Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher suggested Erling Haaland may have made the wrong choice in joining Manchester City.
Erling Haaland may have picked the wrong club by choosing to join Manchester City, claims Jamie Carragher.
The Norway international leads the Premier League goalscoring charts this season with 25 goals in 20 games, although City have often been a shadow of their former selves.
In Sunday’s 1-0 defeat against Tottenham, Haaland didn’t have a single touch in the opposition box – the first time this has happened in his debut season in England.
Defeat by City saw Pep Guardiola’s side miss the chance to cut Arsenal’s lead at the top of the table to just two points, leaving them just three ahead of neighbors Manchester United.
It has been suggested that City are a weaker team with Haaland in the side, but Carragher went further to claim that the former Borussia Dortmund player may have joined the wrong side for his needs.
“I think we only saw 60 per cent of Erling Haaland. You think about the goal he got against West Ham when there was space at the back and he got in behind,” Carragher told Sky Sports.
“I know it’s not there every time because of the way City play. He came from a counter-attacking league [Bundesliga] where it’s from start to finish.
“You saw his blistering pace there – we don’t see it here. Maybe he picked the wrong stick to get the best out of him.”
“We don’t see everything from Haaland. City scored the exact same number of goals as last season. He has 25, but overall City scored the same number.
“However, they have conceded more and it is easier to counter-attack against them now. They are a different – and smaller team – with Haaland in the team. It is not his fault.”
“City won’t play end-to-end football. That’s not Pep Guardiola’s way. His players don’t have the energy or strength to play that way – they build slowly and push the opposition back into their box and play from there.” .
“When they lose it, they win it back quickly and keep the team down. Haaland has scored 25 league goals and a lot of them come in the box and he puts them in.”
“But we don’t see the whole package of what a player can do because of the team he joins.