Rio Ferdinand explains key difference between Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland and Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has explained the main difference between Wayne Rooney and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.

Haaland has been in sensational form recently. He took his goalscoring run to six consecutive matches in City's recent 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) on September 14.

While the Norwegian hitman has been consistently among the goals, he doesn't take a lot of touches in a match. This has caught the attention of quite a few pundits.

Speaking to BT Sport in that regard, Ferdinand said (via Manchester Evening News):

"We played with Wayne Rooney, if he scored one or two goals and had a few touches, he wouldn’t be happy.

"This guy is the total opposite, ‘give me little touches but many goals and I’ll die a happy man’. That’s the way he is, breathes about football and it’s about scoring goals and winning games."

The former Manchester United captain added:

"What I love about him, strikers young and old who will have minimal touches in the game - he had 11 in the game - who will be panicking searching for the ball and affecting the team’s shape to get more touches.

"He’s calm, he’s thinking ‘I want goals, I can have three touches in the game and if I get one in the box and score I’ll be happy'."

Haaland is notably now just four goals short of Rooney's UCL tally and one short of Luis Suarez's. While the Manchester United legend played 85 matches to score 30 goals in the continental competition, the former Dortmund star has already hit 26 goals in just 21 appearances.

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has been on fire in the new season

Haaland joined Manchester City in a £54 million move from Dortmund this summer. He has been scoring goals for fun so far this season.

In nine appearances across competitions, he has already scored 13 goals. 10 goals have come in the Premier League while the other three have been scored in the UCL.

The 22-year-old Manchester City striker has age on his side and is well on his way to breaking quite a few goalscoring records, provided he stays fit.