Alan Shearer: Liverpool have an ‘incredible’ player who’s ‘better than Haaland’ for three things

Alan Shearer has drawn favourable comparisons between one Liverpool player and a certain Erling Haaland this week.

The Manchester City marksman scored both of his team’s goals in their 2-2 draw away to Monaco on Wednesday night, taking his tally for the season to 11 in eight matches for his club. That becomes 17 in 10 altogether since the start of August when international games are included.

The Reds have their own Scandinavian hitman in £125m signing Alexander Isak, who’s netted just once in his first five appearances for Arne Slot’s side but is also a proven goalscorer in the Premier League (54 goals in 88 games).

Shearer draws comparisons between Isak and Haaland

While the pure scoring numbers certainly favour Haaland, Shearer has claimed that Liverpool’s number 9 is superior to his Man City counterpart in other ways.

Speaking on Amazon Prime Video during coverage of our Champions League clash against Galatasaray, the pundit said: “I think they are very different. I wouldn’t argue that Erling Haaland isn’t the best goalscorer in the world, but Isak is an incredible footballer that can do things Haaland can’t do with a football. He gives you different options.

“Haaland is without a doubt more of a killer. He will score more goals than Isak, but running with the ball, touch and technique, then Isak is better than Haaland. They are both excellent players, but both very different.”

Isak has outperformed Haaland in some respects

Let’s just one thing on the record straight away – Erling Haaland’s goalscoring numbers are without parallel in world football and he’s a freak of nature in that regard. To score 270 times in 336 senior club careeer games, and 48 in 45 international caps, is simply outrageous.

However, Shearer is justified in saying that there are other aspects of Isak’s game where he has an edge on the Norwegian powerhouse, and the statistics are there to prove it.

As per FBref, the Swedish striker outperformed his Man City counterpart last season for pass completion (75.3% to 66.9%), key passes (41 to 29), progressive passes (88 to 20), shot-creating actions per game (3.01 to 2.34) and dribble success (46.2% to 36.1%).

Haaland and Isak are both top-class centre-forwards in their own right who may have differing underlying qualities but have both proven to be consistently capable of scoring plenty of goals at an elite level.

The 26-year-old hasn’t taken flight at Liverpool just yet (Lewis Steele has voiced concerns over the Swede’s fitness after the lack of a pre-season), but once he’s back up to full speed, we’re sure that our new number 9 will be a genuine difference-maker for the Premier League champions.

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