Danny Murphy has said that one Premier League striker has been better than Manchester City’s Erling Haaland this season.
After scoring both of City’s goals in their recent 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, the 23-year-old took his tally of league goals for the season to 27.
With just one league game left to play before the season ends, the City star is likely to pick up a consecutive Golden Boot award as he is currently six goals ahead of Cole Palmer in second place for league goals scored.
Despite that, and the fact that his goals have helped Pep Guardiola’s side get them into another title race, one pundit reckons another top-flight striker has outperformed City’s star man this season.
Murphy says one striker has been better than Haaland this season
Speaking on talkSPORT, Murphy had this to say about who he picked in the striker position for his Premier League team of the season.
He said: “I’ve gone for [Ollie] Watkins up top. Haaland has done what we’ve expected him to. Watkins has hit heights I didn’t think he could and arguably the main reason why Villa are in the Champions League spot is him.
“No [Haaland] because he’s missed a big chunk of the season and Watkins throughout the season has had a bigger impact.
“Not scored as many goals and if you said to me if you’re a manager who would you have tomorrow, I’d have Haaland because Haaland is the best forward in the world.
“But I’m not picking who is the best player, I’m picking who has had the best season.
“[Watkins] has played throughout the whole season, he’s been more impactful on Villa’s season than Haaland has on City’s.
“Haaland hasn’t scored as many as last season but City are still winning anyway and they still won games every week when he wasn’t there for three months.”
Haaland vs Watkins
Even though Watkins has played significantly more minutes than Haaland in the league this season, the pair still have the same total of combined goals and assists (32).
In addition to that, while the Norwegian has a higher percentage of shots on target (45.9% vs 44.8%) than the Aston Villa star, they have the same rate of goals per shot (0.18) and goals per shot on target (0.4).
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Murphy has mentioned both of these strikers in regards to earning a place in his team of the season.
In our view, we feel that while the Englishman certainly deserves credit for his efforts in getting Villa into the top four, if Haaland can fire his team to another Premier League title, this would be a bigger achievement in addition to being the top goalscorer in the league for a second year in a row.
