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Football

06th Feb 2023

Jamie Carragher suggests that Erling Haaland joined the wrong club

Callum Boyle

Haaland failed to have a shot on Sunday

Jamie Carragher has suggested that Erling Haaland “may have picked the wrong club” after Manchester City’s defeat away at Tottenham.

Haaland played the full 90 minutes as a lacklustre City side failed to take advantage of Arsenal losing at Everton the day before after Harry Kane’s record-breaking strike was the difference in north London.

After the game Carragher argued that Pep Guardiola’s side have become a “lesser team” after the arrival of a recognised number nine, despite the Norwegian scoring 31 goals in only 28 matches in all competitions.

City have scored the same amount of goals (53) as they did this time last season, but have conceded eight more (21) than they did 12 months ago (13).

“I’ve felt this season when he’s scored his goals, I think we’ve only seen 60 per cent of Haaland. You think of that goal he scored on the first game of the season against West Ham, the space in behind, he makes that run,” Carragher said on Sky Sports.

“I know that’s not there that often with the way City play. He’s come from a league and Borussia Dortmund where it’s a counter-attacking league and it’s end to end and you see that blistering pace. You don’t see it. He may have actually picked the wrong club to actually get the best out of him.

“We’re not seeing everything of Haaland and Manchester City now, not because of Haaland, you can say they’re a different team, but they’ve scored the exact same amount of goals.

“Haaland will still score 25 league goals and a lot of those are coming across and he’s putting it in. But we’re not seeing the full package of what this player can do because of the team that he’s gone to.”

Graeme Souness argued that Guardiola needs to do more to find a solution and appeared to pin the blame on Haaland’s teammates as oppose to the forward.

He said: “Haaland is a top, top striker if you look at his movement in the box. I’m surprised they don’t do it because the wide players they’ve got are more than capable of knowing where he is, knowing the areas to hit.

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