"Erling Haaland is lethal" - Thierry Henry hails Borussia Dortmund goal machine
Borussia Dortmund's Erling Haaland is one of the best finishers in world football and already at the top of his game, according to legendary forward Thierry Henry.
Haaland has scored 30 goals in 31 competitive games for Dortmund in 2020/21, including a tournament-leading 10 in his six UEFA Champions League appearances so far this term.
In the Bundesliga, the Norway international is averaging a goal every 89 minutes - 19 in 20 outings so far this season - and boasts a shot conversion rate of 44 per cent for club and country.
Watch: Erling Haaland - half man, half machine
Henry tallied over 480 senior goals during a storied career that took in stints at Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona and New York Red Bulls, as well as 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2000 UEFA Euro wins with France.
He is widely regarded as one of the finest forwards of his generation, but believes Haaland is already in that bracket at 20.
"[Haaland] doesn't care about anything other than the goal," said Henry, appearing as a pundit on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football show. "Other players will go on the wing - he wants to stay within the frame of the net. Between the two posts, he knows he is lethal.
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"He's so powerful, by the way. He just wants to run in behind and the way he finishes is ridiculous. The ability that he has: he believes so much in himself, and I like that. There's a bit of cockiness about him, if I can use that word. You've got to look at people and say, 'I'm going to score'. He doesn't want to go anywhere else other than to score goals.
"Right now, he's at the top of the game - already, at his age."
Haaland's one-track mind has yielded 47 goals in 48 senior games for Dortmund, adding to his 29 in 27 matches in RB Salzburg colours, 20 in 50 outings for Molde, and six in seven on the international stage with Norway.
Henry believes BVB's apex-predator striker and countryman Kylian Mbappe boast the necessary attributes to dominate the game for years to come, in the same way Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have.
Watch: All of Haaland's Bundesliga goals!
"They want to kill, they want to be in the box, they're looking at the defenders [and saying], 'you won't be able to live with me'," he explained.
"I'm happy to see these guys coming because they're real strikers: they want to go in behind, they want to hurt you. There's nothing worse than when a guy looks at you and goes in behind again and again and again.
"Those guys [Mbappe and Haaland] have that mentality, and it's nice to see. They are two amazing strikers."
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