Richard Dunne explains how to stop Haaland next year and reveals the two defenders who managed it this season

Richard Dunne spent 10 seasons with Manchester City and was with the club when they were taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008.

In an exclusive interview with Ladbrokes: Fanzone, the former Ireland centre-back spoke about his memories of that time, but kicked things off by talking about the world’s most talked about striker – Erling Haaland.

How to stop Haaland next year…and the two defenders who managed it this season

It’s incredible to think that I’m now at that stage in my life where I’m watching players and thinking ‘I’ve played with their dad!’ It creeps up on you and you don’t realise how quickly time passes. In the case of Erling and Alfie Haaland, to see a dad and his son, two completely different types of players with different ways of going about things, it’s incredible.

Alfie was a very good player for us at City, and incredibly consistent. But his son is something else. He’s completely off the charts in terms of what you’d expect from a centre-forward. He can lead the line on his own, he can run in behind, he can link up well, he can score goals. The beauty of him is that he’s never disappointed if he misses a chance, because he knows he’s going to get another one quite quickly, and you’d back him every time to take it. It’s been really enjoyable watching him this season, just seeing a superstar in full flow. It’s something we should all appreciate.

When Man City played Everton at the Etihad, I think it was him and Ben Godfrey who had a little bit of a go at each other, and I think that distracted Haaland a little bit. He wasn’t the same player because he was interested in what the defender was doing, and what was being said to him. I saw the same with Antonio Rudiger this season for Real Madrid in that first leg of the semi-finals. He distracted him, he got stuck into him and he was constantly having pops at him. That took away from Haaland’s performance, because he was more focused on the player than the actual game. I think that might be a tactic that other players and teams will try to deploy next season. He is still young so he does still have that ‘I can fight anybody’ attitude and mentality.

As for his qualities physically, he’s got the beating of anybody. He scores all kinds of goals. You can’t mark him on one side because he’s just as comfortable turning on both. He’s strong on both feet and he knows exactly where the goal is, wherever he is on the pitch. But if you can take his mind away from the game, then that’s where defenders might get the better of him next season…but good luck with that! The two times I’ve seen him not fully on it have been when those two centre-backs – Godfrey and Rudiger – have got into his head and got him involved in personal duels.

Haaland has broken a Premier League record which stood for such a long time, so it’s difficult to say whether he’s going to beat it again next season. He does have other aspects of his game which he can improve on, and you can already see City have been working on that by involving him more in the build-up. And if you see that sort of improvement in him next season, where he’s becoming more and more involved deeper on the pitch, then you might see a drop in goals as a result. But he’s a centre-forward who feeds off scoring, so he’s always going to be in and around the 30-mark.

Arsenal impressed against Wolves…why couldn’t they do it when it mattered most?

I can’t imagine what Arsenal fans and players must be feeling now the season has come to an end. They seemed so comfortable and so together heading into the last 10 games of the season, you just expected them to go on and win it. Then, all of a sudden, a couple of results went against them. Manchester City closed them down and it was game over. It’s a horrible place to be.

They finished the season with a strong win against Wolves which shows the quality was always there, and if anything that just proves it was a mental block which stopped them from winning the league. They were full of energy, full of intensity against Wolves, and you just wonder why they couldn’t do that when it mattered most, and it’s basically down to the mental side of the game. Man City have the experience of winning games, so it’s a huge learning curve for them heading into next season.

In the summer of 2008, City owners were writing cheques supporters would never have dreamed of

Robinho was the crazy signing in 2008, obviously. I think we were away on international duty on that transfer deadline day and we were just sat around watching it all unfold. We couldn’t believe what was going on. It felt like every five minutes the club were bidding for this player or that player… they were just desperate to get any big name to come in, and it ended up being Robinho.

He left Real Madrid for Man City and we’re just like “wow.” We finished ninth in the league the previous year, so it wasn’t like we were challenging for trophies or European places or anything like that, so it was so strange to us. We already had a couple of Brazilian players so they were obviously going to help him settle in, but at the time it was just a massive shock for us to see one of the biggest superstars in world football joining Man City.

But it was a statement to the world. They were taking it seriously and they were going to start bidding for everyone. So many players were linked on that day. They tried to sign Fernando Torres, too, I think. They were writing cheques that people in Man City never would have dreamed of. They were willing to pay whatever it cost to get the project up and running. It was incredible because they’d only just bought the club on that day, so they just went all out right from the word go. I heard so many players they tried to sign on that deadline day…whether they wanted all of them or not, I don’t know.

It changed everyone’s perspective of Man City, though, the media especially. From that day, everyone knew how serious they were, and from then on we were linked with every big name in the country – John Terry, Steven Gerrard, every single player that was worth over £50m, Man City were linked with.

The transition of players moving out, versus the ones coming in, I don’t think there’s ever been such a drastic change in a club literally overnight. The players leaving and the players coming in were miles apart. Man City had always been looking around the Premier League and chasing bargains lower down in Europe, but then all of a sudden we were buying from Real Madrid, and asking all of the top clubs in the world for their best players. Kaka was another one they chased for ages, and even going back 10 or 15 years now, they were looking at Lionel Messi. It was a long way from the £3.5m they spent on me to come from Everton eight years prior, anyway!

Sharing a City record with Kevin De Bruyne

It was a decent amount of money Manchester City spent on me 23 years ago, around £3.5m, but I imagine it’s the same as the lads who move today for £100m. You can’t control what a club is willing to pay for you, so I never felt pressure on that front when I signed for them. The biggest thing for me was going in there and trying to impress my team-mates and integrate myself with another group of players.

I love City. I think it’s a fantastic club which has obviously changed so much from when I was there, but there’s nothing I could say about City which isn’t pleasant. The people there are great, and the direction which the club is being pushed in is the ideal example of a football club at the moment. Everyone is trying to copy their model, both on and off the pitch. It’s only going to get bigger and better, and hopefully they win the Champions League in a couple of weeks, too, because I see them then going on to dominate European football for a few years, as well as the Premier League.

🏆😁 #POTS pic.twitter.com/eTNMtaalW1

— Kevin De Bruyne (@KevinDeBruyne) May 21, 2022

When the time came for me to leave, it was fairly simple. I spent so many years playing regularly for the club, and I still felt I was at an age where I didn’t want to be sitting on the bench or become a bit-part player. I wanted to play and the club told me they didn’t want me anymore. That was fine, I was happy to go and do my own thing because I still felt I had a few years left. I started my career at Everton but I matured as a player, and as a person, at Man City. Those nine years were so important to me because I started a family and settled down in that time, so I only have good things to say about the role the club played in my life. I knew my time with them was coming to an end, so there were no hard feelings there at all from me. I love watching them now. I love that my son is a big fan of them too, and I just wish them all the success in the world… hopefully they can go and win the Champions League this time around.

I ended up with four Player of the Year awards at City, and I think that’s the same number Kevin De Bruyne is on now, so I’m sure he’ll overtake me at some point! If it’s not him, it will be Erling Haaland or someone else. The only thing I’ve got in my favour is that there are just so many talented players within that club, that they’ll all be winning it and sharing that trophy between them every other year. It’s a nice award to win, for sure, but the trophies these guys are winning between them as a squad mean so much more to everybody.