In a strange twist the striker has made City more defensively solid as they look capable of an unprecedented quadrupleHistory is what happens when you’re busy making plans about how to stop Erling Haaland. After nine months of fractured storylines, the European club season is finally narrowing to a point. For all the broken notes, the time-jumps, the jetlag along the way, we could now be facing an endgame of rare clarity, a moment where the entire horizon turns a shade of sky blue.Manchester City may still end up with nothing this season, no pots to wave, no bobbing podium huddles. But they are also within a sustained final push of winning it all, of taking that almost-unprecedented treble of...
Great strikers win games and yet they can disrupt tactical systems where dominating the ball is crucial – just like at CityErling Haaland is a phenomenon. It’s not just that he has scored 22 goals already this season, plus a further five goals in the Champions League. It’s the sense he offers of being unstoppable: almost unbeatable for pace, almost impossible to knock off the ball and with a clinical eye for goal as well.His phlegmatic, almost flippant, personality makes him more terrifying. He jokes about the secret target he has set himself for this season. He is not some driven self-improver: he scores goals in record-breaking numbers seemingly because he finds it funny. He plays football like the early...
The striker was largely subdued at Stamford Bridge, which in itself caught the eye as the champions displayed their class It took less than two minutes at Stamford Bridge for Pep Guardiola, dressed for a mild January night in a Captain Haddock outfit of navy blue roll neck and chunky black shoes, to appear on his touchline and begin whirling his arms in a series of lightning-fast rotational gestures.Guardiola whistled and pirouetted. He summoned Erling Haaland and machine-gunned him with tactical instructions. Haaland nodded. What was Pep saying here? Look a bit more menacing? Walk around a bit more? At this stage the game was 90 seconds old. Continue reading...
Assessments of the Manchester City striker’s first season in English football have been reduced to a counting exerciseThere was another Erling Haaland Moment at the weekend. If you didn’t see what happened, I’m afraid I’m going to spoil the ending for you: he scores. The moment came about 20 minutes into Manchester City’s game at Brighton when Ederson sent forward a long goal-kick. Haaland chased it. Robert Sánchez, Brighton’s goalkeeper, came and missed it. All that remained was Haaland and the Brighton defender Adam Webster, shoulder to shoulder, vying for the ball.Football has a familiar and established lexicon for describing what happened next. You could say Webster “lost out”. You could say he “came off second best”. You might even...
Manchester City are reaching towards football perfection but what happened to the false 9s and intricate tactical forms?Don’t fear the goal-reaper. Or at least, not while we still have this show. Perhaps the only frustration in watching Erling Haaland this season, the only minor gripe in this more-ish spectacular, is that he isn’t available to binge-watch all at once on demand.Each time Haaland walks off the pitch it is genuinely upsetting to realise once again that a scrolling ticker will not be appearing in the corner of your vision saying: “Next episode in 10 seconds,” complete with a button you can click impatiently when 10 seconds feels too long. For now it is necessary to wait for the next hit,...