Thierry Henry says one Manchester City player needs to improve his first touch.
The former Arsenal star, who knows what it takes to play in a Pep Guardiola team, is considered to be one of the best players the Premier League has seen.
Having been one of the first eight inductees into the Premier League Hall of Fame back in 2021, the Frenchman has the experience and knowledge of being a top player.
Now though, Henry has been speaking about one particular figure in City’s squad, highlighting one area of his game he needs to improve.
Henry says Man City star needs to improve on ‘the bare minimum’
Speaking on CBS Sports after last night’s Champions League quarter-final second-leg ties, Henry had this to say after Jamie Carragher asked him why Erling Haaland doesn’t apparently like to be in physical duels with defenders.
He said: “I didn’t like it. It’s the same. I’m not small. But it’s not my thing. I wasn’t a [Didier] Drogba, I wasn’t a [Mark] Viduka or a [Alan] Shearer.
“I don’t think he’s that type of guy who will go and play like that but you need the bare minimum, being able to control that ball.”
Over the past few weeks, criticism has been flying Haaland’s way about his general play outside of goalscoring, with Roy Keane likening him to a League Two player for how he plays outside the box in terms of his first touch and link-up play with teammates.
Erling Haaland still has room to improve
In the Premier League this season, the 23-year-old has scored 20 goals in 26 appearances.
Across those 26 appearances, the Norwegian has had 527 touches of the ball in total, leaving 16 other players in the City squad with more.
In addition to that, the striker has failed to control the ball with his first touch on 35 occasions.
Even though there are four players in Guardiola’s squad that have miscontrolled the ball more times than Haaland, it highlights that this, as Henry spoke about, is an area the striker can improve on moving forward.