Does Haaland need to do more?
Erling Braut Haaland, the young Norwegian striker who plays for Manchester City in England, has recently become a topic of discussion regarding the club’s poor run of form. The major area of criticism is that Manchester City was performing better before Haaland joined the team during the 2022 summer transfer window.
Some popular pundits have even said that even if he goes on to score 40 goals, he hasn’t made City a better team. It is important to note that as of January 18th, 2023, Haaland already had 21 goals in 17 appearances for the club.
Word on the street is that Manchester City’s recent poor form is because they now “rely” on Haaland for goals, which isn’t the usual pattern for City. Historically, since 2015, Manchester City has been a very free-scoring team that doesn’t depend on any individual player.
In fact, for two seasons (2021 and 2022), the club operated without a conventional number 9 and still won the Premier League titles both times. So when you look at it in this context, one may want to agree with those who say that Haaland is City’s problem at the moment.
What do I think?
I think this is just a coincidence. Before the World Cup break, City was doing well. However, with the return of club football, Manchester City’s coach, Pep Guardiola, began to start trying “new patterns” and bringing younger talents to the squad.
When Manchester City played against Chelsea on the 5th of January 2023, it was difficult to tell their exact formation (i.e the new pattern I talked about). In that same game, Pep substituted Cancelo for Rico Lewis, one of the younger players he had been starting post-World Cup–which also attests to the point I made of him bringing in younger ones to the squad.
On January 11th, 2023, Manchester City played Southampton in the League Cup, and they didn’t have one shot on target (Haaland did not start that game). Just before the Southampton game, Manchester beat Chelsea 4-0 in the FA Cup, and Haaland did not play in that game at all.
The essence of highlighting these results is to show that, with or without Haaland, City can still do well or poorly, as the case may be.
Haaland is a goal-scorer, that’s what he was brought onto the team to do. We can all agree that he’s been doing quite well in that regard. It is important to remember that a team’s performance is not solely dependent on one player and a variety of factors contribute to a team’s success or failure.
It is unfair to single out Haaland as the sole reason for Manchester City’s recent poor form.
