Thierry Henry highlights biggest flaw in Manchester City forward Erling Haaland’s game

Thierry Henry has highlighted a problem with Erling Haaland’s game after Manchester City drew 3-3 with Real Madrid earlier this week.

The Sky Blues will be fairly pleased to have secured a draw in the Spanish capital, with Pep Guaridola’s men now 4/6 favourites with bet365 to win the return leg at the Etihad Stadium next week.

Thierry Henry on weakness in Erling Haaland’s game

Bernardo Silva put Manchester City 1-0 up just two minutes into the game on Tuesday. However, Real Madrid quickly turned the tide after a Ruben Dias own goal and a strike from Rodrygo, making it 2-1 to Los Blancos after just 14 minutes.

The second half then saw Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol, and Federico Valverde all find the back of the net with spectacular efforts to bring proceedings to a close with the score heading into the second leg 3-3.

Despite the end-to-end action on display in Madrid, Manchester City’s top goalscorer and a man widely regarded as one of the best strikers in Europe, Erling Haaland, had a quite night on Tuesday.

The Norweigan was largely nullified by Real Madrid’s Antonio Rudiger and speaking after the game, Thierry Henry pinpointed a crucial flaw in Haaland’s game and spoke on the striker’s tendency to engage in physical battles with defenders, hindering his ability to create space and dictate play effectively: “I always say that I’ve seen strikers not scoring but playing really well for the team away from home and doing exactly what you need to for your team away from home, or even at home,” Henry said.

“But more often than not you judge a striker for his goals - fair enough, we already know that. People can get better and I believe in that. But there is one thing that he doesn’t do ever so well, and he’s always shoulder to shoulder with the defender, so you can go like this, and get your foot around.

“But if you are like this [square on, hand on defender’s shoulder] there is no way you can get that ball now. I’ve created a distance, you can’t get the ball. Even at three-quarters, you can protect the ball. Afterwards, it’s all about your quality, but you can’t let the defender get their leg around you, or get an arm around you, you have to grab it first then dictate.”