When Erling Haaland joined at Manchester City over a year ago, there were worries about how a “battering ram” of a center-forward would fit into the sophisticated and tactically demanding style of genius manager Pep Guardiola.
But since then, Haaland has plowed his way to multiple scoring records in an incredible first season, and he has done it by getting past innumerable defenders.
The striker has swiftly become the team’s public face and was a significant contributor to the treble-chasers winning their third straight Premier League title on Saturday.
Even if cooperation is the foundation of City’s success, the Norwegian international, who is 22 years old, has claimed a number of individual records that Guardiola has described as “scary.”
He scored 36 goals during one season in the Premier League, which allowed him to beat the record that had been held by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer for over three decades and was based on more games. He now holds the record for most goals scored in a single Premier League season.
This season, he scored 52 goals in all competitions, which caused people to look back almost a century, as Dixie Dean’s 63 goals for Everton in 1927/28 momentarily seemed to be in danger of being surpassed.
Gary Neville, a commentator for Sky Sports, recently referred to Haaland as “truly unique,” describing the huge striker a mix of Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, and Brazil’s Ronaldo at his finest. Neville said that Haaland had Kane’s finishing touch, Rooney’s strength, and Ronaldo’s explosion.
Neville, a former England defender, claimed that Haaland offered something new to the team. He described Haaland as a “battering ram” of a striker with a terrific finish. While City has long been praised for the brilliance of their passing, possession, and patience in generating opportunities, Neville said that Haaland provided something new to the team.
“Haaland is a world star, who has come as a world star and is performing like a world star,” Neville stated earlier this season on his podcast. “Haaland is performing like a world star.”
He has unquestionably demonstrated that Neville was correct by putting the ball in the net in hundreds of different ways and from a variety of angles, all while making it seem stupidly simple.
City are on the verge of achieving their dream treble, with a spot in the FA Cup final on June 3 against Manchester United, the only other English team to achieve it, and earlier this week producing a performance for the ages to demolish Real Madrid and reach the Champions League final against Inter Milan on June 10. Manchester City are the only other English team to achieve the treble.
Although Haaland was held in check for the most of the first leg of the semi-final against Real and had many promising shots on goal blocked by Thibaut Courtois in the second leg, he has written his name beside several Champions League records.
In March, he had a five-goal performance against RB Leipzig, making him one of only three players in the competition’s history to do so (the others being Luiz Adriano (2014) and Lionel Messi (2012)).
As a result of his performance that evening, he became the youngest player in Champions League history to score 30 goals, and he currently has 33 after 25 matches played.
During that very game, Haaland surpassed the previous mark of ninety-four years held by Tommy Johnson for the most goals scored by City in a single season.
Because of his feats, the Norwegian was able to win the title for Footballer of the Year from the Football Writers’ Association with an unprecedented 82% of the votes.
And Haaland is just getting started. His teammates have given him the nick name “Daemon” because he bears a strong similarity to the “House of the Dragon” character Daemon Targaryen, who is also blonde and has long hair.
According to Neville, Haaland has not even come close to realizing his full potential in terms of goal scoring.
Neville commented that they hadn’t seen much of him in the last half an hour and that his teammates ignored most of his runs. If they hadn’t taken that precaution, he may end up being rather hazardous.