Henry makes major Haaland claim as Man City ‘would’ve been better’ off signing alternative striker

Thierry Henry has boldly argued that Manchester City “would’ve been better” off signing Tottenham star Harry Kane over Erling Haaland.

The Premier League champions activated Haaland’s release clause at Borussia Dortmund to sign him last summer for around £51m.

The 22-year-old has been in stunning goalscoring form in the Premier League as he has scored 25 goals in 21 appearances.

But Man City have arguably been weaker in the league this season compared to how they were last term. This comes as they have had to amend their style of play to fit Haaland into their set-up.

This has sometimes left Haaland out of the game as he has been limited to very few touches.

City could have ended up without Haaland as in 2021 they were heavily linked with Kane. The forward announced that summer that he was looking to leave Tottenham to maximise his chances of winning team trophies.

Spurs valued him at £150m and Man City were unable to offer that much so Kane ended up verbally committing his future to the London outfit.

Kane has been in sensational form himself this term as he has grabbed 19 goals and three assists in 32 outings across all competitions.

Henry worked with Pep Guardiola at Barcelona and he has explained why his former manager should have recruited Kane.

“I would say that if I had to build a team to win,” Henry said on CBS Sports.

“For example, I thought Man City were going to go for Harry Kane. We all know they wanted him but I thought they were going to come back in.

“I thought he is the typical striker for City. I think it would’ve been better. He became complete, he became an all-around player and this is what I like about him.

“We all know what he can do and all know what he can do in the box, but what he does outside of the box now for his team this is something that I have to respect massively. He became for me, over the last two, three years, a complete striker.”

“We all know when Kevin De Bruyne has the ball he can find him,” Henry added.

“There was one piece of advice that Arsene Wenger gave me that stayed with me, he said: ‘What can you do when your team is not feeding you.’

“I think he did stop what they were about. They had a certain way of playing. I think they are more predictable.”

The comments from Henry come after

“I think we’re only seeing 60 per cent of Erling Haaland,” Carragher said on Sky Sports. “He’s come from Borussia Dormund and a counter-attacking league where it’s end-to-end, you see that blistering pace he’s got, but we don’t see it [now].

“He may have actually picked the wrong club to get the best out of him. We’re not seeing everything of Erling Haaland.”