Arsenal icon Dennis Bergkamp snubbed Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, naming the ideal three striker he would have loved to play with. He appreciated their intelligence and compared them to his former teammate, Marco van Basten.
Dennis Bergkamp excludes Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland
Dennis Bergkamp is an Arsenal, Ajax, and the Netherlands icon, who won multiple titles in his playing career. He shared the field with some big strikers like Ian Wright, Marco van Basten, and Ruud van Nistelrooy. He shared the pitch 35 times with Van Basten, combining for three goals.
In an interview with Ian Wright on The Overlap, Bergkamp was questioned to name his current top strikers.. He snubbed Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, saying:
“At the moment, the ideal strikers – how we knew them like Marco van Basten – it’s Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski. Lewandowski is at an age now where things don’t always come as smoothly, but those two have been phenomenal. And Karim Benzema – I used to teach young strikers a lot using his movement. It was unbelievable. I tried to put that into the heads of the strikers I worked with in the youth teams as well because his runs were amazing.”
While Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema are at the end of their careers, Harry Kane is the joint-top scorer in Europe's Top 5 League this season.
Erling Haaland reflects on Golden Boot race with Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane
Erling Haaland has amassed 28 goals and provided six assists in 36 matches across all competitions for Manchester City so far this season. However, he scored only three goals in his last 13 outings at the club level. Hence, He has fallen behind Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane in the Golden Boot Race.
Erling Haaland scored a key penalty in City's 2-1 win against Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League on Sunday. Following the game, he said:
“I haven’t scored enough goals since the start of this year and I know that I need to improve. I know I need to be more sharp, better at all of this and this is something that I have to work on. I have to keep going because this is what everyone deserves and expects.
“I don’t want to speak about why I haven’t performed. I don’t think there’s any excuse. Fatigue is a lot in the head. It is a lot of games. Look at the schedule: it’s not easy. For me, it’s about staying fit, don’t get injured. That’s the most important thing. And try to be ready to help the team.”
Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane's stats this season
Kylian Mbappe has scored 38 goals and given five assists in 31 matches across all competitions for Real Madrid this season. On the other hand, Harry Kane also has 38 goals and five assists in 33 games for Bayern Munich.