Hugo Ekitike might never match Erling Haaland for goals - but Liverpool's 'new Fernando Torres' has the all-round game that Man City's out-of-form No.9 could only dream of

Haaland has arguably become a victim of his own success. Anything less than a goal a game is deemed disappointing for the world's deadliest finisher.

There's no denying, though, that Haaland wasn't firing on all cylinders last season, scoring just 22 goals in 31 Premier League appearances - a superb strike-rate for almost any other player in the game but not football's answer to The Terminator.

"I haven't been scoring my chances," the man himself admitted during City's trophy-less 2024-25 campaign. "I have to do better, I haven't been good enough."

Haaland, though, began the current season like a man on a mission.  By week eight, he'd already struck 11 times. Just five days before Christmas, he took his tally to 19 goals in just 17 outings with a brace against West Ham. Haaland didn't just look like breaking his own record for most goals across a single season (36); he was on course to smash it.

However, in the seven weeks and seven matches that have followed that double at the Etihad on December 20, the Norwegian No.9 has netted just once, in a 1-1 draw with Brighton - and even that was from the penalty spot.

Guardiola has quite rightly pointed out that only a fool would expect Haaland's struggles in front of goal to continue for much longer.

"Never underestimate the strikers, the goal-scorers, because always they will make you silent," the City boss said. "He will score for the rest of his life, that's for sure."

Guardiola was also right when he argued that City remain blessed to have Haaland: "Without him, we would not be in the position we are in now. He brings a lot and is getting better at many, many things."

That has certainly looked like the case at times, this season. In the crazy 5-4 win at Fulham, for example, Haaland not only scored one goal, he also created two others, for Tijjani Reijnders and Phil Foden.

However, there are still far too many occasions on which the 25-year-old is barely touching the ball let alone affecting the game, meaning it's sometimes hard not to wonder if Haaland's not scoring, what exactly is he doing?

Haaland is aware of the ongoing debate about his general lack of involvement in City's build-up play - but insists that it doesn't bother him in the slightest.

"When I score, nobody talks about this, but when I don’t, people start to mention my touches," the striker told the Men in Blazers podcast. "This is a part of my life, how people will speak and I can’t control what people say about me.

"I just have to focus on what I should do on the pitch and my job isn't to be like Rodri, to control a game, it's being in the box and finishing the attacks. That's my focus and I don't care about what people say. It's about focusing on helping the team win.

"In the end, you can play football without touching the ball, even if it sounds funny for some to hear that. You can do it with movements, the mental part, and the awareness. It’s a huge part of the game. It's not only about touching the ball.

"Of course you have to touch the ball but I know my role in this team."

Essentially, Haaland's job is to score goals - and he does it better than arguably any other player in the world.

It's also true that his movement, along with his mere presence, occupies defenders, thus creating time and space for City's other attackers to do their thing.

However, while Roy Keane went too far (as usual) by claiming Haaland's "general play is that of a League Two player", there's simply no denying that the forward's all-round game leaves something to be desired.

He may sometimes be compared to Ronaldo, the most explosive No.9 of the modern era, but while he's far superior in the air, Haaland doesn't have anything like the same skillset as the Brazilian, who could take on defences all on his own.

Even looking at his contemporaries, Haaland may score just as many goals as Kylian Mbappe or Harry Kane, but he's nowhere near as complete a player as either man - or even Ekitike for that matter.

Ekitike will likely never be as prolific as Haaland. But he could be more productive - and that's not an attempted slight on Haaland. If anything, Ekitike's ability to both score and create chances while leading the line should only be of concern to Alexander Isak.

The natural presumption was that when Isak was fully up to speed after his deadline-day arrival from Newcastle last September, he would be Liverpool's first-choice centre-forward. After all, he'd arguably displaced Haaland as the most feared striker in the Premier League last season and the Reds had just made him the most expensive player in British football history, and the third costliest of all time.

However, Isak felt the effects of his shameful summer strike for far longer than anyone anticipated - and to such an extent that the fans grew frustrated with Arne Slot's self-confessed attempt to play him into form and fitness, while Ekitike, who had made such a sensational start to his Anfield career, came in and out of the side during the team's toughest spell of the season.

By December, even before Isak's desperately unfortunate leg-break against Spurs, it was clear that Ekitike had to play and he responded to a run of starts in the lead-up to Christmas with six goal involvements in four games before a minor thigh problem checked his progress.

However, Ekitike picked up where he'd left off upon returning to action last month. Against both Barnsley and Qarabag, he contributed a goal and assist before bagging a brilliant brace in Saturday's win over Newcastle.

The France international has undoubtedly been aided by Florian Wirtz belatedly getting to grips with the English game. The pair are developing into quite the dynamic duo, with no two Premier League players having combined for more goals this season (six).

"He's a great player who smells football," Ekitike said of Wirtz in his interview with TNT Sports after the Newcastle game. "It's pretty easy for me to play with him.

"I like to create space, link up and I can do everything with that kind of player. You just have to run in the free space and I know he will find me, so it's just fun to play with him."

The feeling is very much mutual, with Wirtz revealing that they click just as well off the field as they do on it.

"He's a great guy - a big personality, a good friend already to me," the Germany international told BBC Sport. "We know each other from the Bundesliga, we played a few times against each other and exchanged shirts already.

"He is a fantastic player and even surprised me when I first saw him here training and playing because I didn’t know he was that good."

Wirtz isn't the only one to have been taken aback by Ekitike's impact at Anfield. The great Thierry Henry - another player to whom Ekitike has been compared - was concerned by his compatriot's inconsistency, while also arguing that he didn't do the basics well. 

However, the World Cup winner recently touted Ekitike as his signing of the season so far due to his record of 15 goals in 32 appearances in all competitions for a side experiencing so many ups and downs.

"He surprised me," Henry admitted in his Betway column. "At the beginning, he had to prove that he could [do it] at Liverpool, and he did. Now the club is struggling but he's still delivering. I knew he had that in his locker, but I didn’t know it was going to be that quick in terms of how he adapted.

"Of course, it's easier to adapt when a team is rolling. But he adapted, then he went on the bench, didn’t say anything, came back and still scores his goals, so you have to put him up there."

There are obviously still areas of Ekitike's game that he has to work on, such as his finishing and his habit of occasionally taking too much out of the ball. However, we're talking about a multi-talented footballer that has improved exponentially over the past 18 months, excelling in a variety of roles: out wide, up front or in behind a No.9. In that sense, there appears to be no limit to what he might achieve - or become.

Haaland, of course, remains English football's most feared forward, and he could well silence his critics on Sunday.

In Ekitike, though, Liverpool don't have just have a goalscorer, they have a potential game-changer, a 23-year-old Torres-like tormentor that still hasn't reached the peak of his powers - and that's a truly terrifying thought not only for Manchester City but all of the Reds' rivals, and maybe even Isak too.