How Will Manchester City Cope Without Erling Haaland? Kevin De Bruyne

Saturday afternoon’s Premier League trip to Leicester City wasn’t the first time Manchester City had played a game without Erling Haaland this season, but it was the first time he hadn’t started a league game for the club since arriving from Borussia Dortmund in the summer.

It was the first time the question of how Man City would cope without Haaland could be asked with genuine concern.

As it turned out, having other world-class players, including one who can place a free kick in the top corner from 25-yards out, helps.

Kevin De Bruyne has often been the support act to Haaland this season—quite literally, as no duo in the league combines for more goals, with De Bruyne having four assists for Haaland goals—but here he stepped up to become the headline act.

It almost felt like a case of “well he’s not here so I may as well do it myself,” from De Bruyne as he dispatched free kick that won the game for Manchester City.

The way the free kick came about was also important. Jack Grealish found himself isolated in attack, but still carried the ball far enough into the opposition half to win the free kick in a dangerous area, that De Bruyne went on to convert.

Though he has had his critics, it was a perfect example of what Grealish has added to this squad—the ability to move the ball forward through dribbling as well as passing.

The $140 million it cost to bring Grealish to the club is immaterial to a team like City as long as he is doing what they brought him in to do. Whether outsiders think the things he is bringing to the team are worth that kind of money or not, doesn’t matter to them.

It was the combination of these traits from Grealish and De Bruyne that meant Man City were able to win sans Haaland.

The 22-year-old Norwegian had played just 45 minutes of the home game against FC Copenhagen in the Champions League, and sat out the trip to Denmark altogether, remaining on the bench as Manchester City only managed a 0-0 draw in the Danish capital after Sergio Gómez was sent off in the first half.

The sending-off made that game difficult to judge what a Manchester City side without Haaland looks like, though the second half of the home game saw them score a couple of goals with impressive performances from Julián Álvarez, Riyad Mahrez, Grealish, and Gómez.

It’s for this reason that Haaland’s absence for the game against Leicester was notable. It was far from an easy league game, and Man City will feel they need to win all their games to keep up with Arsenal at the top of the table at this stage of the season.

Arsenal could well drop off as the season progresses, but Man City manager Pep Guardiola will not be banking on that, and will want to at least remain alongside Arsenal at the top of the table by the team the league breaks for the World Cup.

Grealish and Álvarez started the match, but Mahrez began the game on the bench against his former club.

The Algerian had commented earlier in the week on how Man City had not changed their game plan to accommodate Haaland.

“I don’t think we have changed a lot,” Mahrez said on Friday. “Obviously, Erling is a different kind of striker to what we have had in the past. Sometimes we can play a bit more direct with him because he is big and strong.

“Otherwise, we are playing the same that we always did. The only thing that surprised me is the amount of goals he scored. I wasn’t expecting this! He has scored a lot of goals already. He is a big presence in the box and a very good player for us.”

So in theory they should be similarly comfortable without the big Norwegian, but any team would miss a striker who has scored 22 goals in 15 games at the start of the season.

The formation used by Guardiola was fairly familiar. It was a 4-3-3 but one that became almost a 2-3-5 in possession, with midfielders looking to join the forward line and defenders stepping into midfield.

Álvarez stepped into Haaland’s role in the middle of the attack and tried to make runs off the back of the Leicester defence top open up space.

Leicester defended mostly in a 5-4-1 low block with the potential to hit Man City on the counter-attack using the pace of Harvey Barnes.

It frustrated the visitors who saw a number of crosses and shots blocked, and six of their 16 shots were from headers, showing the only way into the box at times was via the air. Haaland might have been handy in this situation.

In the end, though, they didn’t need Haaland, at least not for this particular game. They didn’t need the runs from Álvarez or the probing passing from midfield.

They just needed a couple of moments of brilliance—one of them world-class from another of Man City’s world-class players.

It’s often said that Haaland will only pop up to score goals. That he can be detached and isolated from much of the rest of the game and focuses only on putting the ball in the back of the net.

By scoring the only goal of the game from a set piece, Man City reinforced further this idea that they can score in isolated moments as well as from the intricate build-up play and possession seen in previous seasons.

It makes Guardiola’s side an even more daunting opponent for the rest of the Premier League, and though they are an even more daunting prospect with Haaland in the side, this game showed they can still win without him.