Jamie Carragher makes incredible ‘wrong club’ claim on Erling Haaland after Tottenham 1-0 Manchester City
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has opined that Manchester City striker Erling Haaland might have picked the wrong club for himself.
The Norwegian striker joined the Cityzens from Borussia Dortmund last summer and has since scored an incredible 25 goals in 19 Premier League games. While Haaland has been prolific, Manchester City have looked far from their best this season.
Many fans and pundits have pointed out that Pep Guardiola's side look disjointed in attack. The latest example of the same came on Sunday, February 5, as City lost 1-0 against Tottenham Hotspur. Haaland had zero shots and zero touches in the penalty box despite playing the entirety of the contest.
Erling Haaland has failed to have a shot in a Premier League game for the first time at Man City.
He didn't have a single touch in the Tottenham box. 😲 https://t.co/i2WC6aVrXL
Speaking after the game, Carragher explained on Sky Sports how Manchester City could be the wrong club for Haaland. He said:
“He may have actually picked the wrong club to get the best out of him. You are laughing but we are not seeing everything from Erling Haaland at Manchester City. Not because of Erling Haaland.”
He added:
“We can say they are a different team, but they have scored exactly the same amount of goals. He has scored 25 Premier League goals but Man City as a team have scored the same amount of goals, but they have conceded more.”
Carragher explained that Guardiola's style of play requires his team to keep control of possession rather than playing direct football. He said:
“It’s far easier to counter-attack them as well. They are a different team and a lesser team with Erling Haaland, but again it’s not his fault. Manchester City as a team will not play end-to-end football, it’s not Pep Guardiola’s way.”
He added:
“His players don’t have the energy, or the power or pace to play end-to-end, they build up slowly and they push the opposition back to the edge of the box and they play from there, when they lose it they win it back quickly. They keep people penned in.”
Carragher concluded by saying that while Haaland might score plenty of goals, his abilities haven't been highlighted so far with City:
“Haaland will still score 25 league goals and a lot of those is coming from a cross that you are putting in. But we are not seeing the full package of what this player can do because of the team that he has actually gone to.”
Manchester City fail to take advantage of Arsenal slip-up in the title race
Premier League leaders Arsenal faced their second league defeat of the season on February 4 when they lost 1-0 against Everton at Goodison Park.
The gap at the top remains at five points 🔴 https://t.co/BlBJ1CoVeP
It provided a big opportunity for Manchester City to cut down the gap to just two points at the top of the table. However, they faltered against Tottenham away from home on Sunday. Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game to become Spurs' all-time top goalscorer with 267 goals.
City now trail Arsenal by five points with the Gunners having a game in hand. The two teams are notably yet to meet each other in the Premier League this term.