England legend Jamie Carragher says Manchester City didn’t want to sign striker Erling Haaland as he doesn’t fit their style of play.
Carragher believes the Citizens manager Pep Guardiola didn’t want to bring the tall hitman on board because he doesn’t suit the club’s philosophy.
This comes as the Norwegian is struggling to find his best form despite netting 25 goals in 20 league matches during his maiden campaign in the English Premier League.
“Haaland’s strength is the opposite of what City’s strength is. City were successful because they retained the ball, they had rhythm, they had fluidity in their game and they shared goals,” he said to TalkSPORT.
“Now you’ve got a player who a lot of the time in their matches hardly takes part, it’s almost like playing with ten men. I don’t care how many goals he scores or how many hat-tricks he scores, you need to see how many goals the team scores. I think they’ve scored fewer goals at the same stage of last season and have got less points.
“I don’t think that Haaland is a player that fits into the team because he’s everything the team isn’t. He’s good when you play quickly – at (Borussia) Dortmund he scored his goals after they turned over the ball, played three or four passes and the ball was in the back of the net.”
The reigning EPL champions are trailing log leaders Arsenal by five points and Carragher insisted that he never thought the striker would agree to join the champions.
“With City, they pass the ball 30/40 times before breaking the team down and that’s not his game. I don’t think long-term he will improve City’s team and that’s their biggest problem,” added Carragher.
“I never thought he was going to go to City because he’s a player Guardiola never wanted. Every centre forward was sent away from Barcelona, at times he played Robert Lewandowski on the left at Bayern Munich, and Gabriel Jesus played out wide most of the time.
“Maybe they thought ‘there’s a player who we get for £50-60million and he’s twice or treble that, we have to buy him’. Would he be a benefit for Chelsea or Manchester United? Yes, I think so. Would he have scored the same goals for them? I don’t know, probably not because at City he gets more chances than for these teams but I don’t think he’s a good fit for Manchester City.”
Main Image: Erling Haaland & pep Guardiola/TheMirror
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