Erling Haaland Barely Plays Football and is the Best Goalscorer in the Premier League
Stats used in this blog are courtesy of FBRef
The Premier League is back, in what is gearing up to be the first season since 2019 that shouldn’t be affected by a global pandemic (but I’m sure other things will definitely get in the way of your favorite team not accomplishing all of their pre-season goals). In preparation for this season, top-flight teams in England have spent an absurd 1.9 billion pounds, almost equalling the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, La Liga, and Serie A combined.
6 games into the new campaign, Arsenal leads the way with a 5–0–1 record, their new signings have started extremely well and — despite some injury problems in midfield — have five wins out of six. Elsewhere this weekend, Ivan Toney scored a hattrick as long-throwing Brentford put 5 past Jesse Marsch’s Leeds in a 7-goal game. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg’s second goal of the season, and Harry Kane’s 40th Premier League weak-foot goal (the most-all time), gave Tottenham a 2–1 win over Fulham and Alexander Mitrovic’s 6th goal of the season.
Also on Saturday, Manchester City were at Villa Park for a 1–1 draw with Steven Gerrard’s team. Leon Bailey’s first-time shot canceled out the opening goal of the game from Erling Haaland. Four minutes into the second half, Kevin De Bruyne played a one-two with Bernardo Silva on the right wing, the Belgian then sent in a first-time cross to the back post, bouncing off of a soaring Norweigan’s left foot. This was Haaland’s tenth goal of the season. Two on his debut, one in a 3–3 draw with Newcastle, and back-to-back hattricks coming into this game make up the other 9.
I first read about Haaland as many did during the U20 World Cup in the summer of 2019 where he scored 9 in one game against Honduras, and the scouting report remains very similar to the one he’d receive now. Strong and tall with a great jump, the ability to stay balanced despite contact from defenders, and a great finisher from a variety of angles. Favors his left foot and the left inside channel when the ball is at his feet, not a good dribbler so he never strays wide or drops too deep to get involved in build-up play, a heavy first touch at times but with incredible recovery pace it doesn’t matter on occasion. A sense of anticipation to get to crosses and loose balls in the opposition area gives him all the tools he needs to be a great goalscorer.
A great example of his tools came in the second-half comeback against Crystal Palace at the Etihad, where his third goal felt as though you were watching someone using the confidence of scoring two to activate game-breaking potential. Ilkay Gündogan feeds the ball into space behind the Palace defense who were now chasing what was left of this game. Joel Ward — playing out of position at left back — does his best to throw off the striker as he receives the ball and puts in a challenge from behind. Woefully for the Englishman, he is the one who falls over and by the time he is off the ground, Erling Haaland has already shoved a cameraman aside with a youthful exuberance, as the 22-year-old celebrates scoring his first ever Premier League hat trick.
Comparisons always feel cheap with such a small sample size, but similarly to an effort in making lemonade from 6 lemons, I used what I had in the fridge. Entering this weekend, Erling Haaland had scored 9 goals from 100 touches in 387 minutes. Compared to other players whom I currently have tabs open for, Harry Kane had 5 goals from 199 touches in 450 minutes, Ivan Toney was at 3 from 170 in 450, and Mitrovic was almost identical to Kane. Here is the chart for reference:
In this weekend’s games, Mitrovic scored from 22 touches (his least so far this season) as he seems to be in a reboot of his first few games of 2018/19. Ivan Toney also had his fewest touches with 27 but did manage to score a hat-trick to double his tally for the season. Kane was subbed off in the league for the first time this season after scoring in 33 touches; while none of Gabriel Jesus’ 35 touches in 87 minutes resulted in a goal or assist for Arsenal’s first defeat this season, after 6 goal involvements in his first 5 games.
Haaland’s least amount of touches this season is 8. In a 4–0 win for the citizens against Bournemouth where he earned his only assist of the season so far (to Gündogan) in 73 minutes. It is also the only league game he did not score in, you could make the argument that Man City won a game playing 10v11 considering how little he was involved in general play, but you can just as easily point to an assumed aura that drawed in Bournemouth and allowed his teammates more space to thrive.
I think this can be described as the evolution of the target man archetype, someone so elite at finishing that their other weaknesses don’t matter for the time being. As long as Manchester City can continue to dominate possession and create chances, Haaland is the perfect man to put away those chances. Two points dropped this week still keeps City from where they want to be in the standings, so we’ll see what adjustments are made by Pep Guardiola to get the best out of this team as the season continues.
What is obvious is that Erling Haaland showed his ability has scaled up to the biggest league in the world. For a team that has won 4 of the last 5 league titles, and have now strengthened in the only position where they had a ‘weakness’ after losing Sergio Aguero.
I was a bit hesitant in ending the title of this blog with “Best in the World” as Kylian Mbappe scored on Saturday as well. A parallel narrative has existed for the two over the past few years which now also extends to the club level, the Parisians have a similar ambition to the Mancunians of winning the Champions League, which kicks off this Tuesday! As for City as a whole, a team with an inverted left wingback wearing the number 7 might not need someone of Haaland’s talent week in and week out, please draw any conclusions you see fit from that statement.
The next time Villa face City will be at the Etihad in February. For this fixture in 2014, Yaya Toure scored an excellent injury-time goal to make the score 4–0 to City in a game that featured the Villa debut of City’s 2021 big-money signing Jack Grealish of Birmingham. Although I would be happily surprised if Erling Haaland scored a goal similar to the one Toure did, I would be much less surprised if he scored 2 close-range finishes comparable to Edin Dzeko from that 2014 match. My least personal favourite outcome would be if he did not feature in that February game at all, as he has been a joy to watch so far this Premier League season.
