Ally McCoist has claimed that Manchester City have a player whose overall game is “bang average.”
It is fair to state that to make such a claim about any City player is controversial, considering how much silverware they have won over the years.
Unless one is performing at the absolute elite level, it would be impossible for Pep Guardiola’s men to dominate English football in particular like they do if one of the first-team players were “bang average.”
Ally McCoist says Erling Haaland has a “bang average” all-round game
On several occasions, fans and pundits alike tend to lament at Manchester City’s strength in depth.
But simultaneously, to make such claims would indicate that what the club has achieved under Pep Guardiola perhaps is not as straightforward as many like to make it out to be.
After Roy Keane compared Erling Haaland to a League Two player after his quiet outing in Manchester City’s 0-0 draw against Arsenal, Ally McCoist agreed with the Irishman.
“I’m Team [Roy] Keane. I think it’s bang average. I genuinely do”, he said on talkSPORT.
“I’d take it a step further. I’ve never seen an out-and-out goalscorer not want to get involved more than Erling Haaland and I understand it. He’ll link up because you know, he has to sometimes and if you watch him, he just positions himself for a finish.”
Ally McCoist pinpointed how the fact that the likes of Harry Kane, Ivan Toney and even Kai Havertz have a complete skillset to offer is a “problem” for Erling Haaland in terms of how he is judged.
“Unfortunately, the thing for Erling Haaland is people like Harry Kane getting about now, people like Ivan Toney getting about now, I’m not comparing as a centre-forward and a goalscorer but Kai Havertz can play a number nine role and drop in areas and pockets and play and link up.”
“Kane does it superbly, Toney does it very, very well. Havertz, I don’t think is an out-and-out centre-forward but in recent weeks, he’s done it well.”
“That’s the problem that Haaland has now because he’s not just getting judged with his goals, he’s getting judged with his link-up and all-round play.”
“It should be a lot better.”
Ally McCoist went on to claim that Pep Guardiola would want Erling Haaland to make huge improvements with the ball at his feet.
“I would be intrigued to hear the conversation between Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland. The one thing you want to do as a player, you want to keep on improving. You must improve and if you’re not improving under a coach like Guardiola, you’ve got a problem.”
“Guardiola will absolutely, 100 per cent be delighted when a ball’s in the box and Haaland’s on the end of it. But he’ll want more in terms of linking up, in terms of positioning himself to take passes, to receive balls, of course he will.”
McCoist concluded, “The first thing I’d say is there’s nobody and I mean nobody in that City team who can do what Haaland does. So, let’s put that to bed right away. He’s the best in the business at what he does. Right, but you’ve [Alex Crook] asked me a question whether he can get better and I will say yes.”
“But you can also ask me, [Phil] Foden can score goals, they can all score goals to be brutally honest with you but nobody can be as clinical as Erling Haaland so that means strength but can he work on his game? Of course, he can.”
Even Rio Ferdinand claimed that the 23-year-old’s all-round game has never been particularly impressive.
The Harry Kane example when comparing him to Erling Haaland has been proven wrong
Perhaps Harry Kane is the best example of a striker who is quite different to the £51 million man in terms of his playmaking ability, comfortability in deeper areas and technical soundness.
But at Bayern Munich, often, Kane has tried to drop deeper to no avail, especially in games like against Borussia Dortmund recently or their 3-0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen, for all of his completeness, he had little to no impact on proceedings.
In fact, the 30-year-old would arguably impact Bayeern much more if he stayed inside or closer to the box, much like Haaland does to be a focal point for his side.
Even if there is a demand for Erling Haaland to improve his game, as Ally McCoist stresses, the England captain’s struggles in several games have shown that at the end of the day, if a striker is not fed the ball in the right areas, it is unlikely they will impact the game.
Even technical phenoms like Karim Benzema and Sergio Aguero ultimately needed service to play their best football.
The same goes for Harry Kane and Erling Haaland and to deviate from this reality and to constantly fixate and slate the latter’s game is unfair, especially when judging his display against Arsenal.
