Haaland is no longer scary when he returns from injury, or is he starting to be familiar with opponents, or is it something else? Let's talk about how Haaland has been doing this season.
The main purpose of this article is to discuss with you this season's Premier League title race, which is arguably the most exciting in recent years. For example, in the 33rd round of the tournament not long ago, I was happy that just two hours after Liverpool's unexpected loss, I was also depressed with the Reds fans because Arsenal also lost and lost the top spot again.
In addition to the fierce competition for the Premier League title, I have also seen a satisfying situation in the form of Haaland, who had the ability to finish horrific last season, was once equalled by Chelsea's rising star Cole Palmer in the Premier League scoring charts, and is at the top of the table with 20 goals. Those who are familiar with the Premier League and Manchester City will surely know that he was a striker who came off the bench for Erling Haaland last season and moved to Chelsea this season to get a chance to play. Such a change has led to the possibility of a former Manchester City substitute striker surpassing Haaland to win the Premier League Golden Boot, which could make Manchester City's management slap in the face.
Is this because Haaland is no longer scary, or is he starting to be familiar with the target, or is it something else? Let's talk about Haaland's performances this season.
From the first ascent to the fantasy injury
Last season, Haaland joined Premier League giants Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga for just €60 million. With Haaland's guardiola, it's not just as simple as adding wings to the tiger, it's completely putting the tiger on the Gundam mech, which swept across the continent last season. In the Premier League, they stumbled over a resurgent Arsenal and Newcastle United, who had the money to make money, and then won the FA Cup with ease. And then there is finally the long-awaited Champions League title as he got his wish. In the new season, they also took advantage of the situation to win the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup, giving Manchester City the honour of five crowns for the first time in their history.
Haaland, on the other hand, reached unprecedented heights in the 22/23 season. First of all, in the Premier League, he won the Premier League Golden Boot with 36 goals and also won the England Player of the Year hat-trick, which included Premier League Player of the Year, Best Young Player, England FWA Footballer of the Year and England PFA Footballer of the Year. In the Champions League, he won the Golden Boot with 12 goals, and he also won the European Golden Boot for his outstanding performance in the league. In the end, his miraculous performance managed to win him the best player in Europe. However, it is a pity that he lost to Messi in the competition for the Ballon d'Or and FIFA's Player of the Year, which made him almost win the Grand Slam of the year's individual honors.
The accolades did not stop him from moving forward in the new season, as he got off to a good start with two goals against Burnley in the first game of the Premier League. Then he also contributed a wave of three consecutive goals at the beginning of September '23, also scoring a hat-trick against Fulham plus an assist. Just before December, he had scored 14 goals in 15 games. However, at the beginning of December, Haaland felt foot pain the day after the game against Aston Villa, and although Guardiola said Haaland had a bone stress reaction in his foot, such a seemingly minor injury saw him miss almost two months (12 games), notably the Club World Cup in December.
Haaland didn't return to action until 31 January 2024, and he didn't score again until his third game after recovering from injury, against Everton in the 24th round of the league. However, Haaland has clearly returned to a number of differences from before his injury, although he scored an exaggerated five goals in a single game against Luton Town in the FA Cup, but he failed to score for almost a month in March, with 12 shots on goal without success, especially against Liverpool and Arsenal, which made fans unhappy. However, it is disappointing that in the important battle against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, Haaland was clearly isolated, and his personal performance did not reach the depth and influence of a quasi-world footballer, and did not lead the team to break through Real Madrid's iron wall and defend the defending champions, and finally regretted losing at home. Compared with Haaland's slump, Mbappe did score two goals in the first leg to give Paris an advantage, and finally successfully defeated Barcelona in the second leg through the efforts of his teammates and reached the semi-finals again.
Why does Haaland feel so far behind in the year after his madness? Let's look at some simple data to see if he really doesn't get as good as he once was.
What is the impact of an individual's injury?
LOOKING AT HAALAND'S INJURY HISTORY, HE HAS HAD A NUMBER OF INJURIES BUT MOST OF THE RECORDS IN TRANSFERMARKT ARE "PROBLEM" RATHER THAN "INJURY", FROM THE NUMBER OF DAYS HE MISSED AND THE NUMBER OF GAMES HE MISSED FOR TOO LONG, AT MOST IN THE 21/22 SEASON WITH THE HORNETS 'HIP FLEXOR PROBLEM' MISSED 35 DAYS AND ABOUT NINE GAMES. But after the Aston Villa game, he missed almost two full months due to "bone stress reaction pressure", a rare occurrence in Haaland's career. Haaland's performance since his return also showed that he may have made some impactful runs and difficult shots before the injury, but after the injury, it was clear that he had restrained a lot. Perhaps judging from this injury, Manchester City's medical team may have made some changes to Haaland's performance and movements on the pitch, hoping to protect his feet and physical condition, because his seemingly bullish collision is often the source of possible injuries.
The efficiency of feeding cakes is reduced, and the true love of feeding cakes is absent
Manchester City's tactics last season were really simple and rough, the midfielders kept passing, Haaland rushed into the box, Tintin passed the ball into the box, Haaland raised his left foot and "put" the ball into the goal. In the 22/23 Premier League, eight of Haaland's 36 goals were scored by De Bruyne's direct assist, the others were Foden's four assists, Grealish's four assists and Mahrez's four assists, etc., so Tintin is really a good friend of Haaland.
