Julian Alvarez's workrate has been praised by Paul Parker, but the former Manchester United defender claims he will not start many games for Manchester City despite his World Cup heroics.
Alvarez was one of the success stories of the Qatar World Cup as Argentina surged to a first triumph since 1986. City's 22-year-old striker started Argentina's first two games on the bench, but once he came into the side he had a huge impact.
He scored four goals including two in the semi-final defeat of Croatia, while off the ball his energy and running helped knit together the technical brilliance of Lionel Messi with the industry and tenacity of his teammates.
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Alvarez has not returned to City yet, but when he does he will be the only World Cup winner in Pep Guardiola's squad. However, despite that and his excellent performances in Qatar, Parker believes that presence of Erling Haaland will prove too big an obstacle to overcome.
"Julian Alvarez is a great player but I can’t see him being a regular starter for Man City as long as they have Erling Haaland," Parker told BeMyBet.
"Alvarez is a real workhorse. He is not lightning quick and he is not the same kind of goalscorer as Haaland but he works really hard.”
"But Pep Guardiola does't like to play with two strikers and because of that, I think he will have a very tough time. But he will get his time on the pitch and he needs to accept that. He is young and he has great potential."
Against Liverpool last week Haaland scored his 24th goal of the season in just his 19th match. By comparison, Alvarez has scored seven in 20 outings, although many of those have come off the bench.
The two strikers have played alongside each other on a few occasions this season, but there is no denying that Guardiola prefers to play with a single striker flanked by two wingers.
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