Erling Haaland is not planning to take the Premier League too seriously as he prepares to make his debut in the competition as Manchester City travel to West Ham on Sunday.
Champions City are the last team to kick off their campaign this weekend, at 4.30pm on Sunday, and all eyes will be firmly focussed on how Haaland starts life in England now the league has begun. He scored on his Blues debut in the US against Bayern Munich a fortnight ago, but was quiet in the Community Shield last weekend versus Liverpool, missing a glorious late chance for a consolation goal.
However, it seems that Haaland will have already put that miss behind him, as he told record Premier League goalscorer Alan Shearer that he has a simple way of handling the pressure of playing as a number nine for the champions.
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He told Football Focus: "Of course there's pressure playing for the champions who won the Premier League, but in my head it's about trying to go out on the pitch smiling as much as I can, to try to enjoy the game. Life goes fast, suddenly my career's over.
"You saw with my father, suddenly it's over. It's about trying to enjoy every single minute of it, I'm really lucky to have this job and be here. I have to enjoy it."
Haaland then explained his mindset going into the new season, prompted by Shearer, who said centre-forwards must be a little bit selfish in their approach.
"As a striker you have to be a bit selfish but nothing makes me more happy than playing another player on an open goal and he scores," Haaland replied.
"Nothing makes me happier. Also when he plays to me an open goal, fantastic. This is important about being selfish but in the right way and the right situations yes, but not too much.
"[Playing every three days] is the charm about it, it's about what's nice about being a footballer. We talk about you don't score a goal in this, the next two or three days is another game. It's a nice thing, you have only two days to get ready for the next game to perform for the next game."
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