Leeds United star Brenden Aaronson and manager Jesse Marsch heaped praise on Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, as the American coach labelled the Norwegian as "one of my favourite players" despite scoring two goals against his side.
City reduced the gap to league leaders Arsenal back down to five points with a 3-1 win over Leeds at Elland Road in their first Premier League match after the World Cup. Rodri opened the scoring for Pep Guardiola's side just seconds before half-time, with Haaland finding the back of the net after the break in both the 51st and 64th minute.
Pascal Struijk's header from a corner with just over 15 minutes left to play briefly threatened to offer Leeds a way back into the game, but City remained calm to secure all three points. Haaland is now seven goals clear of second-placed Harry Kane in the race for the Golden Boot - the 22-year-old's 20 goals is one more than the entire Chelsea team combined have managed to score this term.
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Marsch, who coached Haaland during their time together at Red Bull Salzburg, could not help but praise him for his performance - with the Leeds boss even admitting to the press after the match that the former Borussia Dortmund ace is one of his favourite players.
"He has an uncanny ability to know where to be to score goals, and a hunger to score goals like no one I’ve ever seen," Marsch said of Haaland. "When you have him in your team it’s infectious. I think you see obviously his quality, but it’s his desire. It makes Erling Haaland one of my favourite players, I’d say."
Aaronson also waxed lyrical about the City striker, as the attacking midfielder shared his manager's view that it is Haaland's desire to score that makes him so dangerous.
He said: "Just looking at him, his hunger to score goals, I think he made a 40-yard run on that goal to catch up and get a tap-in, you know, not a lot of players have this and he’s special."
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