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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Alex Brotherton

Kevin De Bruyne tells Erling Haaland what he must improve after home Man City debut

Kevin De Bruyne has told Erling Haaland how he can improve his game after Manchester City won their first home league game of the season.

City eased to a 4-0 win against Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium, with De Bruyne playing a key role in proceedings. The Belgian scored a superb solo goal to put City 2-0 up after half an hour, before turning provider five minutes later by teeing up Phil Foden with an audacious pass through the defender's legs.

Haaland also played an important role - more so in the first half - by setting up Ilkay Gundogan to score City's opener and by creating the space for De Bruyne's goal. However, the dream of scoring on his home debut sadly did not become reality.

READ MORE: Man City kill another Erling Haaland debate in Bournemouth stroll

Haaland looked a little frustrated when he was substituted in the second half, seconds after he missed a clear chance to score. De Bruyne thought his young teammate played well but pointed out one way that he could adapt his game to the Premier League.

"He played really well," De Bruyne said of Haaland when speaking to BBC Sport. "Obviously it's so tight. I don't think in Germany he played a lot of games where the other teams were so defensively narrow, it's something he has to adapt to and I think he did great.

"Obviously with the spare man with Gundogan he found him perfectly and he set us up for the win. So he did what he had to do. Obviously he wants to score but if he plays that way it will be good."

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