Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has suggested that Erling Haaland may not be as prolific in front of goal next season for Manchester as he was during his debut Premier League campaign.
After arriving at the Etihad Stadium last summer from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth £51m, the striker then went on to score 52 goals in 53 appearances, with 36 of those goals coming in the Premier League, more than any other player in the division managed to score.
As the Norwegian now looks to take on his second season in Pep Guardiola’s side, one pundit has claimed that the centre-forward may not find it as straightforward as he did last term in regards to scoring goals.
Merson says Haaland may struggle to score next season
In a recent column for Sportskeeda, Merson had this to say about Haaland after predicting Harry Kane to win the Golden Boot next season.
He said: “Erling Haaland stopped scoring goals towards the end of last season, didn’t he? I’m not sure if teams have snuffed him out.”
Even though the 23-year-old scored an impressive amount of goals throughout his debut campaign in England, he failed to find the net in any of his five final matches of the season including the FA Cup and Champions League finals.
So while Merson may feel that this could lead into him struggling to be as effective as he was last season in front of goal this time around, we feel that the experience he now has of playing in the Premier League will help him go again and improve his all-round game.
Regardless of the incredibly high bar Haaland has set himself in terms of goals scored in one season, we predict that the City star will want to do all he can to score as many goals as he can, even if opposition defenders have a better idea of how to play against him.