However, this season, in addition to Haaland's injury affecting his performance, there is a more serious problem with De Bruyne's long-term absence, which indirectly affects Haaland's performance. De Bruyne is not the Iron Man we are imprinted, having missed 161 days due to injury in the 18/19 season. However, despite the many injuries in the days that followed, the number of days missed was not exaggerated, only this time, De Bruyne was injured early in the season, and it was not until January this year that he officially returned from injury. However, in early March, Tintin was put back on the injured list, missing two games due to a groin strain.
Because of the absence of good friends, Haaland lost a lot of pie feeding efficiency, and then the chances of shooting and scoring were also reduced, until the just completed game against Nottingham Forest, Tintin only assisted Haaland three assists, missing a full five assists. In addition to De Bruyne, basically Bernardo Silva, Alvarez and Rodri all contributed two assists each to Haaland, which is really a lot less than last season.
The crown prince is about to ascend the throne, and Foden provokes the big beam to affect the ball
As Manchester City's biological son, the rise of the Blue Moon Prince Foden this season has made a difference in the tactics of the whole of Manchester City. Because of the absence of Kevin De Bruyne and Haaland, Guardiola has relied more on Foden's talent and skill in the line-up, of course, Foden has performed extremely well this season, making 31 Premier League appearances and scoring 16 goals and seven assists, which is a career-high, and even capable of winning the Premier League player award this season.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher commented that Manchester City has now begun a "transfer of power" moment, like the previous transfer from David Silva to De Bruyne, and this season has begun to slowly transfer from Tintin to Foden, and is about to start the era of a new core. To put it simply, Pep Guardiola only played 32 games (22 starts) in the Premier League last season, playing a total of 1,842 minutes. Foden has played 31 games and started 29 games for a total of 2,518 minutes in as many as four games to go this season, and if he completes the remaining games, he will play 56 per cent more minutes this season than he did last season.
However, although there is no doubt about the prince's performance, when I look at his stats, I find that his efficiency on the field is more surprising than expected. First of all, Foden can see in the shooting section, last season's shot/90 has improved from 2.25 to 3.32 this season, and his shooting has also improved to 1.43 (1.07 last season), but the shooting percentage has dropped by 5 per cent (43 per cent). In addition to the shooting percentage, Foden scored just 0.17, 0.07 fewer than last season's 0.24. And as an offensive player, I personally care about the stats SCA90 and GCA90 Foden as the core of the team only got SCA90 4.47 and GCA90 0.64, both of which are slightly inferior to last season.
Because of this, Foden rarely looks for a place for Haaland when he and Phil Foden are on the pitch at the same time. If you have noticed, according to the data I have gathered, Foden has not provided an assist to Haaland in the Premier League this season. If we were to be replaced by Tintin, he would not hesitate to pass the ball to Haaland, but Foden is considered to be the next to succeed Kevin De Bruyne, but Foden prefers to finish his own shots rather than assists or passes, even if Haaland can score in a more ideal position. So there's no denying that Foden's rise has reduced Haaland's attacking opportunities a lot.
Singles are targeted, activity in the box is reduced, and decision-making ability is affected
Perhaps because of the large number of reference data last season, the Premier League teams have analyzed and studied Haaland one by one, allowing him to reduce the opportunity to move, or move around hard and receive passes, among which the editor was impressed by the game against Arsenal on March 31. In the course of the game, we saw that Arsenal's two central defenders basically took turns to close Haaland to limit his movements, in addition to this, midfielders such as Wright and Wakatori also assisted De Bruyne, so that the two could not be linked, and in the end, Manchester City, who performed better, failed to win Arsenal and drew 0-0.
According to Haaland's two seasons, there has been a slight decline in both touches and carries, such as last season's average of 24.8 touches per game (/90) dropped to 22.1, and dribbling also dropped from 13.1 to 12.9. In addition to individual possession, the real key is that his pass catches have dropped a lot, from 18.9 to 17.1, and Progressive Relay in particular has dropped from 4.9 to 4.59.
Judging from these statistics, Haaland does have less connection with other team-mates on the pitch than he did last season, which also leads to a much smaller number of opportunities available to him, which in turn reduces the chances of shooting and scoring. In the current environment where football has very advanced equipment and tactics, Haaland is in the most competitive Premier League in the world, and the opponent's team can figure out the trick in a season, so Haaland needs to improve to stay competitive in this environment, scoring goals and winning for the team.
Summary:
WELL-KNOWN JOURNALIST JOHN MULLER OF THE ATHLETIC SAID: "HAALAND ISN'T IN CRISIS – BUT THE MANCHESTER CITY STRIKER IS A MAN AFTER ALL. ”
Haaland's performances this season have not been able to continue last season's form due to a number of factors, but there are ups and downs that are a normal part of life. Looking back at Haaland's data, the recent data is not too surprising, but Haaland has scored in three consecutive league games, and in the remaining rounds of Premier League games, Guardiola's use of Haaland will cause a big wave in the fight for the Premier League title, and Haaland's performance will also determine the title destination this season.
Personally, I hope he doesn't get better, but we can't stop them from happening, so let's continue to follow the Premier League and see if Haaland will really become the "spicy man" who will determine the game.