Gary Lineker highlighted a key difference between Erling Haaland and Harry Kane as he labelled Manchester City’s star because the ‘perfect striker’.
Sarcastically, Kane was set to be Sergio Aguero’s successor in Man City’s attack in 2021, however the then-Tottenham striker’s big money move never materialised.
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Now, Kane is starring for Bayern Munich and Haaland, who signed for Man City from Borussia Dortmund in 2022, is already having a 3rd stunning season in a row for Pep Guardiola’s side.
The Norwegian bagged a hat-trick against Ipswich on Saturday in his side’s 4-1 win, a game Lineker and his The Rest Is Football podcast co-hosts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards discussed on this week’s episode.
Ex-City star Richards brought up Kane dropping deeper and getting involved in play for England at Euro 2024, before highlighting Haaland isn’t enthusiastic about doing that, opting to remain high up the pitch as an alternative.
And Lineker believes this permits Haaland to be more profitable in front of goal.
The previous England striker said: “I assumed it highlighted as well the importance of the way in which Haaland plays and plays so high.
“Because if he continually spins behind, defenders will get nervous so that they drop just a little bit deeper.
“Due to this fact, your midfield players can have extra space behind.
“Whereas if he did drop 20 yards into midfield, then he actually crowds it out more so there’s no space for those midfield players.
“So it’s very necessary.”
And he thinks if Kane adopted Haaland’s positioning, he’d bag more goals.
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He continued: “I feel we did discuss this in the summertime with England, because Kane likes to drop.
“But when he can stay higher, then you definitely can create just a little little bit of space in behind. I feel he does that brilliantly and he’s that perfect striker where he’s patient enough.
“He doesn’t care if he touches it ten times or 50 times in the sport. He cares about how much he touches it into the back of the online.”
Kane’s goal return last term was nothing to smell at, though.
The England captain scored a whopping 44 goals in 45 games in all competitions in his debut campaign in Germany.
He’s already got off the mark this season, netting against Ulm in a 4-0 win in the primary round of the DFB Pokal. He also registered two assists within the 3-2 win over Wolfsburg on Sunday.
Haaland, meanwhile, scored 38 times in 45 games last season and has 4 to his name this campaign already.
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