Manchester City have several players who are considered up there with the very best the Premier League has ever seen.
For instance, Rico Lewis hailed Kyle Walker as the Premier League’s best-ever right-back.
Tony Cascarino once named Kevin De Bruyne as one of the three greatest players he has ever seen in the English top-flight.
The likes of David Silva, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany would also be brought up amongst the absolute greats as Manchester City have had players who have raised the standards of the Premier League as a whole.
The likes of Rodri, Ederson Moraes, Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias are also players who are on their way to legendary status as far as Premier League football goes, if they have not attained such universal status so far.
It seems like the list is endless as City have simply had far too many stalwarts over the years and continue to.
Stephen Warnock makes bold Man City superstar claim
With how Erling Haaland has redefined the standards of goalscoring in the Premier League since his arrival, his name seems set to be named amongst the best of the best sooner rather than later.
Before the £51 million man’s arrival, Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min shared the Golden Boot with 23 goals in the 2021/2022 season.
While Salah also broke the record for the most goals (32) in a single season and scored an impressive 22 in the following campaign to score 54 goals in two seasons, Haaland scored 63 in two campaigns while missing several games through injury.
As the 24-year-old has started the ongoing season on fire, Stephen Warnock was asked whether he is the greatest striker in Premier League history.
Warnock told Sky Sports that as a finisher, Haaland is the greatest of all time to have played in the Premier League.
“In terms of finishing, yes. In terms of all-round game, perhaps not. I think, I personally prefer a Thierry Henry, I think he was just an incredible striker, great goals, ability to run you but I said this last week, he’ll smash [Alan] Shearer’s record if he stays here in the Premier League.”
“He’ll absolutely obliterate that. Shearer will get nowhere near what he can set. In terms of finishing, he’s just hungry. He’s desperate to score goals. He is in an exceptional team and that is one of the things.”
Stephen Warnock was also asked whether Haaland only scores as many goals as he does because he plays for a brilliant Manchester City sdie.
“You’re only as good as the service provided to you. Now I watch Leicester versus Aston Villa at the weekend and there was an opportunity where Ollie Watkins went through in a one-v-one and ‘keeper saved it, wasn’t clinical enough and that was the way it was.”
“So, listen, he doesn’t score every single opportunity. He gets seven or eight opportunities a game and he is very clinical. But you go back to Dominic Calvert-Lewin when he was at Everton and he had that purple patch, he had James Rodriguez providing for him, he had Lucas Digne providing for him, he had crosses for him time and time again.”
Warnock concluded that even in an inferior team, Haaland would do the business, even if his goalscoring numbers would not be as high as they have been at the Etihad Stadium.
“That is because you’re only as good as the service being provided to you. People have purple patches in and around who they’re playing with. Listen, he’s clinical but would he do it at a lesser team in the Premier League? He would, he wouldn’t score as many because they wouldn’t get as many chances but he’s brilliant.”
Alan Shearer also labelled Haaland as “amazing” as he continues to baffle viewers around the world with his exceptional goalscoring prowess.
Haaland is certainly up there with the best
Considering the whole host of phenomenal strikers to have played in the Premier League, it is a challenge to name the best finisher out of a bunch of incredible marksmen.
The likes of Sergio Aguero, Thierry Henry, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez looked like they could score every type of goal.
But Haaland has demonstrated that so can he and at a rate no other number nine has in Premier League history.
Perhaps the Norwegian will be able to solidify his claim as the league’s greatest-ever finisher the more time he spends at City.
But considering how clinical Haaland is and the rate at which he scores goal, he merits being named with some of the best finishers to have played in England.
The fact that the 24-year-old is already being crowned as the greatest-ever finisher in Premier League history highlights how special a striker he is.
