Pat Nevin joined The Football Show to discuss Erling Haaland.
Manchester City are obliterating opponents this season. Apart from a few missteps, City and Erling Haaland are racking up the goals with ease.
Haaland has three hattricks in eight games. He's scoring goals without being heavily involved in build-up play, giving Manchester City a true lead-the-line striker. It's the one thing they've been missing since Sergio Aguero's prime years.
But Haaland isn't just taking the Premier League by storm. He's not just living up to expectations. He's elevating the expectations of an elite striker. Just calling him a superstar is no longer enough to describe his performances. Haaland has surpassed his peers this season.
Kylian Mbappe is a superstar, but Haaland is better than him right now. Pat Nevin describes Haaland as a hyperstar and he describes the Norwegian as scary for opponents.
"I think the phrase scary is the one getting used by everyone," Nevin said.
"I expected him to do incredibly well, but he's just blowing everyone away. And it's the brilliance of him, he's got everyone. But on top of that you stick on the creativity that's behind him. They're going to give him, time and time again, so many chances. It's just an incredible thing."
The combination of Manchester City's creative players and Haaland is too difficult to stop. Any of the past great strikers would score a lot of goals in this team, but Haaland is a combination of the best traits of all the great strikers.
The only way to stop him is by overcommitting to him defensively. That's not an option.
"I read a piece the other day that said he is all the best strikers rolled into one. And it's difficult isn't it? You start to think to yourself, who is better than that? Who has had all those things together that he has got. He's got absolutely everything. The pace is just mad, absolutely mad.
"The natural striking ability is just as good as anyone you can think of historically. Then you put the physique on top of it.
"It's frightening. If you're a team trying to come up with a plan to stop him, maybe you can stop him, but you're talking about 3-4 players...He looks like he could go beyond [a superstar], that's a hyperstar."
Manchester City and Haaland face Copenhagen in the Champions League this week. Premier League teams can't compete with him, so will Champions League teams fare better? Or will Pep Guardiola and Manchester City finally win the tournament?
It's hard to go against them at this stage.
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