Pep Guardiola's blunt reply to Erling Haaland question as Jamie Carragher repeats Roy Keane mistake

Pep Guardiola hit back at pundits like Jamie Carragher, who have criticised Erling Haaland's all-round play this week.

After Roy Keane described Haaland as a 'League Two' player when it comes to his contribution away from his incredible goalscoring record, Carragher is the latest high-profile pundit to wade in on Haaland's abilities when he is not finding the back of the net. The former Liverpool defender wrote on Friday that Haaland is the 'ultimate luxury footballer', adding he cannot yet be a Ballon d'Or contender because: "he is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest goal-scorers, but is yet to become a world-class player."

It's an opinion that Guardiola clearly doesn't subscribe to as he defended his striker and credited him with a vital role in City's five trophies won in the last 12 months. To Carragher and other pundits, Guardiola simply said: "They can do whatever they want."

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The prime accusation levelled at Haaland after his blank in Madrid was that he failed to impact the game, but that ignores the key factor that he was marked incredibly closely by both Real centre-backs. And as Guardiola pointed out, the Madrid tactics allowed City more space in attack to score their three goals.

“We had two central defenders close to him, really close to him, it’s not easy. The most difficult position on the pitch is a striker," he said. "Every player has one player [marking them]. You have two against one with the striker. He has two players and they were so tight and really good defenders. It is the