Erling Haaland relies on his Manchester City team-mates too much and doesn't create enough for himself in comparison to Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe.
That's an opinion held by former Argentina international Diego Milito, who believes Haaland "always needs service from his teammates" as Haaland struck his 19th goal of the season in City's 5-0 win over Copenhagen on Wednesday evening. The Norwegian averages a goal every 48 minutes and has already struck three hat-tricks in the Premier League - including one in the Manchester derby last week.
The 22-year-old has also chipped in with three assists and is showing exactly why Pep Guardiola signed him from Borussia Dortmund in the summer. Haaland's sense in front of goal to sniff out a chance is irreplaceable and he's producing the goods, with the forward already scoring 14 times in eight Premier League games.
However, Milito isn't quite convinced by Haaland as he doesn't solve the situation by himself, and has compared his situation to that of Mbappe. The Frenchman has already won the World Cup and a number of major honours during his early career so far.
Milito told La Gazzetta dello Sport : "I've always liked players more who can solve it themselves. Haaland, who is devastating, always needs service from his teammates. Mbappé can create goals by himself from nothing. But he knows how to give assists & find goals."
After City's huge win over United last weekend, Guardiola praised his no.9 and revealed how his creativity impressed him. Haaland, who also scored a hat-trick, set-up Phil Foden's second and third as City cruised to three points at the Etihad Stadium.
"What I like in the last period of the game is he is involved. He said 'I prefer to touch the ball five times and score five goals'. I don’t like that, I want him to touch the ball more and more," said Guardiola.
How many goals will Erling Haaland score this season? Let us know in the comments below!
"So he became a football player to score goals. I like that he's part more for the situations, but don’t forget his biggest talent is to put the ball in the net."
Putting the ball in the net is becoming easy for Haaland in this City team, but Guardiola insists he's done nothing to fine-tune those goalscoring instincts with his new centre-forward.
"What he has done today, Erling has done in Norway, in Austria and in Germany, that is the reality. He came and realised ‘oh, these guys, my mates, run like an animal and I have to do it too'," he said.
"Of course, the quality we have alongside him helps him to score goals. But what he has done, I didn’t teach him once. When the ball is right, and he attacks the box, how he moves behind the central defender away from the action, he has incredible instincts that the ball will arrive there and it comes from his mum and dad, he was born with that and just to help him produce more goals."
