Jamie Carragher has stated that Erling Haaland is “the ultimate luxury footballer” and added that he is not world class.
Haaland has a magnificent 82 goals in 90 games for City since the start of last season and Carragher recognizes that he is a “world-class finisher”.
However, the 23-year-old has faced frequent criticism for his all-round game, with Carragher claiming he must change if he wants to win the Ballon d’Or in the future or sign for Real Madrid.
Carragher reflected on how Haaland has been dominated by defenders such as William Saliba, Virgil van Dijk and Antonio Rudiger. Haaland failed to score in City’s 3-3 draw against Rudiger’s Real Madrid in the Champions League this week. Arsenal’s Saliba and Liverpool’s van Dijk also kept him out last month.
Furthermore, Carragher stated that Haaland remains a work in progress regarding his actions outside the penalty area.
Jamie Carragher has stated that Manchester City’s Erling Haaland is the luxury footballer par excellence
Carragher says Haaland needs to add more to his game if he wants to earn move to Real Madrid
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Carragher wrote in The Telegraph: ‘Erling Haaland is the luxury footballer par excellence. He is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest goalscorers, but he has not yet become a world-class player.
According to Carragher, Haaland cannot be said to be on the same level as Premier League legends Thierry Henry, Luis Suarez or Harry Kane in terms of his overall game.
He wrote: ‘To be truly world class you need more than one all-encompassing trait. Think of the best Premier League strikers of the last 20 years (Thierry Henry, Luis Suárez or Harry Kane) and they had or have a huge influence on the most important games, whether they scored or not. “All of them could play for any team in the world and contribute more than just an impressive number of goals.”
“Overall, Haaland is not yet at the same level as these forwards, his three most recent matches against top centre-backs confirm that, for all his brilliance inside the penalty area, he is a work in progress outside of it.
‘Virgil van Dijk, William Saliba and Antonio Rudiger intimidated Haaland, the much-hyped clashes between top defenders and a goal machine were nothing like that. They were more of a mismatch than a confrontation.’
Carragher added that Haaland will need to adapt his game to be able to compete with the likes of Kylian Mbappé.
Carragher wrote: “If your only interest is breaking scoring records, you don’t need to change anything. If you have serious ambitions to win the Ballon d’Or and play for Real Madrid, you may have a problem. You need to add more to your game to take that leap and seriously challenge his rival for the title of best player of his generation, Kylian Mbappé.
Regarding his game in general, Carragher reflected that Haaland does not put enough pressure on his rival and commented that he has a lot of work to do when compared to players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Carragher says Haaland has a lot of work to do to challenge PSG’s Kylian Mbappé
Roy Keane described Haaland’s overall game as almost like that of a League Two player after City’s draw against Arsenal.
“The levels of his general game are very poor, and not just today, I think his general attacks, headers or whatever in terms of facing goal are the best in the world,” he said on Sky Sports. Post-match coverage.
“But his overall game for a player like that is so poor, not just today, that I think he has to improve to make him almost like a League Two player.”
“That’s how I see it. His overall game has to improve and that’s how it will be in the coming years. This striker has been brilliant, fantastic. But he has to improve his game in every way.”
