Tony Cascarino has expressed his frustrations over a Manchester City player who didn’t make too much of an impact against Manchester United.
Manchester City won the Community Shield on Saturday, beating bitter rivals United on penalties after the game ended 1-1.
Bernardo Silva equalised, after Alejandro Garnacho opened the scoring for the Red Devils.
It was a nice bit of revenge for the FA Cup final defeat, and a good platform for City ahead of their opening Premier League fixture against Chelsea.
City were decent against United, and there was another lively showing from Oscar Bobb, who surely stands a great chance of starting against Chelsea – City legend Shaun Goater reckons that will be the case.
One man who didn’t have too big an impact though was Erling Haaland – and that frustrated pundit Cascarino.
Tony Cascarino vents after Erling Haaland lacked involvement in Community Shield vs Man United
Haaland has been sensational for City since he signed two years ago from Borussia Dortmund.
The Norway international will make his 100th appearance for the club against Chelsea should he play as expected, and he has already scored a staggering 90 goals.
Haaland is a machine in front of goal. But he is usually the player who finishes games with the fewest amount of touches of all starting players.
When Haaland does not score for City, this tends to be a topic of conversation for pundits.
On Saturday against United, Haaland had just 18 touches (via Sofascore) – the fewest of any starting player for City. Even Savinho managed more (25), despite playing for just 27 minutes. Haaland also had zero shots in the game.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Cascarino said: “Do you know the one thing that does my head in? I can’t get my head around this because it just doesn’t make any logic at all. Erling Haaland yesterday – 0 shots, two touches in the box. That’s the centre-forward for the champions. It’s the guy that got 36 Premier League goals in his first season, top goalscorer, Golden Boot winner obviously, and last season with 27 goals.
“I don’t know how it works with Haaland. It feels like he’s redundant in games.
“Part of me that thinks, how long will Haaland stay with this? I’d be frustrated. Will that be the scenario at the end of this season where he might be going, do you know what, I want to feel a bit more of a part of it. Even though he’s winning.”
Haaland is unlikely to care
It is often the case that when Haaland doesn’t score for City, then there is talk about him being frustrated or City not using him as best they could.
But this narrative is very tiresome. Danny Murphy hit the nail on the head earlier this year when he spoke about Haaland, praising his discipline to stay high and ruthlessness.
Haaland’s record since joining City speaks for itself. 90 goals in 99 appearances, along with 15 assists, is just frightening.
Yes, there are games where the £51 million star doesn’t get involved much. In fact, that is probably the case in most games he plays.
But this is the City way. The build-up is patient and often that means the ball just doesn’t come Haaland’s way. But it’s his job to put the ball in the back of the net. He simply needs to be in there.
He himself surely won’t care about lacking involvement in games. He’s scored plenty of goals and will continue to do so while playing in this team that is packed with quality players.
At no point on Saturday did he cut a frustrated figure. City won and that is all that matters.