Ruben Dias believes Erling Haaland has the same mindset as Cristiano Ronaldo when it comes to scoring goals.
The prolific Haaland struck twice more to fire Manchester City to a 2-0 win over Everton in the Premier League on Saturday.
It took the Norwegian’s tally for the season for club and country to a staggering 23 goals from just 13 appearances.
He has failed to score in only one of those games and has now struck in 11 in succession.
Overall, the 25-year-old has netted 138 in 155 appearances for City, 96 in the Premier League from 105 outings.
City defender Dias has no doubt Haaland has the same hunger for goals as five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo, his Portugal international team-mate.
“That’s a good reflection of his state of mind, (it’s) very similar,” said Dias. “At the end of the day, everyone wants to score, but both of them have this ability to just keep on scoring.
“Everyone has their own special ability – and they score goals. We’re just happy that Erling is in this moment and we want him to continue.
“We want to keep pushing him because we want him to break records that have not been beaten before.
“But, as a team, we want to play at a level we have not reached before, so we want to keep on improving.”
Haaland’s double came in the space of five minutes either side of the hour-mark, finally breaking the resolve of a well-organised Everton side.
He now has 11 goals in the league from eight games this term, but as he bagged a record 36 in his first season at the club, Dias is hesitant to say he is in the form of his life.
Dias said: “Erling has beaten the Premier League goals record before, so better than ever? I don’t really know. He’s always been brilliant and on a very special level.”
Haaland had been having a quiet game until he broke the deadlock by burying a header from a Nico O’Reilly cross. His second came from a Savinho lay-off soon after.
Everton defender James Tarkowski said: “I think, first half, we managed him pretty well.
“He’s not someone who’s always involved in build-up play and sort of linking, he just wants to be in the area to score goals.
“First half, I don’t remember him having too many chances, if any. But, as a world-class striker like he is, if he just gets one chance it goes in.”
