Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher has questioned whether Erling Haaland “picked the wrong club” in the summer after joining Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, after their 1-0 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday.
Haaland has been a revelation for Manchester City, but his latest outing saw him fire in no shots for the first time since September 2020.
He struggled to make an impact against a compact Spurs, prompting Carragher to argue that Haaland’s style of play does not suit the rest of the squad and Guardiola.
“He might have picked the wrong club to get the best out of him,” Carragher told Sky Sports after City’s defeat to Spurs.
Carragher’s bold statement got a reaction from Richards, who laughed at the outlandish claim.
He continued to back his statement by saying Man City have scored the same number of goals this campaign despite Haaland’s 25 league goals while referencing the amount of goals they have conceded.
“You are laughing but we are not seeing everything from Erling Haaland at Manchester City. Not because of Erling Haaland.
“We can say they are a different team, but they have scored exactly the same amount of goals. He has scored 25 Premier League goals but Man City as a team have scored the same amount of goals, but they have conceded more.
“It’s far easier to counter-attack them as well. They are a different team and a lesser team with Erling Haaland, but again it’s not his fault. Manchester City as a team will not play end-to-end football, it’s not Pep Guardiola’s way.
“His players don’t have the energy, or the power or pace to play end-to-end, they build up slowly and they push the opposition back to the edge of the box and they play from there, when they lose it they win it back quickly. They keep people penned in.
“Haaland will still score 25 league goals and a lot of those is coming from a cross that you are putting in. But we are not seeing the full package of what this player can do because of the team that he has actually gone to.”
Haaland’s struggles at Spurs should come as no surprise as City are still waiting on their first goal as a collective at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Pep Guardiola’s side having now had 84 attempts without hitting the net across five matches in north London.
The 1-0 defeat for City, which came courtesy of a record-breaking strike from Harry Kane, leaves them five points adrift of Arsenal in the Premier League title race having played a game more than the Gunners.
