Erling Haaland vs. Alexander Isak: Man City’s Pep Guardiola disagrees with Liverpool’s Arne Slot over 'best in the world' striker debate

Pep Guardiola ranks Manchester City striker Erling Haaland “a little bit above” Liverpool’s club-record signing Alexander Isak.

Both Haaland and Isak are widely regarded as two of the best strikers in world football and they are now in direct competition when it comes to the race for the Premier League Golden Boot, as well as the title.

Following a drawn-out transfer saga in the summer, Liverpool successfully completed the signing of Isak from Newcastle United for a British-record £125m on deadline day.

Haaland, meanwhile, has entered his fourth year at Man City, and after winning back-to-back titles and Golden Boot awards in his first two seasons, breaking a plethora of goalscoring records in the process, the 25-year-old had to settle for third place in both last season, scoring 22 goals for a Citizens side who slipped behind both Arsenal and champions Liverpool.

As for Isak, he scored one goal more (23) than Haaland for Newcastle last season, but he was also pipped to the Golden Boot by the Premier League’s Player of the Season Mohamed Salah (29 goals).

Haaland ranks “a little bit above” Isak, says Guardiola

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is excited by the arrival of Isak at Anfield and described the 25-year-old as possibly the best striker in the world after praising Jon Dahl Tomasson’s usage of the Swedish star during the international break.

Slot told reporters: “First of all I think [Tomasson] deserves a big, big, big compliment because he gets one of the best, maybe the best striker in the world in and needs to play two very important games for his country, but understands if he would play him twice for 90 minutes, the player would have probably been injured for multiple weeks.”

Guardiola was then questioned by the media about where he ranks Haaland in comparison to Isak following Slot’s comments, and the Man City boss in not in agreement with his Dutch counterpart.

While Guardiola has heaped praise on Isak as a striker, he has acknowledged that he would not swap Man City and Norway goal machine Haaland for anyone else in world football.

“[Haaland is] a little bit above. Isak is an exceptional player. You asked me about Erling and he is top,” Guardiola told reporters on Friday.

"Isak must be a top player because of what they paid. Another one would say [Kylian] Mbappe, [Lionel] Messi, Cristiano [Ronaldo]… I wouldn’t change Erling for anyone. I know him. I like him."

How have Haaland and Isak fared so far this season?

While Isak is yet to make a Premier League appearance this season and was unable to help Sweden win either of their World Cup qualifiers against Kosovo and Slovenia this month, Haaland has made a positive start to the new campaign in front of goal for club and country.

Haaland is already leading the way at the top of the Premier League scoring charts with three goals in as many games this term, while he scored six goals across just two World Cup qualification wins for Norway against Finland and Moldova, netting five of those in a thumping 11-1 win over the latter on Tuesday.

Man City’s No.9 is expected to lead the line for Guardiola’s side in Sunday’s eagerly-anticipated Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium, while Isak may feature in some capacity in Liverpool’s trip to Burnley in the Premier League, but Slot has revealed that it will likely be a matter of weeks before he can complete 90 minutes on a regular basis.