Haaland scored twice as City ran out winners at the London Stadium. The Norwegian said it was a “bit of shit” to miss out on a hat-trick, but Guardiola couldn’t be happier with the former Borussia Dortmund man’s performance. “He’s been here for five years,” said the City manager. “I hope he stays for that time and even longer. We want all the new kids to be happy, to feel good in the city and with the team. And push him some more. “He’s a guy with incredible talent, he scores good numbers, but we’d like to add something more to his game to make him a better player. Not just a guy who scores goals, which is so important, but that’s why we want to try to give him everything to make him a better player. He was born to score.” Guardiola, who made no apologies for taking Haaland off in the second half, responded sarcastically to the 22-year-old’s criticism after City’s loss to Liverpool in the Community Shield. “A week ago he couldn’t adapt to the Premier League,” he said. “Now he’s next to the best, Titi [Thierry] Henry, Alan Shearer and Cristiano Ronaldo”. There was impressive conviction from Haaland when he won and converted the penalty for City’s opening goal. “I know how he handled a lot of criticism this week, he was really calm and trained very well,” Guardiola said. “But the way he took the ball to take the penalty, I liked it. He is direct and if someone is going to take the ball to him, he will dig into the face of one of his mates. I’m pretty sure of that.” Haaland vowed to keep improving and criticized himself for failing to convert Ilkay Gundogan’s cross. “It was a good start,” he said. “There’s nothing else to say beyond that and it was 2-0. It was good to get some minutes on the legs early in the season and we need to keep going. “It’s about the connections we make every day in training and practice to get better and that will come. Also now it’s almost 30 minutes since I scored the last goal, so I have to keep going.” David Moyes praised Haaland’s performance. “We’ve all watched him from a distance,” said the West Ham boss. “He’s someone who looks like he’s going to be a great player. He made the same runs as against Liverpool.” Moyes admitted his side had outplayed City. “They were so good. I felt like we were tactically completely outplayed today. They played differently than at the end of last season with both full-backs in the middle of the pitch like midfielders.”
