Man City superstar Erling Haaland blasted for behaviour ‘not worthy of being captain’

Man City superstar Erling Haaland has been slammed over behaviour “not worthy of being captain” after Norway lost 5-1 to Austria at the weekend.

Haaland became Norway’s all-time leading goalscorer last week to continue his great start to the season after bagging ten goals in his first seven Premier League matches of the season.

The Man City striker went into Thursday night’s Nations League clash against Slovenia only one behind Jorgen Juve, who scored his 33 goals nearly a century ago.

It took Haaland only seven minutes to equal the mark, the 24-year-old converting a rebound in emphatic fashion.

And in the 62nd minute he tucked a side-footed effort into the bottom corner for his 34th international goal to hold the record outright.

Haaland, who recently reached the 100-goal mark for City in only 105 appearances , has been just as prolific for his country as his club, with his historic feat coming in just 36 matches.

He made his Norway debut in September 2019 against Malta, scoring his first goal the following year against Austria.

Haaland has scored three hat-tricks for his country – against Romania, Gibraltar and Kosovo.

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But his latest performance as they were thrashed 5-1 against Austria has come in for criticism, along with his decision to not speak to the assembled media after the match.

There was criticism of his leadership as other players spoke to the media on their way back to the bus, but Haaland refused to.

And VG journalist Kristoffer Lokberg insists Haaland’s behaviour was “not worthy of being captain”.

Lokberg said: “It’s a shame. If there’s anyone we want to hear from after a violent slump, it’s the captain. How was it communicated out here?

“How do you think after the 3-1 goal? Do you gather them? What do you do? When you are captain, you have been assigned a role that requires a little extra. Then you should stand up.”

Former Man Utd defender Wes Brown thinks Haaland was “rattled” by Gabriel Magalhaes during Man City’s 2-2 draw against Arsenal in late September.

Brown said recently: “I think Gabriel rattled Erling Haaland a little bit the other day. You could see there were a few little squabbles between the pair, and I think that means that Haaland knew that he was having a tough game against Gabriel, even though he scored.

“He’d probably lap it up if he was having a good game so you can tell that he must have got to him throughout the match.

“It can be easy to lose your head a bit at times. It was a big game between the two best sides in the league and I reckon it’ll be those two at the top again. Manchester City scored that late goal but they’ll still be disappointed with drawing the game – it was a chance for them to pull away a little bit.

“You could see it was a very physical game so it’s no surprise things spilled over a little bit between the players.”