Manchester City cult hero Shaun Goater says Erling Haaland's showdown with Manchester United defender Raphael Varane will be decisive in today's huge derby at Etihad stadium.
While Goater says he has great respect for United's French centre-half, the former City striker believes Haaland will have too many weapons in his armoury for Varane to handle on the day.
Goater, who scored 79 goals in 159 games for City, told Tribalfootball.com on behalf of OLBG, "What I would say first of all is Raphael Varane is a world class defender.
"He's absolutely quality in my opinion and in terms of being a football fan I always look forward to seeing the best players playing up against each other.
"The one thing that I know Varane will be wary of is Haaland's pace because that's part of his uniqueness. His first five yards is crazy how quick he accelerates away from people.
"If you were to develop a top striker in the Premier League to deal with all situations, and this may sound funny, but you think of somebody like Peter Crouch. Just because in the air he'll win eight out of ten balls in the air being as tall as his is and Haaland isn't that far off Crouch's height.
"But then if you're building this player, you'd want him to have the pace of someone like Kyle Walker.
"All of a sudden you have a whole different animal.
"There won't be many balls that Haaland doesn't win, I know Manchester City don't throw the ball into the box, but the option is there to now. But putting that aside, balls that are four or five yards away are dangerous because he's so quick off the mark. The best of defenders will find it very tough to deal with it because you need to look where the ball is and when that ball will be delivered.
"That fraction of a second where the defender takes his eye off you is when you can make that movement. Haaland's timing of this movement is special which is why he scored so many goals."
Indeed, Goater can only see one winner out of the two combatants on the day.
"I admire Varane's quality, and I think he's a special player because of what he's done in his career. But I think Haaland's natural pace will be a threat to any defender which is why I think he'll trouble Varane.
"He'll have opportunities if balls are played in behind, maybe when Manchester United step up those five or 10 yards too high. Those sorts of balls of crosses will cause the centre-backs problems and Haaland has that natural ability to get on the end of them.
"It'll be difficult for those two to keep him out and it'll be about restricting his chances, but the form Haaland is in even a quarter of a chance he'll stick away."
