Gary Lineker has said he can’t believe what he’s been hearing about one Manchester City player recently.
After beating Crystal Palace 4-2 last weekend in the Premier League, the Citizens picked up a 3-3 draw against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of their quarter-final tie in the Champions League.
Away from the pitch, one specific member of Pep Guardiola’s squad has been the topic of discussion in the media, mostly with a lot of negativity aimed in his direction.
Now though, one former player has weighed in on the matter and highlighted how ridiculous some of this recent criticism has been.
Lineker says criticism of Man City star is baffling
Speaking in a recent episode of The Rest Is Football, Lineker had this to say about Erling Haaland and the recent criticism put his way by the likes of Roy Keane, who likened the Norwegian’s general play to a League Two player, and more recently, Rafael van der Vaart, who described the striker as being “useless” in City’s draw against Real.
He said: “He can improve his game, he knows he can, he’s still a very young footballer, particularly for a striker, that side of things will improve.
“I’m going to talk a little bit about the centre-forward’s union, the number nine union. Alan [Shearer] would have had this, I had this, Haaland is now getting this, the minute as a striker you go a game or two without a goal, the whole world says ‘Well, he does nothing now if he doesn’t score.’
“Well, obviously, but it’s a numbers game we’re in and there have to be patches where you don’t score, but, invariably, that’s not your fault.
“As long as you keep making the runs, keep getting in there, if you’re missing chances, so be it, because you’ve got to miss chances to score chances.
“But this stuff about ‘Oh, when he doesn’t score he does nothing,’ well, that’s not quite true, but, of course, the nature of the job is that you are there to score the goals unless you’re an all-round player but mostly those all-round players don’t score as many unless you’re someone like [Lionel] Messi, and he’s a different level to anyone else.
“If he scores a goal in every game he plays, I think that will do nicely, thank you. You can give the ball away a couple of times in the match if you want to.
“Of course, Haaland will be frustrated, but he’ll keep making the runs, sometimes it works for you and sometimes it won’t.
“Everyone now is having a little bit of a pop at him and I’ve lived through this so many times in my career, but believe you me, in a few weeks’ time, when he starts banging them in again, everyone will be saying how he’s the best goalscorer in the world again.
“Honestly, it’s genuinely nuts, I used to say ‘What do you mean I’m doing nothing?’ People don’t see the run, after run, after run you have to make to score goals, and it’s so frustrating when the ball doesn’t come where you actually want it, and at the end of it people go ‘he did nothing.’”
Erling Haaland is one of the best in the Premier League
Across his 25 Premier League appearances this season, the 23-year-old has had 503 touches of the ball in total, leaving 15 other City players with more.
However, Haaland has scored more league goals (19) than any other player in the division, in addition to having the second-highest rate of shots on target per 90 minutes (1.76).
So while he may not necessarily be someone who is always involved in the buildup play and linking up with his teammates on the ball, Haaland’s main strength is his ability to score goals and be a threat for opposition defences and goalkeepers.