Erling Haaland has admitted his performance against Tottenham which drew criticism from Jamie Carragher was "horrible" but insisted it only gave him more motivation to do better.
The Norwegian striker was virtually non-existent in Spurs' 1-0 win over the title chasers last month, when Haaland was overshadowed by record-breaker Harry Kane, who almost moved to Manchester City ahead of him. Haaland failed to attempt a single shot against Spurs during the match - the first time he had recorded that unwanted feat since September 2020.
Sky Sports pundit Carragher was pretty damning with his assessment of Haaland after the game, even questioning whether the 22-year-old had made the wrong move by joining City instead of the numerous other clubs who were chasing his signature. Carragher went further by suggesting City's style of play did not suit the superstar and they were only getting about 60 per cent of Haaland's full capabilities as a result.
Speaking to Alan Shearer for Amazon Prime Video, Haaland has now admitted: "Yeah of course [it was frustrating]. I will not stand here and say it was a good game of us or a good game of me because it wasn't. It was a horrible game. So of course I get angry.
"The way I react is I speak with the people, I try to play better with, or we have to practice in training, we have to speak with the manager and these kind of things.
"But of course, it's not fun not having one shot on target. Of course not. But yeah, that's life sometimes. Then it's even better motivation to go into the next game."
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Haaland's shot-shy performance came amid a mini goal drought where he has scored just twice in his last seven games - a severe change of pace from his scintillating start to the campaign. He was on target last time out against Bournemouth, however, while boss Pep Guardiola has insisted it is "our fault" if Haaland is not finding the net or getting on the ball more often.
Carragher opened a fierce debate with his comments on Sky Sports when he said of Haaland: "He may've actually picked the wrong club to actually get the best out of him. He's scored 25 Premier League goals, but Man City as a team have scored the same amount of goals, and they're conceding more, and it's far easier to counter attack them as well, so they're a different team, and a lesser team with Erling Haaland in the team."
"I'm not criticising him," he continued. "What I’m saying is him as a full package when we're talking about one of the best players in the world, I think he's that good he's scored 25 goals but we’re only seeing 60, 70 per cent of him because we're not seeing that power or blistering pace."
Guardiola was pretty stern in his defence after Haaland failed to make an impact against RB Leipzig, hitting just one shot on target while not touching the ball in the opposition box until over an hour into the match. "It’s our fault, not Erling's. Erling has [been] impressive all season," Guardiola said.
"I don’t need metrics. When I finish the game, one second later I know if he was involved or not and who should be more involved or not. I don’t need numbers or metrics, I know exactly. He moved well.
"Of course he will improve, we talked about that many times, it's going to happen. Striker is the most difficult position in the world because they have two players just focusing on him and now with Erling he has more. It’s not easy to do that."
