Manchester City expert Steven McInerney from Esteemed Kompany believes that Erling Haaland can be considered as "the greatest Premier League striker" if he continues to bang in the goals for the Citizens for "another few years".
Since joining Man City from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2022, Haaland has scored an incredible 99 goals in just 103 appearances for the club across all competitions, breaking a plethora of records in the process.
Haaland has won the Premier League Golden Boot in the last two seasons; he scored a record-breaking 36 goals in 35 games during the 2022-23 season - his debut campaign as a Citizens player - surpassing both Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer (34 goals) to become the player with the most goals scored in a single season.
At the age of just 24, Haaland has made an electric start to the new campaign, scoring a record-breaking nine goals in just four matches, including two hat-tricks and most recently a brace netted in City's 2-1 comeback victory over Brentford last weekend.
August's Premier League Player of the Month winner is now bidding to become only the second player in the division's history, after Shearer (three times), to score 30 goals or more in multiple seasons.
There have been many elite strikers who have graced the Premier League over the past three decades or so, and McInerney believes that Haaland is rightly in the conversation to be considered as the best of them all.
"Haaland has redefined what goalscoring is in PL"
Speaking exclusively to Sports Mole, McInerney said: "I think if you ask Alan Shearer, he'd say [Haaland is] better than him and I think he'd probably be right. That doesn't mean he'll have the same legacy, but that's undeniable.
"The only thing that separates Haaland from the rest of them is time. I think it's very obvious his ability and what he's done. If he doesn't break his own record this season in the Premier League, I'd be surprised after already breaking a long-standing Premier League goal record.
"I think he needs 28 goals in 34 games to break his own record. Even that's a lot, but he could do it after 25 games at this rate. I wouldn't be surprised if he hits 40 goals this season in the Premier League, which sounds absurd, but Haaland has redefined what goalscoring is in this league and what people thought was possible.
"No one had 50-goal seasons in England - no one did. We look at the greats like [Thierry] Henry and Shearer and [Sergio] Aguero, of course, and people like [Luis] Suarez had wonderful seasons, but no one touched 50 goals in a season [in all competitions for an English club]. They are the numbers that you'd expect [Lionel] Messi or [Cristiano] Ronaldo to get, or [Robert] Lewandowski in Germany for example. This didn't happen over here, and that's what Haaland has normalised.
"I think there's a temptation to play down what Haaland does because it makes everyone feel better! When he's smashing records, even I'm a little bit anxious about how good he is because he's making me question how good Aguero was, and that seems unfair to Sergio Aguero because he was that brilliant.
"I think Haaland just being a finisher... it's become, in modern football, a tainted idea because of false nines and players who can link up and play out wide, but I find it refreshing that you've got this throwback guy who's obsessed with the most important thing in football (scoring goals), just being a specialist in one area and being so good at it that you're almost unplayable.
"I think there's a real beauty to that, and I feel it's weirdly something that football needs right now... I love the fact that [Haaland] is like: 'I'm just big, I'm 6ft 5in, I'm stronger than you, faster than you, I'm absolutely obsessed with scoring goals and I'm brilliant at it.'"
© Imago
Haaland has potential to be 'the greatest natural finisher of all time'
McInerney added: "I think he genuinely is getting better. There's signs of him understanding his game. He talked a lot about how he's been watching what goalkeepers did against him last season. [For example] he talked about how (Chelsea's) Robert Sanchez stayed on his line and he took his shot earlier than he would usually, and because he stayed on his line it was really hard (to score). Whereas this season, he drew him out and took a few more steps (before scoring against Chelsea).
"...I think we forget how young he is and how much more he's got to go. [Haaland is] an astonishing footballer and for me... if he stays another few years, I don't think there'll be any question. I think he'll be seen as the greatest Premier League striker, if not, 10 years from now probably the greatest natural finisher of all time, arguably."
When you gaze at the Premier League's all-time top scorer list, you will see that Haaland (72) has already surpassed some iconic players including Eric Cantona (70), Suarez (69), teammate Kevin De Bruyne (69), Mark Hughes (64), David Beckham (62) and Gianfranco Zola (59) to name few.
However, Haaland still has some work to do if he wishes to close down Shearer (260) at the top of the goalscoring charts as well as other Premier League icons including Harry Kane (213), Wayne Rooney (208), Andrew Cole (187), Aguero (184), Frank Lampard (177) and Henry (175).
The Norwegian will endeavour to score his 100th goal for Man City when they welcome Inter Milan to the Etihad Stadium for their first Champions League game of the new season on Wednesday night.
Haaland will then attempt to move into double figures for Premier League goals this term when the Citizens lock horns with title rivals Arsenal on home soil on Sunday.
