Erling Haaland’s dad hits back at Roy Keane over ‘League Two player’ jab | Football

Following a very poor performance against title rivals Arsenal, Haaland was singled out for criticism, with Keane unforgiving in his assessment of the striker.

‘In front of goal he is the best in the world but his general play for such a player is so poor,’ the Manchester United legend said.

‘He is almost like a League Two player. He’s a brilliant striker but he has to improve his all-round game.’

Keane has not been the only pundit to call out Haaland’s all-round play, though the Norway international’s outstanding goalscoring record has shielded him from further criticism.

Pep Guardiola criticised these comments, to which the pundit responded by calling the City manager ‘delicate’, and now Haaland snr. has weighed in on the matter, accusing the United legend of bias.

Speaking on ViaPlay football, the former Leeds and City star said: ‘Then you have the background of Keane and other experts, who may have a slightly different agenda.

‘They probably think it’s a bit okay to come up with that [the criticism]. But the team wins, and Erling is still top scorer, so it can’t have been that bad.’

Following his penalty in City’s 5-1 win over Luton on Saturday, Haaland has now scored 20 Premier League goals this season, putting him two clear in the Golden Boot race.

The 23-year-old’s tally since moving to the Etihad stands at a staggering 83 goals in 91 appearances.

Very notably, Keane and Haaland snr. have history which began when the two were rivals on the pitch.

In 1997, the Norwegian accused Keane of diving as he went down in the box during a match between Leeds and United, when in fact he had torn his ACL, with the the Ireland star swearing his revenge.

Four years later, the Red Devils captain committed a wild, studs up tackle on his opponent in a Manchester derby, which played a big part in prematurely ending Haaland’s career.

For more stories like this, check our sport page.