Tactical board|1-15 at half-time, Real Madrid didn't lose! Haaland has improved but not enough
If Haaland's presence was low in a few strong conversations before this season, then Haaland played a good tactical value against Real Madrid in this game, even more conspicuous than when they beat Real Madrid 4-0 at home a year ago.
In a way, Pep Guardiola wants to replicate the previous 4-0, and there are similarities on the pitch. But it may not be Haaland who is really declining.
01. From 4-0 to 1-1, Manchester City played a similar situation as a year ago
A. Compared to 4-0 a year ago: Manchester City have one less midfielder
Last season, Manchester City used a 3241 formation in the knockout rounds of the Champions League. At that time, he dared to do this, first of all, De Bruyne and Gundogan's double midfielders were very compatible behind Haaland, and secondly, the full-back's individual confrontation was extremely efficient and not afraid of the opponent's wingers.
This season, it changed back to 4141, also because the state of the central defenders declined, and they did not dare to use an aggressive formation. The second is that after Gundogan left, there was no one who could really replace him.
A year ago, Manchester City dared to enter the Real Madrid penalty area horizontally, also because the backfield could control the opponent's starting speed and cut off the Real Madrid winger's solo dribble.
Therefore, using Haaland to attract Real Madrid's central defender and arranging a man without the ball on his side will make it easy to find loopholes in the joint of Real Madrid's defense.
Real Madrid's fear of Haaland is obvious, Manchester City's key goal to open the situation is to cut into the penalty area in the B seat, when De Bruyne is through, Alaba still does not dare to go too far away from Haaland, giving the Portuguese midfielder plenty of space to shoot.
Compared with the heat map and the number of touches a year ago, Manchester City and Real Madrid have basically not changed, and even said that Manchester City has more control over the ball.
The hot spots are similar, but the highlight areas are more concentrated in the 30-metre area of Real Madrid's attack, which is not necessarily a good thing. In a way, last season when Manchester City were attacking with faster contact points and faster passes, a year later they couldn't.
It is also for this reason that the highlight area is redder, in fact, it is also because the frequency of inverted feet is higher, and there are more unnecessary pauses.
b. 15-1 in the second half, but Real Madrid withstood the pressure
Although the attacking side was not as fast as it was a year ago in terms of movement speed and overall tempo, City still played what the attacking system wanted to show.
In the second half of this game against Real Madrid, Manchester City's expected goals were a crushing advantage of 1.18 to 0.02. 72% possession is nothing, the key is 15 shots to 1 and 5 shots on target to 0, but Real Madrid did not collapse despite conceding 1 goal.
Real Madrid is afraid that Manchester City has good skills and can hit the ball into the penalty area, while a number of people without the ball surround Haaland and pounce on Real Madrid's goal.
Regardless of whether Haaland scores or not, the opponent must be surrounded by him, because Haaland's impact is too good, and if he doesn't release people around him, Haaland can complete the goal at any time.
So when the two Real Madrid defenders were taken away by Haaland, then De Bruyne and the B seat at the back post were empty.
It can be seen that Real Madrid had at least three defenders around Haaland during the downturn of Manchester City (the same as one year ago).
Pep Guardiola knew that the 4141 formation had one less midfielder than the 3241, so he arranged for Akanji to move forward a lot, and even many times the position was more like an inside striker.
This time, Akanji's inverted triangle pass, because Haaland left space in front of him, gave De Bruyne a golden chance, but unfortunately did not take it.
Manchester City's equaliser was still a similar story, and when Doku crossed, Haaland was ready to move forward and back, and Nacho couldn't keep up.
Rudiger knew there was a problem behind him, so he was desperate to clear the ball at the back of the net, which led to the ball flying to the feet of Kevin De Bruyne, allowing him to easily score in the middle of the net.
02. Compared to a year ago: Haaland is an improvement
a. Physical advantage: Haaland didn't play badly
As you can see from the statistics, Haaland won 5 of his 7 one-on-one duels against Real Madrid, contributed 5 shots and 2 key passes (you must know that he only made 5 successful passes in total), as well as 1 tackle and 1 clearance.
The problem was that Haaland's five shots were all made by headers that he was not good at. Real Madrid limited Haaland's favorite way to score, but the physical advantage of the demon is still huge, that is, the header technique is really poor.
It should be said that Haaland's advantage in the opposite position with Nacho is too obvious, this time the midfielder took a step past Nacho, and the starting Haaland distributed the ball to Grealish on the flank.
The latter shot into the penalty area, but unfortunately was blocked and couldn't hit the woodwork.
The key point is that Haaland has a good habit of not being idle when a team-mate enters the box, and will often save directly at the goal.
