in the competition.
Guardiola admits he understands the talk surrounding Haaland, but insists City cannot rely solely on the forward’s goals if the club are to become Champions League winners.
“All the players the club decided to sign this season came in to try to make us better otherwise it would not make sense,” Guardiola said at his pre-match press conference.
“Is that help going to help us win the title? I don’t know. I always have belief, but if we rely only on Erling’s shoulders, we are not going to win the Champions League. What we have to do is play well, create chances to help him score goals and hopefully we can do it.
“He came here because we convinced him, because he felt we didn’t have many strikers and he could play with us and try to be involved in the way we are playing.
“I understand completely that everyone talks about Erling but I have three, four, five new players and I consider it the same to settle as quickly as possible.
“Hopefully he can help us but we’re not going to win just for Erling, this is my feeling. He has a special quality and in the important games maybe he can solve the problems we have, definitely, but if we don’t play well we’re not going to win games in the Champions League or Premier League.”
