Only the big hit counts: Haaland, Pep and Man City – can that go well?

Only the really big hit counts
Haaland, Pep and Man City – can that go well?

By David Needy

One of the best teams in the world (Manchester City) with one of the best coaches (Pep Guardiola) buys one of the best strikers (Erling Haaland). A fantastic journey that can only end with the handle pot. What can possibly go wrong? All or nothing.

Pep Guardiola decided to buy Erling Haaland exactly a week ago. Of course, negotiations had been going on for a long time, but the star coach sat in the dressing room after the bitter last-minute elimination with Manchester City in the Champions League against Real Madrid and mused: “Damn, I need one of those too.” Of course he was thinking of Karim Benzema, the center forward who has shaped this premier season like no other.

It has not been reported that this story happened in this way. But there are good reasons for this. City have already scored 89 goals this Premier League season. The most of any team in the league – as it has every year for five seasons. There were 83 last year, even 102, 95 and 106 in the 19/20, 18/19 and 17/18 seasons. And now there is also the exceptional striker Haaland. Well then: good night Liverpool, good night Europe. But wait, whether this triangular marriage fits Haaland, Guardiola and Manchester City remains to be seen. Especially after another threesome in Paris more than disappointed this season.

Scoring goals has never been a problem for Manchester – or any of Guardiola’s teams. The star coach maintains and loves (his) offensive style like no other. The Catalan’s sides have always been well-oiled attacking machines. Engines in which every precisely set cog wheel meshes, every screw, no matter how small, is assigned an important meaning. Fluid offensives where everything and everyone, players and spaces, shifts so quickly that opponents rarely catch up.

Haaland, the missing screw

It not only looks nicer than any metallic machine. Pep’s style of play is also extremely successful. The goals of the Skyblues are easily enough for national titles, but you don’t need Haaland for several hundred million euros (that’s how high the total package of the transfer is). They have won three of the last four championships. Also this year Liverpool should not be able to displace Guardiola’s men from the top.

But Guardiola has been missing a set screw for years. Since he no longer has the then outstanding Lionel Messi in the team. And so the Catalan sat in the dressing room after the loss against Real and thought: Haaland comes for nothing less than being exactly this missing engine part. So that the drive hums even in the really big games. To fulfill the dream that drives the Citizens as well as their coach. Winning the Champions League. Anything else would be a disappointment.

City are the Premier League team with the most possession and touches of the ball in the penalty area. Guardiola’s possession-oriented football style thrives on conquering the game equipment quickly and well in front of his own goal. Anyone who has ever seen Haaland live on the pitch knows what kind of berserker is whizzing across the pitch. Pressing is part of the Norwegian’s basic attitude, Haaland wants to win the ball. Always, everywhere, and as quickly as possible. So the best conditions.

Savior Haaland?

Dortmund also plays with a high defensive line and intensifies the hunt for the ball in a confined space. But will Haaland be able to quickly accept the automatisms of Man City’s fluid framework? Guardiola’s compact collective movements require a lot of training.

As with FC Barcelona, ​​Guardiola in Manchester mainly relies on lively and technically strong players. Power storm tank Haaland comes across his strength, athleticism, finish and instinct despite good ball handling. After all, the Norwegian is ball-safe and quick to act. He also possesses the ability to detect and exploit any enemy defensive disorder. A bonus point for the English champions’ fast play.

If Haaland had had the two shots on Real’s goal in the second leg when the score was 1-0 for City instead of Jack Grealish, who knows… But that’s how the savior Haaland appeared to Guardiola after the game. The coach fielded a wide variety of players in the striker this season, none of whom were particularly happy. Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus prefer to circle and dribble on the edge of the field, mostly playing different types of hybrid positions between the vertical lines.

This is also due to the fact that the Citizens’ opponents mostly withdraw so far into their own half of the game that the striker has to wait a bit lost in the crowded penalty area, while the midfield creates opportunities and runs deep. Sergio Aguero, whose ball touches per game had dropped sharply under Guardiola, is said to have complained about it before leaving.

Changed roles and systems

Haaland is everything but a hybrid player. Haaland is a thoroughbred striker, not a false nine. However, one who hardly needs touches of the ball (he often scores on the first contact) to score his goals. The Norwegian can receive, hold and convert the ball under pressure, even when defenders are breathing down his neck. His header game, although still room for improvement, is also better than that of any other City attacker. These qualities fit with the dominant principle of Guardiola’s side’s attacks: slipping balls between centre-backs and full-backs for players who sprint forward from the second row and pass or cross into the back of the defense or into the six-yard box.

But Haaland’s role will also change at City. He will hardly be able to score goals like after the monster sprint in the Champions League game between Borussia Dortmund and PSG in February 2020, because the Skyblues have very few counterattack chances with all their possession of the ball. However, Foden, Grealish and Co. could feed the attacker with precise passes down the wings and Kevin De Bruyne with plug passes through the middle.

However, defenders in the Premier League are of a different caliber to those in the Bundesliga and the pressure is enormous. Although Haaland has always proven that he can perform directly even when the level is raised: Manchester City should not expect a rocket launch like in Dortmund. And that you can’t just throw a top Dortmund offensive power into a large Premier League squad and then success will come automatically – Jadon Sancho, assist king at Manchester United, can sing an agonizing song about that.

City has never had one like this

At a time when centre-forwards, the Lewandowskis and Benzemas, are once again making the headlines, Pep Guardiola has found it painful to see that he needs such a striker to make it big. Given his dominance in the penalty area, Haaland brings something that Manchester City has never had. Two football maniacs collide and the fantastic journey together over the next few years has only one goal.

It will be exciting to see which screws in his system the Catalan turns for the Norwegian to take advantage of his jam-packed toolbox and where he demands adjustments from Haaland. A machine like Erling Haaland – world-class, young, motivated and eager to learn – could rev up Manchester’s offensive engine more than ever before and mean the last piece of the puzzle for Guardiola on the way to winning the Champions League. Then the star coach is back in the dressing room, but this time he’s holding the pot.

source site-59