Surprising take on Haaland: Maybe Manchester City were the wrong club for him

After Manchester City suffered a frustrating 1-0 loss to Tottenham, in which Erling Haaland was isolated up front an unable to get any shots off, several pundits have been questioning whether the Norwegian properly fits in with Pep Guardiola's style of play.

Signed from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, Haaland was expected to make Manchester City even more formidable, but there have been several games in which he has been quiet, even though he has 25 goals in total this Premier League season.

"He might have picked the wrong club to actually get the best out of him," Jamie Carragher said of Haaland on Sky Sports after the Spurs loss.

"We're not seeing everything of Haaland.

"City have scored the exact number of goals as last season. He's got 25 of them, but City overall have scored the same number overall.

"However, they've conceded more and are easier to counter-attack against now.

"They are a different - and lesser team - with Haaland in the team.

"That's not his fault. City won't play end-to-end football. That's not Pep Guardiola's way.

"His players don't have the energy or power to play that way. They build up slowly and push the opposition back to their box and play from there.

"When they lose it they win it back quickly and keep the team pinned back.

"Haaland has scored 25 league goals and lots of them are ones that come into the box and he puts them in, but we're not seeing the full package of what the player can do because of the team he's joined."

It'll take time for Haaland to fit in at Manchester City

Haaland certainly isn't the first player who struggled to adjust to the way Guardiola's side play, something pointed out by Kyle Walker in a post-match interview.

"It's a process, it's a difficult team to fit into as the manager demands so much and the way we play is unique," Walker said.

"Erling has been fantastic. No one says anything when he's scoring goals and winning.

"All of a sudden, now when we don't win and he doesn't score, they say 'is it the problem, do we play better without him?' I hear it all the time.

"But no one is complaining when he's scored his 25th goal of the season.

"This is the team we've got now until the end of the season. We'll fight until the end."