The ManicaPost
Gary Neville has described Erling Haaland as “truly unique”, believing the record-breaking Manchester City centre-forward to be a combination of Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo in their pomp.
Pep Guardiola has warned that Haaland’s second season at Manchester City could be even better than his first.
Haaland is on the brink of setting a new single-season Premier League goalscoring record after a sensational first campaign at the Etihad Stadium.
The prolific Norwegian netted his 34th goal of the champions’ 2022-23 league programme — and his 50th overall — in Sunday’s victory at Fulham.
That drew him level with joint competition record-holders Andy Cole and Alan Shearer and, with six games to play starting with Wednesday’s visit of West Ham, the 22-year-old looks certain to set a formidable new benchmark.
“We have become accustomed to watching Manchester City over the last few years and talking about the passing, possession, the brilliance of it,” said the Sky Sports pundit on the Gary Neville Podcast.
“But if you ever asked me who I would rather watch out of the two teams, I would rather have watched Jurgen Klopp’s style of play.
“But I love this version of Manchester City more than any other of the Pep Guardiola teams over the last four or five years. And that’s because of Haaland.
“He is a battering ram of a centre-forward with a brilliant finish and is something really special. If you are watching him play, you are watching something unique. It’s the same with Kevin De Bruyne, he is unique. But Haaland is truly unique.
“He’s a player that very rarely graces this league, they are normally at Barcelona or Real Madrid. In time gone by, maybe they would be at PSG. But very rarely do we have a player who would be considered in the top couple in the world as they arrive.
“We normally have players who emerge into that after signing in this league. It is usually that those players would then go into those aforementioned clubs. But Haaland is a world star, who has come as a world star and is performing like a world star.
“Haaland has got the finishing of Harry Kane, the power of Wayne Rooney, he is unbelievable. Even the Brazilian Ronaldo, the power that he had when he ran, the explosion off the mark. Haaland is like four players in one.
“During the season, many questioned and I was one of them: Does Pep actually like having a player like that? At times it has looked a little bit dysfunctional from how Pep likes to play.
“But it looks like that harmony is coming at the right point in the season where those moments where he delivers contribute so much more than when they had the perfection of everybody else that played.”
Why everything is clicking for Man City
When City beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in February, everybody expected Guardiola’s team to run away with the title from there.
But City handed initiative back to Arsenal by immediately drawing with Nottingham Forest.
The reigning champions avoided such a setback against Fulham on Sunday, but Neville believes that 1-1 draw at the City Ground three months ago was a wake-up call for City.
“I saw Ilkay Gundogan’s interview over the weekend and it really resonated with me,” he said. “He said the Nottingham Forest game woke them up and I get that.
“There’s a game where you go: ‘That’s enough now, enough of that rubbish. Conceding against one of the bottom teams in the league with two minutes to go?’ Well done to Nottingham Forest but that’s not what you do if you’re at the top of the league.
“That was the last game where Pep Guardiola was rotating and fidgeting around with his back four. Instead, it’s got really serious and they’ve had to switch on.
“That resonates with me. Sir Alex Ferguson was a rotator and would trust the squad but then he’d say: ‘Right this is it, we want seriousness and concentration’. And you’d really start to get serious. That’s what they’ve done: Manchester City have gotten serious about their work and Arsenal have wobbled.” — SKYsports.
