Ale Moreno explained why he was disappointed with how Erling Haaland fared for Manchester City against Manchester United during the FA Cup final.
Erling Haaland had just 21 touches of the ball, as per Sofascore during his side’s 2-1 defeat on Saturday. But the number of touches Haaland of the ball has in a game tend to be quite low.
The £51 million man only took two shots during the Manchester Derby as he was shut out by the United defence.
Ale Moreno names what was “most disappointing” about Erling Haaland against Man United
Considering Haaland has scored three goals in his last two outings against the Red Devils, he was expected to have an impact on proceedings.
Since joining Manchester City in the summer of 2022, the Norwegian has scored in three out of six games he has faced Manchester United.
Two games where he has failed to score are the FA Cup finals between both clubs in successive years.
But Ale Moreno felt Manchester City striker Erling Haaland was dominated by Lisandro Martinez against Manchester United — which he criticised.
Moreno said via ESPN FC: “Honestly, beyond the fact that he disappeared today, what I thought was most disappointing is the fact that if I’m Erling Haaland and one of my assets as a player, one of my strengths is how physical I can be, my size, how big of a striker I am and that Lisandro Martinez is half my size, I should be dominating this guy.”
“I should be able to hold the ball up. I should be able to dictate how this guy’s going to play defensively, in the sense of my frame and yet, he was getting dominated physically by Lisandro Martinez.”
Man City striker Erling Haaland is an easy target in this instance
In our view, where it is easy to disagree with Ale Moreno is that Erling Haaland and Lisandro Martinez were not in many isolated situations as Manchester City lost to Manchester United.
At times, Martinez did get the better off him.
But for the most part, the Argentine was able to extinguish any danger inside the box as City’s final ball was far too poor.
Going forward, as a whole, the Sky Blues players constantly either lost their footing, played a wayward pass or created little to no chances.
The likes of creative players such as Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva were either too sloppy or lacked any inventiveness in the final third.
Haaland was the least of City’s problems, they failed to do the basics, both defensively and offensively.