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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Alex Brotherton

Paul Scholes and Michael Owen disagree on element of Erling Haaland's Man City debut

Erling Haaland may have got his Manchester City career off to the perfect start on Sunday, but Premier League legends Michael Owen and Paul Scholes disagreed over one thing.

Haaland scored goals either side of half-time to earn City an opening day 2-0 win at West Ham — a man of the match performance in which he sent a warning to defenders around the league; give him a sniff of goal and chances are he'll score.

Speaking on the Premier League Matchday Live show, former Manchester United midfielder Scholes was hugely impressed by the 22-year-old, and even made a comparison to another top goal-scorer.

READ MORE: Pep Guardiola names unsung Man City player who had 'one of his best games ever' vs West Ham

"He's such a young player, so confident. He reminds me so much of Ruud van Nistelrooy, such a ruthless finisher," Scholes said.

"When he gets through, you feel he's going to score and you feel he's not going to give the goalkeeper a chance. Even looking at his penalty, he was so certain about it, just a step up and bang into that bottom corner.

"It was a great debut, I thought it might take a bit of time but I was slightly wrong again, but this lad's got real quality, his goal-scoring, his movement. Imagine playing behind him!"

Owen was similarly impressed, but he believes the Norway international will have to start scoring different types of goals if he is to really hit the high notes in sky blue.

"Haaland's stereotypical goal for me, well there's two types. There's one, over the top, powerful, runner, finisher, one-on-one. The other one is he's massive, he's a big guy. Crosses into the box, headers, that's his bread and butter over the years," Owen said.

"Apart from Liverpool, there's not going to be any teams that play a high line against City. That ball over the top that he's galloped onto that we've watched for years and years, that's pretty null and void I think.

"So are the crosses into the box - when do you ever see City chip a ball high into the box? It's never done. He's going to have to find a different way of scoring. Now there will be plenty of opportunities. The goal he scored in pre-season in the US, that's the type of goal he's going to have to score more of.

"He'll have to be more of a fox in the box in order to get the numbers he scored in the German league. I think he's very capable, but I do think he's going to have to tweak his games to get those numbers."

Regular watches of City will, of course, know that Pep Guardiola's side do often put crosses into the box, while Haaland's goals against West Ham suggested he won't struggle to find space in-behind defensive lines.

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