Haaland will have a PROBLEM if he wants Real Madrid transfer

Jamie Carragher believes that Erling Haaland must add more to his game before he can play for Real Madrid or win a Ballon d’Or.

The Manchester City striker has been criticised a lot in recent weeks as his performance levels have slumped. Haaland currently finds himself in a situation that is relatively unknown to him: the goals aren’t flowing as freely as they used to.

Goals have lately been hard to come by for the Norwegian sharpshooter, who has only scored once in his past three league outings and also blanked against Real Madrid. Haaland’s overall play – or lack thereof – has been the subject of intense debate, with Roy Keane perhaps taking the cake by claiming that he is a League Two player.

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While obviously a massive exaggeration, it is true that Haaland has not been his usual self of late. His first touch has been off, his heading – by his own admission his biggest weakness – has been atrocious and the 23-year-old has failed to offer anything to Pep Guardiola’s side.

In light of this, Jamie Carragher believes that Haaland must improve his overall game if he wants to become one of football’s greats.

Haaland a ‘luxury player’

Writing in his column for The Telegraph, the Liverpool legend took aim at the Man City star, calling him “the ultimate luxury footballer.” Carragher continued: “He is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest goal-scorers, but is yet to become a world-class player.”

“His three most recent games against top-class centre-backs [confirmed] that for all his brilliance inside the penalty area, he is a work-in-progress out of it. Virgil van Dijk, William Saliba and Antonio Rudiger bullied Haaland, the much-hyped showdowns between top defenders and a goal machine nothing of the sort. They were a mismatch rather than a match-up.”

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“If his sole interest is breaking goalscoring records, he has no need to change anything. If he has serious ambitions to win the Ballon d’Or and play for Real Madrid, he may have a problem. He must add more to his game to make that leap and to seriously challenge his rival to the title of best player of his generation, Kylian Mbappe.”

It was recently claimed that Haaland has had second thoughts about joining Real Madrid in light of Mbappe’s impending move. If the Norwegian continues to perform at his current level, Los Blancos, too, might reconsider their interest.