Manchester City summer signing Erling Haaland has taken the Premier League by storm.
The Norwegian international has scored 14 goals in 9 appearances for Manchester City so far including 11 goals in 7 Premier appearances. He was named Premier player of the month of August.
However, Rio Ferdinand believes the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish are already benefitting from the arrival of Erling Haaland because of his style of play.
Kevin De Bruyne already has six assists in 7 Premier League games this season and equaled Steven Gerrard’s total number of assist tally of 125 against Wolves.
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What did Rio Ferdinand say?
The former Manchester United defender said on BT Sport: “They’re only going to get stronger from this point on.
“The way that Haaland has come into this league and hit the ground like an absolute racehorse is phenomenal.
“It’s not just him, Kevin De Bruyne, in terms of assists—125 assists in the league. He’s taken everyone else’s game up another level. Jack Grealish, people try to question him and demand more in terms of output. Today, he answers the critics. All the things are ticking the right boxes. All things are looking positive right now. This is looking good.”
The Manchester City record signing has not scored for the Citizens since last season against West Ham United.
Reacting to his first goal of the season, he said: “I should be scoring and getting more assists.
“The only thing I can do is score and get assists. I’m always going to have people talking about me with the amount I got bought for.
“If you look at my whole career, I probably haven’t scored as much as certain people, even when I was at Aston Villa I only scored 14, 15 goals over the two seasons in the Premier League. It’s something I do want to add to my game and playing with this team and in front of these fans, hopefully, I can.”
They criticized the England international after a poor showing against Dortmund in the Champions League.
But Pep Guardiola defended his record signing saying: “I said to them many times, they are here because I trust them unconditionally, all of them. I know them. I trust them unconditionally and Jack is not an exception.
“He [Grealish] scored a goal, and it was a good performance. Every time he has the ball it’s one against one against the full-back all the time. Ok, he didn’t score or assist but it’s a question of time.
“We didn’t help them to make more runners in the final third to create more time for him so that they have to play for themselves. They don’t have to say thank you. I have confidence in all of them and they have to play for them.”
