– Like the cat’s game with the mouse. In two or three years it may be the opposite again, says news’s football expert Carl-Erik Torp after being presented with the figures. When Erling Braut Haaland wreaked havoc in his first season for Manchester City, there were two things in particular that kept repeating: Goals with one touch and from close range. Of the Norwegian’s 44 game goals for City in the 2022/23 season, a whopping 37 of them (84.1 percent) came after a first-touch finish. And 19 of them came from inside the 5-metre area (43.18 per cent), with only one score from outside the 16-metre area. But since the start of last season, the trend has completely reversed. In 39 game goals since, only seven of them have come from within 5 meters (18 per cent) and 16 of them have come on the first touch (41 per cent). Most clearly is the difference so far this season, where only two out of ten game goals have come with the first touch and there has been one score from inside the 5-metre area. – I think it shows a point in constant development. A Haaland who keeps getting better. More and more complete. It shows a Haaland who constantly copes with several different types of match pictures and shows several different ways to score, says news’s football expert Kristoffer Løkberg. MORE ON HIS OWN HANDS: Kristoffer Løkberg believes Haaland has become better at creating chances on his own. Here from the match against West Ham, where he scored two goals. Photo: Reuters With and against play In the first season, there was also a record race without equal. Haaland scored a total of 52 goals, including penalties, and set a Premier League record with 36 goals in one and the same season. – When players are good, the opponents talk a lot about them and analyze how to stop them. Haaland is in that category. He has the respect of the opponents he meets. They lay lower, they avoid giving him back room and they maybe put two players on him, says Carl-Erik Torp. He continues: – It is about tactical trends and co- and counter-play. What does the opposition do to try to stop City. What actions do they feel they must take? Record start to the season This has led to Haaland having to adapt his game, Torp and Løkberg believe. They praise the 24-year-old for the way he has managed just that. This season he has eleven goals in nine games and made history by scoring ten goals in the first five Premier League games. – What impresses about Haaland is that he is developing. He is taking steps and he has done that every season at City. He develops new parts of the game and sees that he needs to improve on some things. He adapts and perhaps becomes more and more complete as a forward, he says. – It probably affects his focus a bit too. It forces a period where he focuses on one thing, and then there are many scores that way, says Torp further. EXPERT: Carl-Erik Torp is impressed by the development. Photo: Birk Pessl-Kleiven / news Løkberg points to the same dynamic. – If you are a centre-back and are going to play against City, then you have to sit down and watch Haaland’s preferred movements. Then he realizes that it also happens, and that he has to think differently over time and be able to challenge larger spaces. At the same time, he is just as predictable for his teammates, which he is very good at, says the football expert. Løkberg believes that staying one step ahead of the opponents has been important throughout his career. – I think that is what he has done all his life. I think he has continued to reap the benefits of the inherent training zeal he has in him, he believes. These are Haaland’s numbers outside Manchester City. In the national team, Haaland has scored 32 goals, five of them penalties. Of the 27 game goals, he has scored 17 with the first touch (62.96 per cent) and five of them from within 5 meters (18.52 per cent). In Borussia Dortmund he scored 86 goals, eleven of them penalties. Of the 75 game goals, 48 of them came on the first touch (64 percent). 21 of the 75 goals came from within 5 meters (28 per cent). – Positive news for Norway National team coach Ståle Solbakken believes the answer may lie in both a development from Haaland himself and action from the opponents. – It’s probably a mixture. Interesting statistics, he writes in a message to news. And if we are to believe Løkberg, the change is also positive for the Norwegian national team. – The working conditions there are a completely different world than they are in the City. The fact that you see a Haaland who has developed his game is very positive news for Norway, he says. – There will be a greater degree of variation for Norway in what the matches and match images are like. The fact that Haaland is more able to cope with several different types of match pictures is very important for the Norwegian national team, says Løkberg. IMPRESSED: Kristoffer Løkberg has, among other things, been impressed by the way Haaland simulates final training. Photo: Nicolai Eid Trondal / news – There were six players around him An image of how the opponent tries to contain Haaland came in the home match against Inter in the Champions League earlier this autumn. The Norwegian then had only 14 touches in the entire match. – There were six players around him. Six. Three in front of him and three behind him. That’s how they kept him out of the game, City manager Pep Guardiola said at the press conference after the game, according to Goal.com. With less room in the box, Haaland’s goals have also come to a much greater extent after finishing with his left leg. While he scored eight goals with his head and eleven with his right foot in 2022/23, there have been just four goals with his head and five with his right foot since the start of last season. Since the start of November last year, there has only been one header for City for Haaland. New chances to score goals await as early as Saturday. Then Manchester City play at home against Fulham at 4:00 p.m. Published 04.10.2024, at 19.44 Updated 04.10.2024, at 19.55
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