Gary Neville claims Erling Haaland is ‘starved’ without three Man City players

Gary Neville has claimed Erling Haaland is ‘starved’ of service without the presence of three Manchester City players in the team.

The striker endured a frustrating afternoon at the Emirates on Sunday as the champions were beaten 1-0 by Arsenal, with Haaland failing to have a single shot throughout the 90 minutes, while he managed just 23 touches. The Norwegian has also failed to score in his last three appearances and has netted just once in the last five matches.

City’s inability to get Haaland involved led partly to their downfall in North London on Sunday and Neville claimed that Pep Guardiola’s team selection negatively impacted the performance of Haaland, with City missing the injured Kevin De Bruyne, while Jack Grealish was an unused substitute against the Gunners.

“I think when you’re looking to feed Haaland, you think of Kevin De Bruyne with his precision, especially when you’ve got a tight, narrow back four like Arsenal had at times today,” Neville said during Sky Sports’ post-match analysis. 

“But then you also think about Jack Grealish, how he’s a crosser of the ball from wide areas, where he comes in on his right foot and drifts those balls in. [Phil] Foden’s not a crosser, [Julian] Alvarez is not a crosser and [Jeremy] Doku is not a crosser - they’re players who play differently.

“Alvarez is a striker playing wide, Foden likes to jink inside and pass his way in, Doku is a box of tricks where you don’t know what is going to come at the end. But with Grealish it’s quite predictable, he’ll take it down the line, cut inside and then there’s that delivery. Him and De Bruyne not being in does mean that Haaland gets starved.”

“Think of [Riyad] Mahrez on this side and Grealish on the other, and the balls that they used to whip in for Haaland, along with De Bruyne as well,” Neville added. “They’ve lost all of that today. De Bruyne is out, Grealish on the bench and Mahrez is gone, so they’ve lost a lot of predictable passes into the box that Haaland can make runs off. They haven’t got that today.”

The defeat at the Emirates means City sit third in the table heading into the international break and are two points behind Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. Guardiola’s side are next in action when they host Brighton & Hove Albion on 21 October.