Stewart Robson has admitted that he is disappointed with a certain Manchester City player’s performance in his side’s 0-0 draw against Arsenal.
Pep Guardiola’s men were far from their best, with even superstars like Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden having games to forget.
Even for Arsenal, the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus did not do much to impact proceedings in what was quite an uneventful affair.
Stewart Robson says he is “very upset” with how Manchester City striker Erling Haaland played against Arsenal
Considering City had 73% possession against the Gunners, it was a shock to see that they had managed to muster only a single shot on target.
The attempt also came from a tame attempt from Nathan Ake to head the ball into the back of the net from a corner.
As Manchester City disappointed going forward against Arsenal, Stewart Robson zeroed in on the showing from Erling Haaland and it is safe to say that he was far from impressed.
“And for me and I know Jan Åge Fjørtoft won’t like me saying this. I’m still very upset with what I see from Erling Haaland. If you want to be the world’s best centre-forward, you can’t just base it on scoring goals.”
“You have to be the all-round player and when Man City are pressed high up the field and the goalkeeper has to go from back to front, the centre-forward has to hold the play up. He has to link up the play and at the moment, I don’t see him doing that so that for me is a slight weakness”, he said [via ESPN UK].
Stewart Robson was not the only pundit to criticise Erling Haaland after Manchester City dropped two points against Arsenal.
Micah Richards claimed that the Norwegian international “needed to do more” in terms of his link-up play against Mikel Arteta’s side.
Roy Keane went as far as to liken the 23-year-old’s all-round game to that of a League Two player.
Why does post-match discourse always become about Erling Haaland?
Stewart Robson might have a point about Erling Haaland being largely uninvolved for Manchester City in their latest draw against Arsenal.
However, it seems like every time City drop points, a chunk of the discourse is centred around the £51 million man.
The Sky Blues were miles off from an attacking sense and instead of pundits pinpointing why that was the case, the treble-winner has become the name on everyone’s lips after the contest.
For Erling Haaland to be getting as much criticism as well as focus on him rather than most of his teammates, who were also poor on the day seems rather unfair.