Former Molde scout John Vik has revealed how Liverpool missed out on the chance to sign Erling Haaland after misjudging the striker as a target man.
The Reds are claimed to be one of several Premier League sides - including Manchester United and Arsenal - who were monitoring the striker during his teenage years in Norway in which he scored 14 goals in 39 Eliteserien appearances. Haaland instead moved to the Austrian Bundesliga with RB Salzburg before a breakthrough 2019/2020 season in which the Norwegian scored 28 goals in 22 games across all competitions.
Since that moment, Haaland has been on the radar of the world's top clubs, quickly becoming one of the most deadly strikers in Europe. The 22-year-old scored 86 goals in 89 games for Borussia Dortmund and became the fastest player to reach 20 Champions League goals - it took him a ridiculous 14 games. And Reds fans will no doubt be disappointed to hear they could have potentially enjoyed his goals at Anfield, but for scouts misjudging him as a target man.
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“I think they (the English scouts) looked at him as a target man because he was so big,” former Molde scout Vik told the Athletic. “I kept telling them, ‘He’s not a target man – if you’re going to judge him that way, you’re going to be disappointed’.
“I remember one occasion when the team were out in Spain. I was with some of my colleagues from Premier League clubs and I remember saying, ‘I have to repeat myself, guys, don’t judge him as a target man, you have to look beyond that. He runs in between, he chases space, he’s fantastic in the box, he’s that kind of player’.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Am I the guy who is getting it wrong? Am I seeing this the wrong way?
“But there has always been this perception with some English clubs that a striker needs to look a certain way, and that a centre-half needs to look a certain way, and you need a certain frame for a certain role. When they were seeing a big striker like Erling, they were seeing a target man and I think they forgot to look at what else he could do.
“Liverpool could have got him. Arsenal could have got him. Everyone was there to watch him but these clubs were seeing a No.9 who was tall and broad and, ‘Oh, he’s going to be a target man’. I couldn’t for the life of me see why they had narrowed him down that way.
“I didn’t like him with his back towards the goal and, at the time, he couldn’t really head the ball. I liked it when he turned round, when he chased into pockets, when he ran between the lines, his movement in the box. He didn’t want to hold the ball up, he just wanted to turn and go. There will be a lot of clubs kicking themselves because we can all see now what he is good at.”
Haaland signed for Premier League title rivals Manchester City for an initial £51million this summer and has already scored 12 goals in eight games - including back-to-back hat-tricks.
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