Joleon Lescott has revealed who he would rather have in his team: Erling Haaland or Harry Kane.
As two of the world’s best strikers, aside from them being constantly compared, a question that is frequently posed is which out of the two players would fans and pundits rather have in their team.
With Haaland and Kane scoring 38 and 44 goals respectively in all competitions this season, there is no wrong answer.
Lescott reveals who he’d rather have in his team: Haaland or Kane
It seems like Erling Haaland and Harry Kane will compete for the title of the best striker in the world for many more years.
Last season, Manchester City’s number nine outscored the Englishman but this campaign, the latter has won the European Golden Boot.
Next season, perhaps the Norwegian international could get one over Kane, as he was injured for a significant chunk of the campaign.
Joleon Lescott, who played against Harry Kane has sided with Erling Haaland as the player he would rather have in his team.
On Football’s Greatest with Jeff Stelling, he said: “From what I would want, I want the mentality of [Erling] Haaland that just wants to score. Like Harry Kane would score goals, if you create chances, they both score similar numbers of goals.”
Joleon Lescott claimed that Erling Haaland also has a wider variety of goals in his locker than Harry Kane.
“But the things that are different I think is the mentality of Haaland and also, he probably has a couple more variety of goals. I think there’s the one I remember was, or the two, there was one against Southampton and one against Dortmund that I think his physical attributes allow him to score.”
“I think there’s only probably Zlatan [Ibrahimović] that scores similar goals due to their physical stature. So, I would go Haaland, not even for the physical element, but the mentality of I want my striker to only want to score.”
Joleon Lescott claimed that as he wishes for his striker, like Erling Haaland to be solely focused on scoring goals, Harry Kane is similar to Sergio Aguero in aiming to be heavily involved in proceedings.
“I’m not saying Haaland only does that and wants to do that but having played with Sergio [Aguero] and knowing that he’s equally as important as someone like Wayne Rooney that wants to do a lot more, I want my strikers to do that.”
When quizzed about how it could be Harry Kane argued that he can both score and create goals as opposed to Erling Haaland, Joleon Lescott replied: “Listen, whatever you want your [number] 10, nine to do, Harry Kane will be able to do that. But if you ask Harry Kane to do that, I think you’re taking a lot from what he brings to the team. Haven’t seen many games at Bayern but listen, I’m sure he’s enjoying it but he wants to be involved.”
“You can see that and he’s got the capabilities to be involved, which if I’m managing a team like Man City, you’re a top team, I don’t want him to be involved. I just want you to score. I’ve got my midfielders, I’ve got my Phil Foden’s, I’ve got my Kevin De Bruyne’s to be involved.”
Haaland has the type of mentality that could make him the best goalscorer in history
In our view, it is difficult to disagree with Joleon Lescott, as the singleminded mentality Erling Haaland has towards scoring goals could mean he surpasses Harry Kane and many others in history.
So much so that Haaland’s singlemindedness could lead him to becoming the greatest goalscorer of all time as he seems to have a rare mindset.
A big part of Harry Kane’s game, much like Sergio Aguero, as Joleon Lescott pointed out is focused towards getting involved in build-up play. While that is an excellent attribute to have for a striker, Haaland’s nigh-on obsession with scoring goals is one of the main reasons why the numbers he puts up could surpass the goalscoring greats.