Tim Sherwood has claimed that Erling Haaland didn’t want to take a penalty against Leeds United because he doesn’t want to relegate the Yorkshire club.
The goal-crazy Manchester City striker, who was born in Leeds and whose dad also played for the club, had a moment to kill off his side’s win against Sam Allardyce’s men on Saturday at the Etihad.
It was a comfortable 2-0 scoreline for Pep Guardiola’s men when the home team were given a penalty.
Ilkay Gundogan was on a hat-trick and Erling Haaland decided that the German should take the spot-kick, which he proceeded to smash off the post – both Alan Shearer and Ian Wright couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
Leeds ended up scoring through Rodrigo at the other end, which resulted in it being a nervy ending for the Premier League title leaders, even though the picked up the points.
Former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler asked Tim Sherwood if Haaland didn’t want to take the penalty because he doesn’t want to send Leeds down and he issued the following response, as he told Premier League Productions (06/05/23 at 5:05 pm).
“Do you think there is an element of it being Leeds as well,” asked Fowler. “Do you think that could have played a part?”
Sherwood responded: “Great point, Robbie. He was born in Leeds and his dad played for them. The last thing they want to do is put them down. But they are going down anyway, whether he scores or not.
“Whether he wants to inflict some damage on them. But you have to stick to the plan. Pep will be telling them that.”
Fowler asked again later on: “Does he want to be the man to send Leeds down?”
Sherwood added: “We aren’t suggesting that he doesn’t want to win the game. But he wants Leeds to stay up. If you asked him ‘who do you want to stay up?’ If Man City had to play any of the teams down the bottom (other than Leeds), then he would be hell-bent on trying to beat them to keep Leeds in the division. His dad, him and close friends. They all support Leeds United.”
NONSENSE FROM SHERWOOD
It’s pretty simple, Haaland didn’t want to take the penalty because he wanted Gundogan to get his hat-trick.
In the end, it proved to be a mistake, and going by Pep Guardiola’s reaction on the touchline, he won’t be doing that again.
Of course, there is that connection with Leeds, but once Haaland is on that field of play, no matter who is in his way, he just wants to bulldoze his way past everybody and score so many that Shearer proceeds to pray that he heads for the Premier League exit door alongside Harry Kane
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