Erling Haaland: Manchester City’s Unstoppable Attacking Phenom
It was just a few years ago the world began to witness the emergence of a Norwegian striker who would eventually turn out to be one of the greatest strikers of his generation. Erling Haaland was just a teenage striker in Molde when he put the world on notice by scoring four goals in the first 21 minutes of Molde’s 4-0 win over Brann in 2018, drawing comparisons with some of the best strikers in the world at the time including Romelu Lukaku.
Haaland recorded 20 goals and six assists in a total of 50 appearances before he left Molde for Red Bull Salzburg in 2019, and he continued his impressive goalscoring form for the Austrian side where he bagged 29 goals and seven assists in 27 appearances across all competitions. The Norwegian’s time at Salzburg is fondly remembered for his UEFA Champions League debut when he scored a first-half hat-trick against Genk, becoming the first and only player to score a first-half hat-trick on his UCL debut.
Erling Haaland’s status as one of the best strikers in the world was cemented at Borussia Dortmund albeit doubts as to whether he could replicate his unreal goalscoring form outside the Bundesliga. Borussia Dortmund signing Haaland in the winter of 2020 was a major coup, a very smart piece of business for the German side to see off competition from several other top clubs around Europe for the signature of Haaland.
Dortmund capitalised on other top clubs’ unwillingness to take a chance on an unrefined talent who was yet to taste the waters of any of Europe’s top five leagues and it was a risk that ultimately paid off with two and a half seasons of the best striker of his generation wearing the famous black and yellow, terrorising the Bundesliga and propelling Dortmund to challenge the biggest guns on the continental stage.
As a matter of fact, Dortmund did not even have to wait for long at all to reap the dividends of Haaland’s magnificence as he bagged a hat-trick inside 23 minutes on his debut as a second-half substitute in a 5-3 comeback win over FC Ausgburg, announcing to the whole of Germany that a new predator was in town.
Haaland eventually left Borussia Dortmund with his status cemented as arguably the best striker in the world, one UCL top scorer award, one trophy, 86 goals and 23 appearances in a total of 89 appearances across all competitions for the German side, it was time for a new challenge. Premier League Champions Manchester City added Haaland to their super team in the summer of 2022 and despite the Norwegian’s status as one of the most potent finishers in Europe, the doubts that surrounded his arrival in England were not unfounded.
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Man City were already dominating the Premier League without a centre-forward and had won back to back league titles before Haaland’s arrival so there was an argument as to whether or not they needed a traditional centre-forward in the mould of Erling Haaland, besides, the Premier League was seen as a potential funeral ground for some of the best Bundesliga attacking talents at the time.
Timo Werner and Kai Havertz were a prime case study — the duo had found the transition from Germany’s top flight to English football quite difficult to navigate despite the former being a reputable goal machine from the Bundesliga and the latter being regarded as a generational talent when they both arrived at Chelsea. More so, there were doubts as to how a big traditional centre-forward whose biggest asset is his box presence would fit into Pep Guardiola’s juego de posicion.
Besides, City were already the strongest team in the land without a traditional number 9, why take the risk to spend big on a high profile player? But there is a rule in football which City decided to adhere to which is never to pass on the chance of signing a generational talent, a lot of clubs who had on few occasions been skeptical about taking their chance on generational talents have very often lived to regret it.
Arsenal and Manchester United come to mind with the latter reportedly having the opportunity to sign Haaland from Molde on the recommendation of cub legend and former manager, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer who was Haaland’s coach at the Norwegian club. There is however a reversal to this rule and that is in regards to providing the proper platform. Not having the right environment for this kind of talent to thrive could ultimately hinder their growth and productivity as Chelsea have learnt with some signings they made in recent years.
Football is played with 11 men on the pitch and a football team is like a jigsaw, each and every player being a piece and one piece must complement the other in order to maximise the abilities of every individual. This is what makes teams perform at their best; it is one of the secrets behind the making of champions in the sport. Apparently, Man City had the right environment and the proper premise to platform Erling Haaland.
An all-time-great manager like Pep Guardiola, creative machines like Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, and Ilkay Gundogan amongst others plus a winning culture already established at the club are all recipes to the success of a very hungry number 9. Haaland did not have the best of competitive debuts for Manchester City in the Community Shield in August 2022, his performance in that 3-1 loss to Liverpool was banter material, a resource pool for social media’s hall of memes but what he would go on to achieve on an individual level in the weeks and many months that followed was something that stunned the entirety of the Premier League.
In its 31-year existence prior to the arrival of Erling Haaland, never had a player taken the Premier League by storm the way Haaland did in his first season. The Norwegian first started by silencing his critics with 15 goals in his first 10 Premier League matches which included three hat-tricks plus three assists within this period. At the end of his debut season, he broke the record for the most Premier League goals in a single season beating the 34-goal record previously held by Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer with 36 goals.
What is even more ridiculous is the fact that Haaland only featured in 31 league games that season while Cole alongside Shearer who initially held the record with 34 goals benefited from a 42-game season with both players playing in 40 and 42 league games in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Haaland in just his first season surpassed the greatest goalscorers the Premier League had ever seen.
Aside from Cole and Shearer, Kevin Philips, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robin van Persie, Luis Suarez, Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah were just the few Premier League players to hit the 30-goal mark with Salah being the closest to beat the record of 34 goals that stood before the arrival of Haaland with 32 goals on his debut 2017/18 season which was the highest in a 38-game Premier League season.
