Erling Haaland is the talk of the town once again this week, after scoring another hat-trick for Manchester City.
The Norwegian put on a finishing clinic against West Ham United at the London Stadium on Saturday night, which followed three more goals the weekend before against Ipswich Town.
Haaland is already up to seven goals for the season and looks like he seriously means business.
He is nice and refreshed after a summer of no international football, and Haaland is ready to hunt down more records in 2024/25.
His latest feat at West Ham saw him go level with Thierry Henry for hat-tricks scored in the Premier League (8), which is simply amazing to consider, with Henry arguably the finest player ever to grace the English top-flight.
But would Haaland still be so good if he played for a team like Manchester United?
Graeme Souness doesn’t think Erling Haaland’s level would drop if he played for a different team
Haaland is an incredible goalscorer.
He may often finish games with the fewest number of touches of all players who started. But that will never matter if he does what he is paid to do and City win.
Some do still wonder if City don’t actually use Haaland as best they could.
But it really is difficult to argue against how Pep Guardiola has used him when you look at his incredible record of 97 goals scored in 102 appearances.
Haaland, of course, benefits immensely from having world-class players around him.
But for pundit Graeme Souness, Haaland would likely still perform to these high levels even if he played in a lower-quality side.
He said on talkSPORT earlier today: “Would he get more goals if he played in a team that didn’t have so much possession? I think, yeah there’s a chance of that.
“If he was playing for Man United, he’d be getting in races with people because they’d be defending a lot more. Man City defend on the halfway line.
“If he was playing for a team that didn’t have as much ball as Man City, the opposition would be further up the field, which would give him more grass to run into. Balls over the top, he’s going to beat nine out of 10 centre-halves.
Haaland would still be incredible in other teams
Haaland is the best striker in the world right now playing for Manchester City.
But he would probably have the same title even if he played for a different team. Because this is a very special player with remarkable physical and goalscoring qualities, the like of which we have not seen for a very long time, perhaps since prime Brazilian Ronaldo.
Haaland – who Kevin De Bruyne says is the most prolific striker he’s ever played with – obviously thrives playing in a team packed with world-class talents.
But even if he played for a ‘lesser’ side, he would still put up amazing numbers. Souness does raise an interesting point about teams defending higher up which would potentially create more space in behind for Haaland. But he certainly does more than OK in this City system.
Whether he would shine for this current United side though is up for debate, with the Red Devils already all at sea under Erik ten Hag this season.
