Steven Caulker has claimed that one Manchester City player has not hit the levels he did last season.
The previous campaign saw the Citizens win the Premier League title, the FA Cup and their first Champions League.
Now though, with Pep Guardiola’s side on the hunt to win a consecutive Treble, one pundit and former top-flight player has highlighted one City figure that he feels has not been as impressive in this campaign as he was last term.
Caulker says Erling Haaland has not been the same as last season
Speaking on talkSPORT, Caulker had this to say about Haaland when discussing City’s position in the title race.
He said: “I’m looking at Haaland and although he’s still scored how many goals, he still hasn’t been the same Haaland of last year.
“Can he find that? Will he find it? I never want to say he won’t, you never want to write off City.”
After arriving from Borussia Dortmund during the 2022 summer transfer window in a deal worth £51m, the striker went on to have a very successful debut season with the Citizens.
As well as winning the Treble, the 23-year-old scored 52 goals in 53 appearances across all competitions, breaking numerous records in the process.
This season has seen Haaland find the back of the net 29 times in 34 games, with 18 of those goals coming across the 23 Premier League matches he’s appeared in.
Taking into account how the striker has had to deal with a significant ankle injury earlier in the campaign and played through the majority of the season without Kevin De Bruyne in the team who assisted a lot of the goals he scored in the last campaign, these are factors that should be taken into account when discussing Haaland’s current season.
Now that the Blues are about to enter a crucial stage of the season once the current international break comes to an end, this is when City will need their star striker to be at his best and keep scoring goals on a consistent basis to help them regain their three titles and put to bed any doubts over his ability.