The scoring display of Erling Haaland against RB Leipzig defines an unstoppable and insatiable striker. Giant and voracious. Quick to overcome rivals in large spaces, intuitive and precise in reduced ones. Aggressive in the pressure to cause the error and persevering to finish the play. He is the striker who best coexists with the obsession of the goal. Due to his forcefulness and a privileged physique, he has everything to prevail in duels, either directly or taking advantage of rejections. The Norwegian, at 22, is the beast that makes Pep Guardiola’s style of play better. The goal is above non-negotiable philosophies. What Manchester City needed to make the big leap in competitiveness in the Champions League was the forcefulness of the Norwegian.
In the City dressing room they call him the beast. When the Norwegian had only been in Manchester for a couple of months, Kevin de Bryune, the star of the team, was asked who Haaland was and what was special about him. The Belgian replied that “he is a child who enjoys his life and takes football very seriously. The unique thing about him is that he loves to score goals and is obsessed.” The explanation is simple and it is worth understanding why a newcomer to the Premier League, who should have a period of adaptation to the championship and to the demands of Pep Guardiola, has such an immediate performance. Success is in your intensity and in the confidence you have in yourself. He develops it with a physique that allows him to be devastating and talented. Laporte, another of his teammates and a defender who suffers from him in training, highlighted why he is unstoppable: “He has huge legs. A stride of his is three of another player and he reaches all the balls. You try to stop him in any way and it is very difficult. It is a beast”.
In March, Haaland has already become the Manchester City footballer who scores the most goals in a season. He has 39 in 36 games. He scores a goal every 72 minutes and the astonishing score against Leipzig in 57 minutes puts him in another dimension. He has scored 33 goals in 25 Champions League games. To get an idea of his goalscoring efficiency, you have to look at Messi. The Argentine needed 52 games to reach 33 goals.
full forward
Making use of the admiration with which the journalist Víctor Hugo Morales narrated the celebration of Maradona’s goal at the Azteca stadium, one should ask oneself: Haaland, what planet did you come from? The display of superiority with which he destroyed RB Leipzig, scoring five goals in every way, from a penalty, with the head, with the left foot and the right; It is that of a perfect goal machine. As if it were a robot in a human disguise. Erling Haaland cannot be made of flesh and blood.
Ulises Sanchez-Flor
He is the total striker and you have to analyze him. Rafael Alkorta, a former soccer player, X-rays the Norwegian from the experience of which he was a category center-back at Athletic and Real Madrid. Alkorta is impressed with the tsunami that Haaland causes and this is how he describes it for El Confidencial: “There is no one like him. He is a very difficult striker to stop and what surprises me the most is how skilled and precise he is in short spaces. He has an innate talent for looking for spaces that I don’t see in other strikers. And this draws more attention when you play for Manchester City, who face opponents with tight defences. The facility to get unmarked in short spaces is not normal. It is true that he has good passers, but in a few meters he leaves the markers behind. This is very important in a striker with that big body. He takes advantage of the snatches from him very well.”
Erling Haaland is 1.95m tall and weighs 88kg. His constitution deceives in a striker who performs with solvency in large and small spaces. What makes him undetectable and very difficult to mark. “He cheats a lot. With spaces he can do a lot of damage to you. But he has all the qualities to take advantage because he is very intuitive and moves very aggressively. The only way to stop him is for the defenders to cover well and play with maximum concentration. But stopping him is very complicated because he knows how to use his body, get unmarked and be forceful”, comments Rafa Alkorta.
A millionaire signing
Manchester City and Pep Guardiola’s commitment to ErlingHaaland gives results. The team is closer to being able to fulfill the project of winning a Champions League. With Haaland you compete better. They have bought a goal at a price that, according to the German press, went to a figure not less than 150 million euros. Some amounts that come from the payment of the transfer to Borussia Dortmund of 75 million euros corresponding to the termination clause and another 10 million in bonus. City agreed payments in commissions of 30 million euros for the father (Alf Inge Haaland) and 40 million to the representation agency. Haaland’s salary is 20 million euros net.
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Ulises Sanchez-Flor
Erling Haaland has an exit clause signed with Manchester City by which in June 2024 you can leave if a club pays 200 million euros. The Norwegian’s name has been linked to Real Madrid since the father and the late manager (Mino Raiola) met with the white club to gauge interest. Real Madrid had the priority of hiring Mbappé and Haaland’s criteria was to make a jump to a big team in which he had the guarantee of being the starting center forward. With Benzema he understood that his place was not at Real Madrid. His father, a former Manchester City player, declined for Pep Guardiola’s team.
Haaland scores goals with any game system of his team, high possession and counterattack, and those that rivals put to counter him. He has been doing it since he made himself known at the age of 18 in a U-20 World Cup and scored 9 goals in a match with his team against Honduras. It was time to sign a young promise and the fastest and most convincing was Red Bull Salzburg. Reports pointed to an “ambitious and athletic” striker. The scouts and leaders of the big clubs fell asleep and the next bet was made by Borussia Dortmund. He paid 20 million euros in December 2019 and the killer showed all the potential he had.
The scoring display of Erling Haaland against RB Leipzig defines an unstoppable and insatiable striker. Giant and voracious. Quick to overcome rivals in large spaces, intuitive and precise in reduced ones. Aggressive in the pressure to cause the error and persevering to finish the play. He is the striker who best coexists with the obsession of the goal. Due to his forcefulness and a privileged physique, he has everything to prevail in duels, either directly or taking advantage of rejections. The Norwegian, at 22, is the beast that makes Pep Guardiola’s style of play better. The goal is above non-negotiable philosophies. What Manchester City needed to make the big leap in competitiveness in the Champions League was the forcefulness of the Norwegian.
