‘They’re absolutely terrified of him…’ – Carragher’s superb analysis of Erling Haaland vs Man Utd

Erling Haaland terrified Lisandro Martinez and the Manchester United defender’s teammates at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The world-class 22-year-old scored a third hat-trick in as many home games and registered two assists for Phil Foden as Manchester City recorded an emphatic 6-3 victory.

Jamie Carragher provided some expert analysis on Haaland’s latest masterclass and highlighted the effect that the Norwegian striker had on Erik ten Hag’s players.

Haaland became only the 14th player in history to earn a perfect 10 score from French publication L’Equipe thanks to his magnificent display in the Manchester derby.

Much was made in the build-up to Sunday’s derby about how United centre-back Lisandro Martinez would cope with Haaland – and Carragher’s analysis showed that the Argentina international endured a torrid afternoon thanks to City’s seemingly unstoppable No. 9.

One clip showed how Martinez attempted to get tight to Haaland early in the match, but was thrown to the ground.

“This was after three minutes in the game,” Carragher noted. “I’m talking about [a striker] getting into your head as a defender. Watch Martinez. I can’t see what he’s doing here is wrong. He’s tight and aggressive. The ball doesn’t come in but it’s ‘get off!’. He just throws you to the floor. He’s a completely different animal in terms of physicality.”

😭😭 Haaland sending Martinez back to the streets of Argentina #Haaland pic.twitter.com/GruVVJGtFY

— ABDI (@siuuxx24) October 2, 2022

Carragher then showed how Martinez backed away from Haaland and didn’t want to get too tight to the 6ft 5in centre-forward out of fear of being effortlessly thrown to the ground again.

Haaland then completed his hat-trick after pulling away from Martinez, who bought himself an extra yard of space inside the box with his intelligent movement.

Carragher added: “That comes from Martinez thinking ‘I don’t want to get too tight because I’ve just been thrown over in the box in the first half’.”

The Sky Sports pundit then highlighted how Martinez continued to give Haaland space, fearing the Norwegian could overpower and outpace him at will.

This space allowed Haaland to receive the ball before turning and providing the assist for Foden to complete his hat-trick.

Carragher said: “Look at how many Manchester United players are around him. There’s five around him and two behind him. Do you remember that famous Diego Maradona picture against Belgium, where you actually see the fear in the eyes of the players when Maradona’s got the ball?

“We can’t go in on the Manchester United players but it would be really interesting to see their reactions when he’s got the ball. They’re absolutely terrified of him.

“We’re talking about top international players. [Raphael] Varane’s a World Cup winner.”

Carragher explained how he sympathises with United’s players because Arsenal legend Thierry Henry had the exact same effect on him during his career.

He added: “[Haaland’s] making defenders not think ‘Can I stop him playing well? Can I stop him scoring?’

“Defenders are going into games thinking: ‘Don’t embarrass me’.

“That’s what I used to feel about Thierry Henry.”