Micah Richards has claimed that one Manchester City player needs to be more physical on the pitch.
In their previous Premier League match, the Citizens drew 0-0 against fellow title-chasers Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium.
Following this big game, one of City’s key players found himself on the end of some criticism for what he did, or more specifically, didn’t do, during the match.
Now though, one pundit and former City player has weighed in on the matter and highlighted one thing the figure in question needs to be doing to avoid any more criticism.
Richards says one City player needs to be more physical
Speaking in a recent episode of 5 Live Sport’s The Monday Night Club, Richards had this to say about Erling Haaland and the criticism facing him in regards to what he offers Pep Guardiola’s side apart from scoring goals.
He said: “When you’re the best striker in the league, if you don’t score it’s going to be a conversation because his levels last season were so good, when he doesn’t score it’s like a big question mark.
“Let’s not forget he was injured for a big part of this season. We all know what he can do in front of goal but Arsenal were really clever in how they pressed from the goal kicks. So when Man City had the goal kick, they put five, six players really high. [William] Saliba would come really high and just stop them from being able to play out. So, at times within the game, it was an option for the striker to get hold of the ball so Ortega maybe at times looked for Haaland and he wasn’t available.
“It’s not normally what Man City do but on certain occasions we talk about you have to adapt. Haaland has not really been that player who is going to link up.
“In the Bundesliga at [Borussia] Dortmund, all his goals were from sharp movements around the box or the runs in behind where he goes through one-on-one and he scores.
“When you’re talking about development and improving, no one is asking Haaland to come in a number 10 [position] and play 30-yard, 40-yard balls. No one is asking that, all they’re asking is for somebody his size, when the ball comes to him, can he just hold it up, use his body. If you look at Gabriel and Saliba, every time they got close to him, every time he got a touch, they would use their strength and get the ball back.
“All people are asking for is maybe to use his body more. That is the question mark. There are times when you’re not going to get an opportunity but you need to do other things to help the team out in terms of a build-up.”
Looking back over Sunday’s draw against the Gunners, Haaland, whom City paid £51m to sign back in 2022, was involved in 14 duels, winning eight of them.
In terms of his aerial duels across the entire league campaign, the Norwegian has won 32 and lost 35, giving him an aerial duel win percentage of 47.8%, leaving 118 players in the division with a higher percentage.
This suggests that, as Richards said, there could be room for improvement in terms of Haaland using his physicality in the air to help him either get control of the ball or move it to a nearby teammate.