Manchester City No.9 Erling Haaland has now been the subject of a bizarre rant from Dutch football pundit Valentijn Driessen.
The 60-year-old launched the attack when speaking on Today Inside.
So, what was said about Erling Haaland? Let’s take a look…
What’s the story?
Well, this is utterly ridiculous.
Driessen – who is actually Head of Football at De Telegraaf – argued that Haaland should not have won the Ballon d’Or ahead of Lionel Messi, as he “can’t even play football” at Manchester City.
The Dutchman said: “He can’t even play football at City.”
When one colleague responded by stating Haaland’s goalscoring record, Driessen quipped: “Yes, that may be the case, but that is against clubs like Fulham, Bournemouth and Brentford.”
What a load of nonsense.
The Premier League is arguably the hardest division in Europe, and goals against any side – let alone Fulham and Brentford, who are decent teams – should not be dismissed so easily.
Either way, the statement itself is not even accurate.
Haaland scored significant goals against Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal to help secure a historic treble for Manchester City last season.
In total, the Norway international remarkably netted 52 goals in 53 appearances – while also providing nine assists.
The notion that Haaland is not a good footballer – just because he excels at finishing – is simply ridiculous.
Recently, the 23-year-old himself even called Norwegian news outlet TV2 “clowns” after they mocked his run of three games without a goal, which suggests the criticism sometimes gets to the Norwegian, understandably.
Erling Haaland is doing his talking on the pitch for Manchester City
People can say what they like about Haaland, but he is still delivering the goods for Pep Guardiola.
Amid a barrage of strange criticism this season, the Manchester City No.9 has still scored 13 goals in just 15 appearances.
If this is what Haaland is capable of when supposedly struggling – according to large sections of the media – just imagine what will happen when he finds his rhythm.
