Rio Ferdinand details private Jack Grealish message on Haaland problem

Rio Ferdinand has revealed Jack Grealish told him on Friday that Manchester City are still not providing Erling Haaland with enough service – something that was laid bare in the champion’s 2-0 triumph over Newcastle on Saturday. The Norwegian assisted the host’s second goal – scored by Bernardo Silva – but it was another frustrating afternoon for the Premier League’s leading goalscorer, who was evidently agitated by his team-mates and their inability to find him on the pitch.

Haaland recently showed similar signs of frustration in City’s 1-1 Champions League draw versus RB Leipzig and his goals have now started to dry up following a thunderous start to the campaign.

Pundits and journalists have also begun to pick up on City’s failure to pick out Haaland’s runs during matches, something they were doing with ease at the beginning of the season.

Now Ferdinand has revealed Grealish and his City peers are aware of the issue as the £100million man outlined the team’s commitment to getting Haaland back amongst the goals during a private chat with the ex-Manchester United defender.

Ferdinand said on BT Sport after City’s 2-0 win: “I spoke to Jack Grealish yesterday and he said ‘we can still give him the ball more’.

“I thought today there was two or three options really – especially in the first half – where they get into the pockets, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne and he [Haaland] makes beautiful runs.

“They are defender’s nightmare runs but Haaland isn’t getting the ball at times. Maybe it’s not on, maybe because we are up here it looks like it’s on but I’m sure he will be having that conversation.”

Haaland made a handful of excellent runs in the first half but City struggled to get the ball into the former Borussia Dortmund frontman.

His only real chance of the match came in the first half when he out-jumped Sven Botman before heading the ball wide of the mark.

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The £64m striker did come up trumps in the second half, however, when he fed substitute Bernardo Silva, who doubled City’s advantage.

Speaking after Man City’s 1-0 defeat at Tottenham in early February, Jamie Carragher declared he felt Haaland may have selected the wrong club when deciding to move to the Etihad Stadium.

Haaland had registered no touches in the box that day and failed to even have a shot on target for City – a feat that was repeated against Newcastle.

“I think we’ve only seen 60 per cent of Erling Haaland,” Carragher said.

“You think of the goal he got vs West Ham when there was space in behind and he gets in behind. I know that’s not there every time due to the way City play.

“He’s come from a counter-attacking league [the Bundesliga] where it’s end to end. You saw his blistering pace there – we don’t see it here.

“He might have picked the wrong club to actually get the best out of him.”

Even Pep Guardiola recently declared City needed to find a way of getting Haaland more involved and with Julian Alvarez chomping at the bit for more minutes, an interesting situation is unfolding in the final months of the season.

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