Ally McCoist has said that Erling Haaland is not the best player at Manchester City, while pinpointing that Ilkay Gundogan is better than him.
The Scottish pundit raised this point after he was quizzed about whether the Norwegian goalscorer is the best player coached by Pep Guardiola since Lionel Messi at Barcelona.
However, Ally McCoist could not disagree more, saying that Manchester City skipper Ilkay Gundogan is a better player than Erling Haaland.
Ally McCoist believes Ilkay Gundogan is better than Erling Haaland
Wayne Rooney would perhaps disagree as he believes that on form, the 22-year-old and not the £20 million (BBC Sport) is the ‘best footballer in the world.’
Ally McCoist, however claimed that Erling Haaland is not even the best player at Manchester City, with Ilkay Gundogan being superior to him whilst making his point.
“He’s not even the best player at Manchester City. He’s probably technically not in the best three players at Manchester City at this moment in time. So, is he the best player Pep [Guardiola] has coached since [Lionel] Messi”, he said on talkSPORT.
“Nonsense! Absolute nonsense. But don’t underestimate his value to Manchester City. But technically, he’s not on the same planet as David Silva, [Ilkay] Gundogan, certainly not [Kevin] De Bruyne, maybe even guys like Philipp Lahm.”
MCN View: The Manchester City No.9’s role continues to be undervalued
At the end of the day, even if Ilkay Gundogan is viewed as a superior player to Erling Haaland, the point raised by Ally McCoist just undervalues the brilliance of the latter.
Haaland is not merely a pure goalscorer that does so at the elite level; he is one of the best at the most key aspect of the sport in history at such a young age.
It seems like the importance of strikers is being underrated, merely due to players in deeper positions being more involved in build-up.
The truth is, the degree at which any player across any position performs is the determinant between who comes out on top.
Is any player in world football operating at the level Haaland has as a striker? There’s your answer.
