Pep Guardiola hit back at critics suggesting that Erling Haaland would not adapt to Manchester City’s style of play after the Norwegian scored his fourth hat-trick of the season in their 3-0 win over Wolves.

The 22-year-old has already surpassed last season’s top goalscoring record of 23 held by Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur

Haaland has now bagged 25 Premier League goals in just 19 appearances and scored 31 goals in 26 appearances across all competitions for City so far this season.

Many people have criticised Haaland since his arrival at the club as they believe that Guardiola’s men function better as a team without a natural striker.

“The numbers are incredible,” said Guardiola. “He lives 24 hours for his profession, job, passion, love.

“He’s not stressed much when it’s going well or going bad. He is stable.

“When he played and scored, I don’t know many goals, he is the solution and everything of the team and when he does not score, he is the problem in our team.

“We know his quality. We know each other. He is not a player to be dropped. We can’t play the false nine with him. You have to adapt some movements with him and we are doing quite well.”