Daniel Sturridge has praised Erling Haaland's unrelenting belief in himself after the Manchester City striker bounced back from a big miss to score the winner at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
City earned a battling 1-0 win at Selhurst Park to close the gap on Premier League leaders Arsenal to just two points. Haaland confidently fired home a penalty with 12 minutes left after Ilkay Gundogan was brought down by Michael Olise.
It was welcome relief for the Norwegian, who squandered a glorious chance just before the half hour mark, poking over the bar from close range after some good work by Nathan Ake. And Sturridge believes the confidence to keep chipping away after a big miss has been the City striker's best trait.
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"I think his mentality is his strongest trait," Sturridge told Sky Sports. "I believe that his mentality is that he’s going to go out there and he’s so confident in himself, when you see him miss a chance it affects him for maybe two or three seconds and then it’s like ‘cool, I’ll get another one, maybe I’ll put that away.
"He makes chances look like food and drink. He makes it look so easy in front of goal. Sometimes he does miss chances and that’s part of the parcel of being a centre forward, it’s the life of being a striker so make no mistake.
"With Man City and how much they have possession during the games, over the course of a game he knows that chances will come. I can’t get frustrated with him myself and start doing different things because Pep has a way he likes to play - he’s a tactical genius - he knows where he wants Haaland to be to occupy those defenders so for me it’s him continuing to put himself into positions to score, versus saying ‘okay, I missed that one now I’m scared to go in there.’
"He has zero fear, you can see it in his eyes. In the interview you can see he’s so confident, he’s so sure of himself - ‘if I miss a chance so what? I’m going to go again."
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