Tuesday night saw two of the biggest names in world football share a pitch as Erling Haaland’s Manchester City faced off against Kylian Mbappe’s Real Madrid.
Haaland scored two goals – one more than Mbappe – but it was Madrid who came away with a 3-2 win in a dramatic first leg in the Champions League’s playoff round.
Ahead of kick-off at the Etihad Stadium, Haaland and Mbappe were the focus of attention in the CBS Sports studio, where France legend Thierry Henry was joined by ex-Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher and former Man City star Micah Richards.
As the only former striker on the panel, Henry was asked which of the two attacking superstars on show he believed was superior.
He answered decisively, while detailing why he thought one was much better than the other.
‘Kylian, for me, has more of a pass,’ Henry began. ‘I’ll explain. This is a guy that’s trying to play as a nine for one and a half years. They tried to do it at Paris Saint-Germain and it didn’t work out too much. Now he is doing it at Real Madrid, the biggest club in Europe. He has to adapt to that.’
Switching his attention to Haaland, Henry continued: ‘This guy has been playing as a nine since the beginning of his career.
‘We thought that they were going to be the two guys that were going to come after [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo. But now, instead of having a confirmation of what they are, people are still questioning the way they play. But not the stats, because the stats are magnificent in terms of goals.’
Carragher then interjected to ask Henry: ‘So you don’t see them as two of the best players in the world right now?’
Henry replied: ‘They are. Maybe not the two best, but they are top. People will argue. People will say Mbappe. Some people will say Vinicius. Some people will say Lamine Yamal is coming. Whatever. I’m just saying it is not a sure thing. We thought it was going to be a sure thing.’
Asked by Carragher who he would prefer to have in his team if he were the manager, Henry declared without hesitation: ‘Mbappe, all day.
‘Because he does – or offers – different options. For a coach, he can play on the right, he can play on the left, and he can play in the middle. Can Haaland play any position other than a nine?
‘For example, let me ask you a question… Who would you prefer to mark?’
Former defender Richards was the first to answer that question. ‘I’d prefer Haaland,’ he said. ‘Because you always know he wants to run in behind. Mbappe can go both ways.’
Carragher agreed. ‘I’m the same as Big Meeks,’ he added. ‘But I also want to ask you, if you were to coach – and in an ideal world, you want a striker to do everything – but if you’re the coach and you’ve got Haaland, and he doesn’t do these things, but he’s scoring you 30-plus goals a season, are you not happy with that? Do you not think, “well, okay, I’m going to get somebody else to do these other things, because I can’t take that away from my team?”
Henry hit back: ‘The perfectionist side of my brain would be like, “you’re scoring goals, you’re always going to do that, but can you be better? Can you be better for the team? Can you do something when the team cannot help you?”
‘I keep on repeating that, and I don’t care. Scoring goals doesn’t mean you play well. That doesn’t mean you help your team the way you should have helped them.
‘Sometimes your team-mates bail you out, more often than not. So yes, I would show him clips to make sure that he can be better at times. I think that you have to make a player better, not only take what he can bring you.’