‘Neighbour Erling has got it Haal’

ILKAY GUNDOGAN knows a winner when he sees one – and he reckons Erling Haaland is tailor-made for the Premier League.

The 31-year-old midfield star is Haaland’s immediate neighbour in the Manchester City dressing room. But despite winning nine major titles at the Etihad, including four Premier League crowns, Gundogan (below) sees no need to offer the giant 22-year-old super-striker any advice about thriving in the English top flight.

Like Haaland, Gundogan made his name at Borussia Dortmund, and said: “We haven’t really spoken football yet. He is next to me in the dressing room, so we spoke about personal stuff but not about football so far. “Someone with his quality doesn’t really need advice from me. The mentality that he has speaks for itself.

“He is not going to struggle a lot to adapt to English football. He is looking really sharp. He is scoring goals in the games that we are playing in training.

“What you can see is that he definitely has the hunger and the desire to score goals. He is enjoying that a lot and I think that mindset is also one of his main qualities.

“He will get himself in positions where he is able to score and then it’s having the right mentality to score goals. His physique gives us more flexibility. We finally have someone that can go into aerial duels, so it adds a lot of value.

“Also, off the pitch he seems like a really good guy, so obviously we are very grateful that he is here.”

Gundogan was sorry to see stars like Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko leave for Chelsea and Arsenal in the summer.

He added: “They will bring a lot of value to the teams they have joined. They have each won the Premier League title several times.

“They have experience on how to do it, the way to do it and I think they can pass this experience on or at least lead the line.”