Bernardo Silva names Erling Haaland 'main quality' after unleashing surprise Man City tactic

Bernardo Silva has waxed lyrical about Erling Haaland's penalty-box prowess after the Norway superstar scored a decisive goal in Manchester City's 1-0 win over newly-promoted Southampton.

Haaland met a curling ball off the boot of Matheus Nunes to see City end Saturday afternoon top of the table. His conversion on five minutes marked his 14th strike of the season, but that was only the second time he had directly scored from a cross this campaign.

The Blues have scored the most Premier League goals outside of the box this season, seven out of their 20 in fact, and have thrown in 193 crosses in their nine matches, rather dismantling the view that Pep Guardiola's team avoids direct methods of playing when the situation suits.

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Bernardo thinks Haaland - whose goals mainly come within the penalty box - is at his best when City try to hit him inside the area. "We have the big guy up front, so these type of crosses, these type of actions inside the box that is his main quality," he told the BBC Sport after full-time.

"He's there, he's hungry to score more and more. Today he helped us win the game and we are very happy to have him in our team, as you can imagine."

City have won their last three Premier League games by a single goal, having beaten Fulham 3-2 and Wolves 2-1 this month. Bernardo says being unable to find a second goal against bottom club Southampton made the match tougher than was necessary, albeit he did praise the Saints for their tactics.

"It was a tough game, a tough game where we had to run a lot," the Portugal star added. "We scored early, which we thought would make the game a