Gary Neville has said that Arsenal defender Rob Holding should have been smarter in his approach to keep Erling Haaland quiet in his side’s 4-1 defeat against Manchester City.
The £38,000-a-week (Salary Sport) man was ‘bullied’ by the Norwegian brute, according to Jamie Carragher, as he scored and assisted twice in the title decider.
In the aftermath of the contest, Gary Neville has broken down how Arsenal defender Rob Holding should have approached his game against Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.
Neville explains how Arsenal defender Holding should have played against Manchester City star Haaland
The physical battle between the pair was a no-contest within the first seven minutes of the game itself, as Haaland took a sublime touch and played a perfect assist for De Bruyne’s goal as Holding seemed powerless in the process.
However, that was the theme throughout the game, almost reminiscent to how Romelu Lukaku dominated Pablo Mari last season.
Gary Neville, who used to play as a centre-half from time to time up against big strikers analysed how Arsenal star Rob Holding should have tried to deal with Manchester City supernova Erling Haaland.
“When I was playing against a player who was stronger than me, which was quite often; player might be stronger, they might be taller, I thought you had to do one of two things”, he opened on the Overlap YouTube channel.
“As the ball was kicked, jump in front and that’s where you can slip around them so they can’t back into you. Or you go touch-tight and you drop off at the last minute, and you make sure you don’t end up in a situation where you’re taken out of the game.”
“People said he should’ve been more aggressive, I thought he should’ve been more cute actually.”
HITC View: Gary Neville has hit the nail on the head
The analysis from Gary Neville is bang on the money as it was rather naïve for Arsenal defender Rob Holding to back himself in a physical battle with a specimen like Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.
The former Borussia Dortmund talisman is gawked as a monster from just a physical perspective and to employ a touch-tight approach was bound to fail.
Instead, stepping back right after being tight on Haaland and nicking the ball away would have been a much smarter strategy from the Englishman.
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