Is Erling Haaland the only world-class striker in football (among players in their 20s)?

[El Flaco]

(I still consider Kylian Mbappe as a inside forward. He is playing out of position to accomodate Vini Jr).

In 2010s, there were several young world-class strikers pumping in 20+ league goals for several seasons (Suarez, Kane, Lewy, Immobile, Aguero)

Haaland has been a goalscoring machine with numbers since turning 19 in Salzburg. Given his body of work, Haaland is already one of the greatest strikers to ever play in history.

To put into perspective, Alexander Isak is celebrated for scoring career-high of 23 league goals. That would be 4th best season in Haaland's career.

Don't get me wrong, Isak is a fantastic striker in his own right. But even someone like him cannot be compared to Haaland.

As the title says: Is Erling Haaland the only world-class striker in football (among players in their 20s)?

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

I dont think Erling is that good, at Dortmund he was a machine in front of the goal but at City guy is far away from being icecold and his numbers at big games is average/underaverage.

Ofc we cant say if Isak, Gyökeres, Osimhen, Lautaro would show the same numbers like Haaland at City but dont think they would be much worse

Compared to 2010s the lvl of strikers these days is horrible

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I think he is the best but limited in some parts in my opinion.

He would work the best for counter attacking team. Impossible to stop. Same as Mbappe, younger version. I think with City he definitely lacks a bit technical skills to connect 100% with their style. Either way, still the best.

 

[El Flaco]

I dont think Erling is that good, at Dortmund he was a machine in front of the goal but at City guy is far away from being icecold and his numbers at big games is average/underaverage.

Ofc we cant say if Isak, Gyökeres, Osimhen, Lautaro would show the same numbers like Haaland at City but dont think they would be much worse

Compared to 2010s the lvl of strikers these days is horrible

Haaland has 124 goals in 146 games for Man City since joining them. The guy has been a machine since leaving Norway in his teenage years. Haaland has showed up numerous times against top clubs in his career. The biggest criticism of him is not scoring much goals in semi-finals & finals are underwhelming. Which is fair, but Henry was the same and he is one of the best ever.

Isak, Gyökeres, Osimhen Lautaro were never as prolifc as Haaland for their respective national teams or Champions League between the age 19-24. Neither of them were not scoring an average 1 goal a game like Haaland.

 

[El Flaco]

I think he is the best but limited in some parts in my opinion.

He would work the best for counter attacking team. Impossible to stop. Same as Mbappe, younger version. I think with City he definitely lacks a bit technical skills to connect 100% with their style. Either way, still the best.

People used to say that before Haaland joined Man City, a heavily possession-based team and the guy still produced ridiculous stats like prime Cristiano Ronaldo. It's a testamente of Haaland's adaptabiliy in såite of Pep not playing to his strengths.

 

[TheStig]

Fuck stats, technique of a League 2 player.

There are no WC strikers in the world today if the comparison are the previous generations. Worst batch of strikers ever...

 

[Porque]

People have started to lessen the rating of Haaland because City are so damn boring over the last 18 months. Well that, and he hasn't scored in finals.

Put him here, under Flick, and he will easily score the most in Spain, and probably Europe.

Also on a tangent, I think he doesn't look like he is enjoying the current City under Pep. And I can't blame him on that front really.

 

[jamrock]

He's the complete opposite of a pep players, his signing his the definition of market opportunity.

He would eat under flick in any team, that's the team of football he needs to play, quick counters, he gets as few touches on the ball as possible.

City should try and swap him for isak

 

[DonAK]

Haaland would absolutely cook under Flick.

He's gone from being overrated to underrated. His stats in big games is concerning, but same was said for Lewandowski by Bayern fans years ago.

His technical ability and ability to hold off players have improved considerably too based on what i have seen for Norway at least. Will obviously never be elite technically though.

 

[malvolio]

There are no WC strikers in the world today if the comparison are the previous generations. Worst batch of strikers ever...

This applies to almost every role in current football.

There are some talented players around, but the ones in their prime are nowhere near the generations before them.

 

[Gnidrologist]

According to ball professors here it's the other way around. Everybody is so good, professional, tactical and physical these days, that it's harder and harder to distinguish which ones are the best.

 

[Tyler]

City don't really suit the way he plays, but he hasn't improved since he signed for them. His link up play is still poor and for a big man his hold up play is pretty garbage. Kane would have suited the way City play considerably more, while Haaland would have suited the style of Liverpool (under Klopp) who loved to get the ball forward quickly.

He's elite at what he's great at (pace, athleticism) but personally I like my centre forwards to be more well rounded. He's still young though and there's plenty of time for him to improve aspects of his game. He's not even that great a finisher despite his crazy goal record. He squanders a lot of sitters for Man City.