A seemingly rare occurrence in a league that prided itself as the toughest league in the world was what a then 22-year-old striker from the Bundesliga triggered in just his debut season. And of course, Manchester City were champions again, seeing off a close title challenge from Arsenal to win the league with a five-point difference, Haaland’s goals being the major difference between both title contenders.
It was not just on the domestic front this difference was being made as it ultimately proved that Erling Haaland was just the missing piece left for Man City to win their first-ever UEFA Champions League. Haaland scored 12 goals that season to finish as highest goalscorer in the UCL and his three goals in four FA Cup appearances was also instrumental in Man City winning the treble in 2022/23. A generational performance across all fronts from the goal machine.
Haaland’s second season was not as prolific as his first but to so many other strikers in the world, 27 goals and four assists in 31 league appearances to help Man City win their fourth consecutive EPL title is equivalent to a season’s personal best little wonder he was yet again the Premier League’s highest goalscorer and he has continued his third season in similar goalscoring fashion, currently leading the scoring chart with 10 goals in his first seven games with two hat-tricks already. The most unstoppable goalscorer the Premier League has ever seen.
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In a total of 73 league appearances for Man City, the Norway international has registered 73 goals, that is, he currently averages a goal per every Premier League match. Even more impressive is the fact that he could score with both feet and even headers as well. A breakdown of his total Premier League goals shows he has scored 11 headers, nine goals on his right foot, and 52 on his favoured left foot.
Erling Haaland’s goalscoring record begs the most obvious question, what makes him such a good goalscorer? Being the son of former Leeds and Man City midfielder, Alf-Inge Haaland, it does not come as a surprise that Erling Haaland was able to develop into a very good footballer. Good footballing genes passed down from his biological father coupled with a proper footballing education is often likely to produce a top player.
Standing at 6 ft 4, Haaland is a physical specimen blessed with the height range of a traditional centre-forward with his height obviously enhancing his aerial prowess, and it is not just about height and winning aerial duels for Haaland, he possesses tremendous athleticism, a combination of flexibility, sheer strength and pure running power.
You add that to a very brilliant football brain, an IQ that enables him time his runs perfectly, make good decisions in crucial moments, and also position himself at the right places at the right moments plus he possesses a belter of a left foot as well, one of the cleanest ball strikers in the whole of Europe.
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Anyone’s first impression of Erling Haaland could easily be a striker built in a laboratory. To many football fans, Erling Haaland is a robot, a footballer scientifically programmed to score goals. For a number 9, there are no manifest weaknesses to his game. Apart from scoring 73 goals in 73 Premier League games, Haaland missing up to 65 big chances is a pointer to how brilliant his positioning is.
He is up there with the very best XG accumulators in the game and this is coupled with the fact that he has been caught offside only 15 times in his Premier League career. To put in context how impressive that is, a seasoned Premier League striker like Jamie Vardy has been caught offside eight times already this season while for Haaland, it has happened just once inside the first seven games of the season.
One of Haaland’s major criticisms has been his ability to score goals from outside the box, that sheer unpredictability to let it fly from yards out is something uncommon in Haaland’s game, just three Premier League goals from outside the box amongst his first 63 league goals across his first two seasons showed that he is very less dangerous when he is outside the box.
This coupled with the fact that he possesses nothing close to the playmaking or link-up abilities of strikers like Harry Kane, Karim Benzema, and Olivier Giroud meant keeping Haaland as far away from goal as possible was the best way to render him inefficient from an opposition perspective but doing that would mean defenses might have to push high up the pitch and this could be counter-productive as unlike so many other box centre-forwards.
Haaland is ridiculously quick, and having him in the same team as accurate long ball hitters like Kevin De Bruyne and even goalkeeper, Ederson is enough arsenal to break any high line in world football. Besides, Haaland is a top professional who noticeably maintains a very strict routine and he seems to be improving on this aspect of his game already.
This season, he has already scored two goals from outside the box from four attempts in seven matches. Last season, he only managed two from just seven attempts across 31 games and in his first season, it was just one from eight attempts across the same number of games. This suggests an improvement on the dimensions of his game, slowly evolving into a more multi-dimensional finisher and it is pertinent to note that Haaland is only 24 years old with a lot of years still ahead of him.
No need imagining what he will achieve between now and the end of his career or trying to put a cap on his ceiling, we are witnessing the peak of a phenomenon and it will be best to sit tight and appreciate the becoming of this greatness, a proper gladiator of this era. Erling Haaland will be hoping that in the years to come, he will be able to guide Norway to the finals of a major tournament if not winning it.
Norway haven’t played in a major tournament since Euro 2000 — and if they are to put an end to their quarter-century drought and qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, they will need Haaland to be at his best and deliver the goods. After grabbing a brace in Norway’s 3-0 win vs. Slovenia in the UEFA Nations League, Haaland has ended Jørgen Juve’s 90-year record as Norway’s all-time leading scorer, ascending to the top of the charts with 34 goals in 36 appearances for Norway. Next up for Halaand? Overtaking Sergio Agüero as Manchester City’s all-time leading scorer (101 goals in 108 matches vs. Agüero’s 260 in 390).
By: Moe Adikwu / @Moe_Adikwu
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Sebastian Frej / MB Media / Getty Images