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Former Manchester United striker Andy Cole has claimed that Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez will have to overcome tricky challenges over the course of the 2022-23 season.
Both Manchester City and Liverpool spent generously to bring Haaland and Nunez, respectively, to the Premier League. While Nunez is seen as a direct successor to the great Sadio Mane, Haaland is the first out-and-out center-forward City have had in ages.
According to Cole, filling in for Mane will not be a straightforward task for Nunez, while it will be just as tricky for Haaland to find his place in City. Shedding light on the things that could throw the strikers off, Cole said on the DAZN Soccer Show:
“That's the interesting thing about both teams. One is replacing someone who has been absolutely phenomenal. And the other one's coming into the team whereby they never had a No. 9 before and ultimately they're going to have to start focusing around him, so that that could throw them off a little bit.”
Cole also analyzed Haaland and Nunez’s situations separately. On Nunez, he said:
“They've spent a lot of money on Nunez. I genuinely do believe Liverpool will miss Mané. I think he's been absolutely phenomenal. They're missing what he gives them so [Nunez] has got to come and try and replace that.”
Former Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland was next in line.
Cole added:
“I think Haaland coming in, he's not coming to replace anybody. That gap was already there. I think that's what Manchester City have been missing. But because Man City have played for so long without a centre forward, that could throw him out of kilter a little bit because they've never had centre forward [for a while].”
Liverpool and Manchester City got a tasty preview of their new strikers on Premier League opening day
Both Darwin Nunez and Erling Haaland were in action in the first gameweek of the 2022-23 Premier League season. While Liverpool were disappointingly held to a 2-2 draw at Fulham, Nunez impressed onlookers with his cheeky backheel goal and an assist for Mohamed Salah.
Haaland, on the other hand, netted a brace in his Premier League debut for Manchester City at West Ham United. The Norwegian first won and converted a penalty and then applied an emphatic finish to Kevin de Bruyne’s through ball to seal a 2-0 win for the reigning English champions.
If the duo can keep this up, they will not have any trouble justifying their exorbitant price tags over the 2022-23 season.
