Arsene Wenger has stated that Erling Haaland is missing a player Manchester City sold last year.

Despite scoring 31 goals in all competitions, Haaland’s form has come under the microscope this season.

Since returning from injury, City’s number nine has scored six goals in 10 Premier League starts.

For most forwards in the world, such a tally would be considered impressive.

But Erling Haaland has missed chances he would otherwise dispatch in this stretch of games, while also being marked out of certain games and all in all, not looking as confident as he usually does.

Considering how complete a striker Haaland is, many wonder even how he can even have off days.

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Wenger says Haaland is missing player Manchester City sold last year

The 23-year-old has attributes most goalscorers could only wish to have.

Such as the Norwegian’s lethal finishing, incredible strength, intelligent movement and sprinter-like pace and yet, he does not seem to be firing on all cylinders for the first time in his career.

Jamie Carragher feels the Leeds-born striker is brilliant at scoring goals but he is not a “great player” and some might agree with him.

Ally McCoist, for instance, claimed that his overall game is “bang average.”

Micah Richards questioned why the treble-winner does not use his physicality to his advantage more, especially in battles against centre-backs like Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba.

Arsene Wenger believes one reason why Erling Haaland is undergoing somewhat of a rough patch is due to the absence of Ilkay Gundogan.

“And [Erling] Haaland now, everybody knows, we speak about tonight, Haaland last year benefited a lot from [Ilkay] Gundogan, who went in the box and occupied one or two players and he had a bit more freedom”, he said on beIN SPORTS.

“Now, I find him a lot of many times alone in the box against three, four players, you don’t need to be a good player, you need to be a monster there.”

Signing an Ilkay Gundogan replacement is key due to this reason

In our view, Arsene Wenger makes a fair point, as Ilkay Gundogan would often ghost into space close to the goal and that would give Erling Haaland the room to exploit and score goals.

Phil Foden could play the German’s role but often, he does not get the chance to as Pep Guardiola seems to still be figuring out how to convert him into a full-time midfielder.

For this reason alone amongst many, City must do their best to find their heir to Gundogan’s throne.

The Barcelona maestro was unique in the sense that not many midfielders have an understanding of space like he does.

When Manchester City scout a replacement for Ilkay Gundogan, as Arsene Wenger stated, Erling Haaland would go back to benefiting a lot in goalscoring positions in and outside the box.

As a result, the club’s scouting must be on the money.