How Erling Haaland Is Bringing More Than Goals To Manchester City

Turn the radio on, Erling Haaland’s goal. On this occasion disallowed. Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager: “If he’s has made a foul for the disallowed goal, then every action [a defender makes] to him is a foul.”

Defenders are trying everything they can to stop Haaland scoring. “He has bruises all over his body after games,” added Guardiola, but the most prolific of strikers brings more to the 2023 English champions than goals.

Ending City’s most recent game, a 1-1 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion, having not etched his name onto the scoresheet, Haaland will take some comfort in the fact he has done so on 36 other occasions in the Premier League this season.

Or perhaps he won’t take any comfort in it at all, because this is the essence of Haaland. Not satisfied. Eager for more goals. Determined that his team and its followers will not let up, even if to everyone else they are already, obviously the best.

When a sports club has assembled the best team, the best collection of backroom staff, the best recruitment and the best manager in the world, what’s left?

Guardiola would probably explain that missing piece with a gesture—a kind of oomph. In more passionate, uncouth moments he might describe it as “balls”.

Earlier this season when commenting on an air of complacency that was creeping in at the club, Guardiola described City as a “happy flowers team”.

The intangible element Guardiola and City were looking for is the antonym of “happy flowers”.

And Haaland is certainly not happy flowers. He is too mechanical for flowers to have any chance of being associated with him. He is Norwegian Viking combined with Northern English industrial revolution.

This might be why he brings more to the team than just goals. He provided an assist for Phil Foden’s goal in the Brighton game but what he brings is more than assists, of which he has nine in all competitions this season, too.

There can be long periods in games where Haaland won’t even touch the ball. This is unusual in a team that hogs possession as much as City, but in some ways, the striker facilitates this control of the ball, and opens many of the avenues in which it is played.

Occasionally, such a passing lane will open in the direction of Haaland himself, usually as a result of one of his own runs to stretch a defence that is now preoccupied with him and can sometimes lose track of other City players as a result.

Another intangible Haaland brings to a side happens even further away from the off-the-ball movement, the occupation of a defender’s thoughts, and the goals.

It occurs in the emotional sphere. That aspect of the game that has sometimes deserted City in key moments during their quest for those wins that are hard to get, particularly in Europe.

Haaland can regularly be seen rousing the fans. Guardiola himself has spoken of complacency in the stands at the Etihad as well as in his team and at the club.

City’s away supporters have even taken to singing “Is this the Etihad?” when the stadium they have travelled to goes noticeably quiet.

Haaland, though, gives City fans a totem to throw their support behind constantly whether the team is 1-0 down or 5-0 up. Support for the team, but also for an unusually driven individual.

Support for Haaland’s wider quest for goalscoring records can keep the energy going even when City have comfortable leads, while individual battles with defenders that happen in isolation, away from the scoreline and the current status in a particular competition, can rouse the fans in any situation.

Haaland is a menace to an opposition, whatever the score, physically, technically, and emotionally. In the past City’s threat was mere football, now it is something more.

This is the essence of Haaland, and of this latest version of Manchester City. Of the irritating Bernardo Silva, the jaunty Jack Grealish, the tireless Kevin De Bruyne, the tactical, now knows everything John Stones, and the rest of this superlative side.

A couple more big tests remain in their quest for a treble, not least against the Milan side Internazionale in the Champions League final. It is a final Guardiola’s City has never won, but they have never been better equipped to do so.