John Stones has had the pleasure of playing with Erling Haaland for a number of years now.
Previously, Stones also played with another outstanding striker in Sergio Aguero.
The presence of such deadly goalscorers at Manchester City would only have improved the Englishman as a centre-back.
The £47.5 million man will know more than most how special a player Haaland is.
Having trained and played with him, Stones must know the 24-year-old’s strengths and weaknesses like the back of his hand.
Stones reveals what he reckons annoys Haaland on the pitch
With several defenders having come up against the Norwegian international, they also must know how to frustrate him on the pitch.
Often, teams try to man-mark the two-time Premier League winner by surrounding several players around him.
The star striker demands a level of respect from the opposition that not many other forwards do.
During Manchester City’s 0-0 draw against Inter Milan, the Leeds-born marksman was marked very closely by the opposition defence at the Etihad Stadium.
The likes of Dan Burn and Fabian Schar did the same at St. James’ Park on Saturday as well.
Stones has claimed that in his view, being covered by so many defenders must frustrate Haaland.
In an interview with TNT Sports, the former Everton defender said: “I’m sure it can be frustrating for him as well for him. At times, when we watch the games back and we see how many people they try and get around him to stop him from getting on the ball or making runs in behind.”
“It is about us trying to find that free man or the guy in the better position, that’s again, as I said, we need to find the solution and find ways around how people try and stop us from being successful.”
“Erling’s [Haaland] been incredible and obviously, his goals speak for themselves and how he’s got on the scoresheet in the right moment.”
One of Guardiola’s main aims should to find Haaland solution
Haaland manages to remain effective, despite this being the case.
But as teams will continue to employ such a tactic against the City number nine, Pep Guardiola should take it upon himself to consider finding a solution to such a ploy as one of his main goals this campaign.
Once Haaland is given the space to be through on goal, more often than not, he finds the back of the net.
The former Borussia Dortmund frontman’s intelligent movement, incredible strength and searing pace will always give him an advantage over most centre-backs he is battling with.
But once managers like Simone Inzaghi and Eddie Howe set up as compactly as they have against Haaland, if Pep Guardiola can employ ploys to counter such a phenomenon, Manchester City could end up being massively rewarded.
