When it comes to Guardiola and the center, countless fans always mention a name: Ibrahimovic. First, it happened 12 years ago, when Guardiola was still young; second, Ibrahimovic can't be defined by a traditional center forward, he prefers to hold the ball under his feet rather than run frequently.
When City spent more than 200 million yuan to win Haaland, it was a good opportunity for Guardiola to once again evolve himself and revolutionize tactics. Will he be able to succeed? Perhaps using the Champions League title as the only measure is somewhat unfair, but it is also the most direct.
01. Ibrahimovic 12 years ago and Gomez 9 years ago: These are two different things
Ibrahimovic's failure: It's a clash of football cultures
Guardiola once had high hopes for Ibrahimovic, and the Swedes also scored a golden goal in the national derby to help Barca win against Real Madrid. The subsequent Champions League knockout match against Arsenal, also Ibrahimovic's twice, let himself throw off the knockout soft egg hat for a while.
Mourinho's defense is so good that it wouldn't be entirely fair to blame Ibrahimovic alone. However, the Swedish genius at that time was too fond of taking the ball under his feet, did not like to pull the edge, and had a limited range of movement, which was indeed not so suitable for Guardiola's offensive mobility.
Coupled with the fact that Raiola, as Ibrahimovic's agent, shelled Guardiola as soon as the players were pulled out of the main lineup, it also made things worse.
In a year's time, Ibrahimovic gave a report card of 22 goals and 13 assists in all competitions, but in the end he had to leave.
b. Wrong time, missing the right person: Gomez and Guardiola have no connection
Perhaps even more regrettable is that in the summer of 2013, Gomez chose to leave Bayern Munich and did not really choose to work with Guardiola.
In a later interview, the German centre-forward explained in detail: "Guardiola did not order me to leave Bayern, but I learned that he did not need a pure centre-forward. ”
"He was next to me and told me bluntly: 'I've had Messi and that's why I don't like to use centre-forwards.' Now, I intend to continue to implement such tactics. If you decide to stay at Bayern, you have to follow through on my tactics. After hearing this, I decided to leave Bayern. ”
But time will change a lot of things, and the failure of bayern's first year made Guardiola think a lot, let go of some of the original tactical concepts, and began to pursue a more fierce attack and defense conversion acceleration and stronger impact.
Now, whether in the Premier League or the Champions League, we will see Guardiola's side use more wing-forwards, crosses and midfield headers to score goals.
With Guardiola's current tactical thinking, a center who can grab points and impact the goal is valuable. Of course, the premise is that the center forward is very good at running, not the type of Ibrahimovic.
In many ways, Haaland actually has some similarities with Gomez. The German who once defended Messi against B2B, if he met Guardiola, who was a few years older, might be a completely different story.
02. Forward arrows with strong sprinting ability: at the same time, there is a high shooting efficiency
a. Arrows with strong impact: The shooting efficiency is also very high
In the top five league games in 2021, Haaland is the player who has scored the most doubles (including hat-tricks and above).
The 13-time figure is even 3 times more than Levan's, and it is higher than the likes of Benzema, Messi and Vlahović. Even though the Bundesliga space is relatively large, Haaland's ability is also very striking.
Haaland as an arrow, he is very characteristic of his accelerated front insertion during offensive and defensive transitions. This time he went around the back of Van Dijk and suddenly accelerated forward, hitting the middle of the opposing 2 centre-backs, and even made the Dutch iron guard completely unable to keep up with the rhythm.
Although the goalkeeper defused the shot in time, Haaland's level of movement was very high.
Looking at this counter-attack, Haaland has a certain ability to do the ball in the middle, and his awareness of second choice is too good. This time he leaned towards the outside of the flank to catch the ball, and then his left-foot blasting ability was extremely strong.
Although this shot hit the post, Haaland's prospects after coming to Manchester City are worth optimism. Because City has no shortage of propulsion ability, as well as the last straight ball, this is very conducive to Haaland to play.
