“Simple as that because I’m not going often in offside. And it’s all about timing. That’s everything in life… if the pass is, if it [takes] a bit too long, I will be offside. So I need to be ready… because the worst thing I know is going in [to an] offside [position] because then you’ve got no chance of scoring a goal. But if you’re onside, [even] a bit further away [from goal], you’ve still got a chance. The worst thing for me is going offside.”
Alf-Inge also influenced his son’s decision never to wear gloves on the pitch – no matter the temperature. Erling said: “I like the old-school kind [of football], the charming things of running, tackling. It’s a nice thing. And also, you never see me playing with gloves. It’s because my father would hit me if I did. So I’m a bit old school as well.”
Haaland told The Rest is Football podcast that Pep Guardiola was “the hardest working man at the club”. “He’s the first one to come, the last one to leave and I think that also is what’s been taking him so far because of his hard work every single day.”
Haaland says that his dedication for City and Norway means that he only drinks milk in the season, and admitted there was a pressure to score goals every week. “If not, they have to replace me. Because if I’m not delivering the goals and the things they need, they have to replace me. So there is a lot of pressure on me to deliver,” he said.
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