Manuel Akanji has opened up about playing alongside Erling Haaland, in his first Manchester City interview.
The Swiss defender, who was Erling Haaland’s teammate at Borussia Dortmund discussed what makes the striker impossible to contend with.
It’s safe to say that in his early days at Manchester City, Erling Haaland has surpassed all expectations.
After scoring back-to-back hat-tricks against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, the Norwegian has outscored any player in Premier League history after their first five games, with nine goals to his name.
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The 22-year old is also the fastest player to score his second hat-trick in the division, with Demba Ba holding the previous record after 21 matches.
While many predicted the youngster to take time to settle in England, he has put every doubt to bed in resounding fashion.
So much so that it has become a popular opinion that if Haaland manages to stay fit till the end of the campaign, he is bound to break Mohamed Salah’s record of scoring the highest number of goals in a single Premier League season (32 goals in the 2017/18 term).
Manchester City’s latest recruit, Manuel Akanji, who was the star striker’s teammate at Borussia Dortmund explained why he is the complete package.
“He has an amazing combination of skills”, he said, in his first club interview.
The Swiss defender continued: “He is fast and physically very strong, but he is also technically skilful. With the combination of both, he is a striker very difficult to stop. The way he uses his body makes him very hard to stop him.
"He keeps on working on his skills, he is still young and has so many years in front of him, but I think he will only get better.”
While Erling Haaland first burst onto the scene at RB Salzburg, it was Dortmund where he etched his reputation as the most feared young striker in Europe.
Akanji saw the now-Sky Blues number nine take his game to another level at the Signal Iduna Park, where the pair spent two and a half seasons together.
Additionally, the 27-year old also faced the Norwegian international in training on countless occasions, which indicates why he has an in-depth understanding of his game.
Akanji signed for the Premier League Champions in an initial £15 million move on Thursday, penning a five-year contract at the Etihad Stadium.
The Swiss defender made over 100 appearances for Dortmund, since moving from Basel in 2018.
With Manuel Akanji highlighting that Erling Haaland could even get better as time progresses, defenders across the Premier League would be quaking in their boots at the very thought of that.
Topics: Manchester City, Manchester City Transfer News & Rumours, Borussia Dortmund
Srinivas Sadhanand