Peter Crouch has revealed that despite Erling Haaland ’s electric start to life at Manchester City, he does have one major concern - that the Norwegian is making him look “s***”.
The striker has enjoyed one of the best-ever starts in the Premier League having arrived from Borussia Dortmund in the summer. Before missing last weekend’s slender 1-0 victory over Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, he had racked up an astounding 17 goals in just 11 league matches.
Amid that stunning start, Crouch has admitted that he holds one concern about the 22-year-old’s form - that he is actually making the former Liverpool and Tottenham man look worse than he was.
The ex-forward enjoyed a hugely successful career having netted 199 club goals for the likes of Liverpool, Spurs, Portsmouth and Stoke City, whilst he also got on the scoresheet on 22 occasions for England.
Speaking on his self-titled podcast, the 41-year-old said: “My issue with Haaland is, J [Jermain Defoe], I feel like the way he’s going about his goalscoring and stuff is making certainly me look a bit s***. He’s destroying all records.”
One of Crouch’s former club and international teammates, Defoe, has also given his thoughts on Haaland’s electric start to life with City. Speaking with Crouch, he hailed the Norwegian for the way he goes about his goalscoring assignments and suggested that his numbers are “frightening”.
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“Look at Haaland, you see him in the box, his timing is perfect,” Defoe said. “Everything is just so relaxed, just delays his movement and just goes bang. Whether it goes near post or far post and it comes in and he just finishes it.
“That’s natural to have that change of speed and have that sort of intelligence as well to know where to be in the box. On top of all of that, be so calm in front of goal. Frightening.”
He continued: “If he’s getting three good chances a game, he’s taking all three. You always fancy him to score.”
Haaland will certainly be hoping to get back on the scoresheet should he be passed fit to take on Fulham at the Etihad Stadium. He missed the wins over Leicester and Sevilla in the Champions League with a foot injury.
Pep Guardiola seemed optimistic about the forward returning to the side. Speaking in his pre-match press conference, the Spaniard said of Haaland: “He’s much better. We will decide today (Friday) [if he can play against Fulham]. It’s a good step, he starts to train, and we have training this afternoon and we will see.”
