Former Manchester City striker Clive Allen has believes Erling Haaland is more elegant than he is given credit for.
City struck gold last year when they completed the signing of the Norwegian from Borussia Dortmund.
Everyone knew he would score goals in a team that creates so many chances.
But few probably predicted he’d finish his very first season in England with 52 goals to his name.
Haaland broke all kinds of records last term, and the challenge for him now of course is to replicate those standards.
It won’t be easy. But you’d not put it past Haaland to do it, considering his hunger to better himself.
Clive Allen hails Erling Haaland as the perfect striker – and talks up his elegance
Haaland was a topic of conversation on the latest podcast episode of The Debrief.
The talk was about Harry Kane, whom Tottenham Hotspur could yet lose this summer.
Allen, who played for both Spurs and City, was then asked to comment on Haaland – and he could not hide how impressed he has been with him.
He also mentioned something that many people never talk about with the striker – his elegance.
He said: “He has everything you would look for in an atypical centre-forward.
“He has physicality, pace, he’s good in the air. He has a great awareness of players around him. He’s a leftie, which always for some reason makes a player look elegant. Even (with) his size, the way he runs and carries the ball.
“His involvement with his teammates. Bringing players into the play, his awareness of what’s going on around him. And obviously, he knows how to put the ball in the back of the net.
“He just about has everything you would want. If you’re looking for a centre-forward, Erling Haaland is the perfect example.”
To say Haaland is elegant is probably questionable – but he is most definitely effective
Elegant is perhaps not the word most would use to describe Haaland.
But he certainly does not have that clunkiness you would expect from a man his size (6ft 4in)
Haaland is a decent ball carrier. But there are many players in the City squad that are better than him at that, and more elegant.
But that’s obviously not his game.
And besides, Haaland is – frighteningly – still only 22. There’s every chance that he will add grace to his ball carrying the longer he stays at City.
But for now, City fans will not mind him bulldozing players out of the way one bit.