This time, if Grealish hadn't shot but passed to the back post, Haaland would have been in good probence for the net. It's a pity that the more critical the occasion, the players themselves are nervous, often shooting, and will not consider passing, which also makes it difficult for Haaland to release this characteristic of himself when he is in a "tough battle".
In the first half, it was a similar story, with Real Madrid focusing on restricting Haaland's characteristic. When De Bruyne crossed, Haaland was at the back post, only to have the ball cleared by Rudiger.
Two penalties came back, Haaland was forced to beat two Real Madrid defenders to complete the header, but unfortunately the ball smashed on the crossbar and bounced back. The opportunity to make up the shot in the B seat was close at hand, but it was missed.
b. Heading still has to be practiced: Wasted such a good physical advantage
Haaland has faced Real Madrid four times in his career and has scored zero goals so far. However, compared to the previous three times, Haaland's personal threat in this game was the biggest and the closest to scoring.
The key is that Real Madrid insists on retreating with all the players, Manchester City often faces the iron bucket formation, Haaland can't get the opportunity to shoot at his feet, and can only rely on headers to smash.
In fact, Real Madrid's central defenders really can't jump Haaland, his advantage after jumping is too great, but it's a pity that Haaland's header skills are very poor and he is always wasting opportunities.
Manchester City just hung the ball back, Haaland jumped high, leaving Nacho powerless, but this time the header ended up with no power.
Haaland's problem is that he has a great advantage in explosiveness when he jumps, but he can't control how to use his header at the end. Either the force is too big and the top is high, or you want to close it, but the force is insufficient.
This time is also very typical, when his team-mate sends a cross, Haaland was originally behind Nacho, but suddenly came in front of him.
Jumped high and hit the ball, but it was high. Haaland couldn't control the power of the header touching the ball, which caused him to have a big advantage, but he couldn't put the ball in the woodwork.
At the same time, Real Madrid can really give up the attention of other Manchester City players completely in order to defend Haaland. The most obvious example of this was the corner kick defence in the final stages of the second half.
Dias walked inside without the ball, but the two Real Madrid players at the back point did not follow, just to stay by Haaland's side.
It can be seen clearly from the camera that Real Madrid is really afraid of Haaland, so this time Bellingham completely ignored Dias's movement and just stayed by Haaland's side.
As a result, even if there were 2 people left at the back point, Haaland still got the header spot. It's a pity that Haaland's header skills are too poor and he is slightly off.
03. Why did Haaland take the initiative to ask for a departure?
A. On the pitch: Haaland's attitude is not bad
The reason for Haaland's anger in this game, in addition to not scoring a goal, was that he was substituted before extra time after 90 minutes of regular time.
Pep Guardiola explained: "Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Akanji were substituted, they asked for it on their own initiative, and I'm not a manager who likes to make substitutions. ”
In such an important game, he took the initiative to ask for an early departure, so that Haaland and other 3 people have encountered widespread criticism from fans.
However, before Haaland was substituted, he had a good attitude in the game. This time, after his teammates made a mistake in passing, Haaland also chased back at high speed.
As a central striker, he chased two Real Madrid players in a row, and did not stop until the opponent hurriedly made a mistake in front of him.
Before the end of the 90 minutes, this time Haaland won the ball with his back to De Bruyne on the counter-attack, and then rolled forward.
Unfortunately, De Bruyne made a mistake in diverting the ball to Doku, and the ball went straight out of the touchline.
b. The risk of stress fractures is stressful
If Haaland really expressed his request to Guardiola to take the initiative to get off the field, it would be very disappointing indeed. After all, it is very irresponsible for a star to leave the field early without injury on such a critical occasion.
Perhaps it was because of the previous risk of stress fractures that Haaland became less confident. At the same time, in this game against Real Madrid, he always constantly competes for headers, and may also increase the burden on his body because of frequent jumping.
After all, Haaland still prefers to take the ball at his feet to attack, in fact, he put a lot of pressure on the Real Madrid defence, and this time he almost made Nacho's own goal.
Before Haaland went off, Manchester City had 8 shots on target in the first 90 minutes of the game, and after Haaland went off, Manchester City only had 1 shot on target in the last 30 minutes of extra time, and the attacking threat disappeared in an instant.
No matter how poor Haaland's performance is, he will be indispensable for Manchester City when they play tough games. Without Haaland, perhaps Manchester City's lineup can really only go to "abuse vegetables".
Conclusion:
Haaland is a centre-forward who struggles with his lack of skill at his feet, making it difficult for him to do much on his own. Especially against the iron bucket formation, Haaland is not easy to break down the defense in front of a tough defensive system.
However, he has good tactical value because Haaland has a chance for his team-mates. It's just that compared to one year ago, Manchester City's overall regression is obvious, so that Haaland's slight improvement is easy to ignore or even ignore.