Manchester City are no strangers when it comes to playing a lot of games throughout the season.
Having won multiple domestic and European trophies over recent years, Pep Guardiola sees his players feature in a significant number of matches every year.
Now that their latest season has got underway, one player in the City squad who has played a prominent role in the club’s successes has been accused by a pundit of sometimes going missing in certain games.
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Jay Bothroyd says Erling Haaland relies too much on service from Man City teammates
Despite seeing Erling Haaland score his 91st goal in his 100th City appearance in their recent 2-0 win over Chelsea, Jay Bothroyd had this to say on a recent edition of the Optus Sport Football Podcast about why he thinks the striker isn’t on the same level as one of the best players in the world.
He said: “It’s not so much about the Premier League. When you’re playing in the Premier League for Man City, you’re going to win most games.
“You’re going to get on the score sheet in most games because you get so many chances created for you.
“That’s not what I care about. I care about when you play against Real Madrid. I care about when you play against Arsenal, Liverpool, the big games.
“He’s never scored in the final and that’s what I’m looking at. It’s not always the goals. And I always say he’s a great, great goal scorer. He’ll probably go down as one of the best goalscorers in history.
“But in terms of a football player, in terms of an all-round striker, he can’t be mentioned in the same breath as [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Thierry] Henry, and players like that.
“Because he can’t score his own goals. He relies on service. When he gets service, he’ll score all day long. As soon as he doesn’t get service, you don’t see him. He’s anonymous.”
Haaland plays a key role for City
Since arriving at the Etihad Stadium from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth £51m back in 2022, not only has Haaland scored as many goals as he has, but he has also won multiple team trophies and individual awards.
Looking back over the recent win at Chelsea, the Norwegian only had 17 touches of the ball across the 90 minutes but still managed to make an impact when it mattered by opening the scoring to bag his first goal of the campaign.
In fact, Micah Richards recently said that City will win the league again if Haaland is able to stay fit throughout the campaign.
In terms of Bothroyd’s point about Haaland relying too much on service from his teammates, if he’s able to continue scoring goals on a regular basis despite not being too involved in general play, this should still keep him at the level as being seen as one of the best strikers in the world.
