The question resonated among the most clueless who entered the Etihad Stadium for the preview of the duel against Aston Villa. “Where is Haaland?”, they asked themselves when they saw on the green of the Manchester City stadium a lineup without its best footballer, the one that Pep Guardiola defined hours before the duel against Unai’s team. Emery as “the best finisher on the planet.”
Santpedor’s, after defending the Norwegian from the attacks of former United player Roy Keane, gave the forward a rest, who didn’t have a single minute against the ‘villains’. It was not necessary for City to win with solvency (4-1) and try to clear the haze of doubts that surrounds a equipment that with just a few days left to measure himself against Real Madrid in the Champions League, even with Haaland on the field, repeats that same question: Where is Haaland?
If you look for Haaland
Why Haaland is missing. Or at least in the excellent version of him, the one that last season led him to break records in the Premier. With 36 goals he surpassed the 34 he had scored Shearer in 94-95. In total, he closed the season with 52 goals in 53 official matches played.
with City. An atrocity. But now Haaland seems to be far from the sensations that he exuded last season. His numbers are still scandalous, with 18 goals in the Premier (commands the Golden Boot classification in the English league) and 29th overall for the campaign. So much so, that he even remains among the favorites to win the Ballon d’Or in football betting. Betfair: He is the fourth favorite with implied odds of 16%.
Goal drought
Despite this, something is not working with Haaland, who has already gone three games without scoring and who, after his famous knock against Luton in the FA Cup, has not yet taken off as a goal scorer. After his injury, he returned on January 31 and since that date He has only scored 10 goals in 13 games.
Of them, five were in the FA Cup, four in Premier and one against Copenhagen in the Champions League. They are irregular records for a guy used to making goals his routine. Because Haaland does not breathe oxygen. Breathe goals. Of course, since he signed for City, his critics tell him that his ability to see the goal gets stuck when what he has in front of It is an XXL event against important rivals. Last season, in achieving the first Champions League for the ‘sky blues’, Haaland He did not score against Real Madrid in the semifinals, nor against Inter in the final.
Others assumed that role. Something similar happened to him in the key duel against Arsenal at the Ettihad, a match that ended with a goalless draw and Haaland lost looking for something resembling a shot. That’s where the criticism arose. Keanewho, by the way, in his time as a player retired Haaland’s father as revenge to a tough tackle that the Norwegian first made. The former United man took justice into his own hands with a tackle that Alf-Inge prevented Haaland play again.
Problems in the previous game against Real Madrid
“His level of play in general is very poor. He is a fourth class striker division“Kanee said on English television regarding his performance against Arsenal. “The culpa “It’s ours,” Guardiola defended him, adding that if Haaland had not excelled against the Gunners it was because they had not given him good balls. “Haaland “He is the best striker in the world and he helped us win the treble last season,” defended him. Guardiola Lately very reactive in the press room to the critical comments that can be made. Him. To his team. The fact is that this drop in performance Haaland It comes in the run-up to Manchester City’s visit to Real Madrid, a duel in which Guardiola has already been in charge of pointing out a good handful of handicaps for the sky blues: from the calendar (Real Madrid will have 9
days of rest, City two games in that period), going through the losses (Walker, Ederson y Aké will be difficult to be at the Bernabéu) or the need to press the accelerator to continue fighting for a Premier more complicated than Real Madrid has in the League.
