Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has praised Erling Haaland’s fitness levels following his goal against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Thursday evening.

The Norwegian international has not played a competitive game since before the World Cup, but Guardiola claims that, unlike players such as Rico Lewis and Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling, he doesn’t need any time to regain match sharpness:

“Erling is not like Rico (Lewis), for example, or Raheem in the past, like in one training session he is fit and ready. He’s so tall, he’s big, to move his body is not easy.”

Haaland has been trying to keep fit during the international break but, other than the friendly versus Girona last weekend, he hadn’t really had any game time for the best part of six weeks until the Liverpool fixture.

The fact that he scored just ten minutes into the match against the Reds simply demonstrates how naturally fit he is. He lasted 73 minutes at the Etihad before he was replaced by Phil Foden and he should be ready to go again when City take on Leeds in the Premier League on Wednesday night.