In this season's Bundesliga, the biggest difference between the actual number of goals scored and the expected number of goals was Haaland. His shooting efficiency is really good, and the one-foot burst scoring efficiency is very efficient.
And don't think that Haaland will only run a single knife in large space, he also has a strong ability to start and impact space in positional warfare, and the key point is to see if his teammates can send a good pass.
It just so happens that at Manchester City, there is no need to worry at all.
b. The ability to handle golf balls has improved by leaps and bounds: although it is not strong, it is not bad
Haaland, who is 1.94 meters tall, once had a weak underbelly of handling high balls. Of his first 50 goals, 40 came from the left foot, 6 were right-footed, and only 10% of the goals were scored by headers.
This season, however, Haaland has improved his weaknesses well.
In the Champions League match against Besiktas, Haaland, who came off the bench, scored a header twice, which is excellent proof.
Although it was still not in place when the header was fired, such shots can already excite fans who like him.
Against Ajax, against the opponent's small centre-back, Haaland's advantage over the first high ball was clear. He even had to move quickly to pick up again, but unfortunately the shot felt average in that game and missed too many good chances to score goals.
After all, Haaland's physique is very good, even against Bayern, against Upamecano, he has a great advantage in the first point, which shows that Haaland's progress is very large.
03. Multiple injuries affect explosiveness: the lack of shots is compensated by passing
a. Returning from injury: The shot didn't feel good
As mentioned above, Haaland is very strong, that is, his shot is very good. Stride meteors at high speed and shoot explosive shots.
Although the statistics do not seem to be much different from last season, Haaland is actually in better shape in 2021 than in 2022.
The fundamental problem is that Haaland is actually very heavy and tall, and continuous injuries will affect his control of the body, as well as flexibility.
Now Haland is in the game, more and more confrontation, confrontation experience is also more and more sufficient, but the last step of the action, not as good as before. This time winning the high ball to open the centre-back, trying to pass the goalkeeper can not complete the shot consistently.
In addition, whether it is in the Champions League or this season's Bundesliga strong dialogue, Haaland's efficiency in the last shot is a bit poor.
This time, the front insertion of the top to open up UpaMecano was actually very easy, but the last shot was not well controlled, and the ball flew away.
Haaland set himself the goal of scoring more goals than making more appearances, but he still seems to have a small gap.
After coming to Manchester City, in order to succeed, Haaland first came to stay away from injuries, and secondly, to strengthen physical flexibility and explosive training, to ensure that he could continue to complete some very violent moves.
Otherwise, Torres went from Golden Boy to Iron Guard, which is actually a sudden thing.
b. Haaland's pass is good: has a certain ability to handle the ball quickly
On the other hand, Haaland has another reason for success, which is that he passes well. After a slight drop in physical sensation, Haaland's number of direct single-strokes is decreasing, but he still has a decent pass.
Facing Upa Mecano, getting stuck and taking the ball is still an easy task for Haaland. He then sent a beautiful straight kick to Reuss, who was inserted at the back, and if it weren't for Lucas's savior, Bayern would probably have conceded a goal.
Looking at the match against Eintracht Frankfurt, Haaland handled the ball directly after receiving the ball this time. Under Manchester City's attacking system, rapid offensive and defensive transitions will be common, and Haaland's pass will have room to play.
Haaland and Guardiola tactical boards are not contradictory at the offensive end, and the real problem may be guarding Guardiola's 460 frontless squad, the control and retreat of the midfield, ensuring that more small men can be integrated into the midfield or the side of the front.
This logic may be broken when Haaland joins the team, which is why Guardiola needs to buy a midfielder.
Conclusion:
Haaland's arrival will be another attempt by Guardiola to break through himself, and whether he can succeed or not may only have time to give us the answer.
Trying to buy Haaland was a brave attempt by Guardiola towards a new tactical revolution. The boss has money and his own ideas, and Manchester City is the most suitable stage for Guardiola and the place where great success is most likely.