Manchester City fans are unfurling all the superlatives for Erling Haaland after the phenomenon scored the opening goal against Aston Villa.
20.08.2022 - 09:39 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
You can hardly call two goals and an assist in the opening two games a disappointment of any description.
Erling Haaland has certainly hit the ground running at Manchester City, but it's clear that things aren't clicking completely into place just yet. We've already seen glimpses of how devastating the striker will be for hapless Premier League defences. There can't be a much more terrifying sight for a centre-back than a 6ft3" mountain of a man barrelling towards you at a pace he shouldn't be able to reach, especially when you know he also has all the skills required to stick the ball in the back of the net once he gets to it.
Against West Ham, he was twice played through with brilliant passes, from Ilkay Gundogan and then Kevin De Bruyne, respectively. With the first, he was brought down in the box before dispatching the penalty, and with the second he calmly slotted it into the corner. A finish which is quickly becoming a trademark.
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But at City, Haaland will be required to do more than just score. He will have to help press and be involved in the patient build-up, even if he'd rather just have the ball immediately played in behind for him to chase. The Norwegian has already shown he will easily be capable of doing that, though. With one of his two passes against Bournemouth, he played an excellent one-two, which also required considerable strength to hold off a defender, with Gundogan to go through and score.
It will take the worst possible bad luck for Haaland not to become a phenom for City, but he isn't there quite yet. He is still working to get acclimatised to such a unique way of playing, as are his teammates. City have basically been
Manchester City fans are unfurling all the superlatives for Erling Haaland after the phenomenon scored the opening goal against Aston Villa.
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