Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves have agreed that Erling Haaland could finally be the player to push Manchester City onto Champions League glory as he extended his scintillating start to life at the Etihad Stadium.
The Norwegian forward has been in irresistible form since making a summer switch from German giants Borussia Dortmund. He added to his eye-catching record as Man City opened up their latest Champions League campaign with a 4-0 cruise against Spanish giants Sevilla on Tuesday evening.
Haaland was twice on the score sheet, meaning that he has now plundered 12 goals in just his opening seven appearances for the club. In evaluating the Norwegian’s form thus far, Ferdinand has suggested that he is a huge upgrade on Gabriel Jesus - the Brazilian of course having completed a summer move to Arsenal.
Speaking to BT Sport, he said: “When you haven’t got that threat and I’m not discrediting like a Jesus, who is a threat, but there is a difference in I think between the levels of threat and the levels of fear certain players give you.
“When there’s that fear factor that he has right now and he’s going to continue to have, that attracts defenders - and and two people. A lot of defenders will go ‘I can’t do this on my own’ and in the training room before the game will be going to their teammates ‘listen if he gets me in a one vs one, you get over quick, you get over quick’.
“Whereas some players when you get one vs one you stay where you are, you are confident you can deal with him. There’s not going to be many who say that about Erling Haaland.”
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Former Man Utd and Man City midfielder Hargreaves has also been waxing lyrical about Haaland’s early displays at the Etihad Stadium and has suggested that he is indeed the man who could lead Pep Guardiola to his first Champions League title at the club - Chelsea and Liverpool having already claimed the trophy during the Spaniard’s time in England.
He has also suggested suggesting the fee that the club have paid has already proven to be a bargain.
Hargreaves said: “When you see some of the fees and you think some guys are costing £30m, £40m and £50m and he [Haaland] only cost what he did, I don’t know how. He obviously had a buy-out clause but the guy is amazing.
“He’s the perfect player. I can understand why we’re all getting carried away because we should be. He’s got 12 goals and it’s the first week of September. So blown away by how good he is.”
He continued: “I think Haaland going there, everyone, all of us, I’m sure Pep even Klopp and Tuchel, that’s the missing piece of the puzzle.
“It’s worked this fast, this quickly. They’ve had more possession in the games which means more touches for De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva. They look a threat. They’re scoring lethal goals and like Rio said in one off games like a Champions League finals, you need someone to sniff a goal and you can guarantee he’s going to do that.”
