Manchester City have had a perfect start to their latest Premier League season.
With three games played, City have won all of them, putting them at the top of the table with Liverpool on the same amount of points.
However, with Pep Guardiola’s side scoring more goals than the Reds, they headed into the first international break of the season in first place.
Now though, one former Liverpool star has shared his thoughts on one particular figure in the City squad who has made a significant impact in the campaign so far.
John Barnes says he could never play like Erling Haaland does for Man City
Appearing in a recent edition of The Rest Is Football, John Barnes had this to say when asked by Gary Lineker who he enjoys watching in today’s game.
He said: “I do love Man City the way they play as well. Look at the Man City players.
“And of course, [Erling] Haaland is like a throwback, to your day, whereby you’re happy to score a hat-trick and touch the ball five times.
“I could never do that.”
Haaland doesn’t need too many touches to impact the game
Despite starting all of City’s three Premier League games this season, the 24-year-old has only had 51 touches of the ball, leaving 244 players in the division with more.
However, the striker has still managed to score more goals (7) than the majority of clubs in the league at this stage of the campaign.
This shows that the Norwegian doesn’t need too many touches of the ball in games to have an impact.
In fact, Darren Bent said earlier this week that it’s better for Haaland to score goals rather than drop deep and get more touches of the ball just for the sake of it.
Bearing in mind how Barnes was a winger rather than a striker like Haaland, it would make more sense for him to want to be on the ball more often and make things happen rather than predominantly be a deadly finisher like the City star.
