Joey Barton has hinted at the fact that Erling Haaland was anonymous for Manchester City in their 1-1 draw against Liverpool.
Stewart Robson claimed that the 23-year-old “didn’t do enough” to get on the ball against Jurgen Klopp’s side and as a result, he felt that Kevin De Bruyne’s performance was impacted.
After the contest, Jamie Carragher went as far as to claim that Virgil van Dijk is better as a defender than Erling Haaland is at being a striker.
Joey Barton suggests Manchester City goalscorer Erling Haaland was invisible against Liverpool
Being the superstar that he is, the £375,000-a-week (Sport Rac) man will naturally grab the headlines after his forgettable display at Anfield.
However, the same can be said about a majority of Haaland’s teammates, who were well below their usual standards in the biggest game of their season.
Joey Barton seemed to suggest that Erling Haaland was nowhere to be seen for Manchester City as they dropped points against Liverpool.
“Man City would have been better if Erling Haaland had played. Young Jarell Quansah had him in his sky rocket. Great game”, he wrote on X.
Erling Haaland did as much as he could
While Joey Barton has focused on Erling Haaland not being at his best against Liverpool, in our view, he did as much as he could for Manchester City on a tough day for his side.
On several occasions, the Norwegian goalscorer’s first touch and hold-up play was top-class as he brought others into play, such as Kevin De Bruyne for his left-footed shot in the first half.
However, City struggled to maintain long spells of possession and often, they simply seemed to blindly boot the ball out of danger, which meant Haaland was not even allowed to contest with the hosts’ defenders.
In addition, the visitors also barely created any chances for Erling Haaland to get on the end of, which makes the sole criticism of him from Joey Barton quite harsh, in our view.
