Manchester City beat Manchester United 3-1 in a Premier League match last Sunday. Erling Haaland scored the Cityzens’ third goal in the match. Prior to that, they thrashed Luton Town 6-2 in the fifth round of the FA Cup. The holders thus qualified for the quarterfinals and remain the favourites to defend their title. However, even more than their victory, what stood out is the fact that Haaland scored five of those goals.
Scoring five goals in a single match is a feat very few players have achieved at top-flight football. The 22-year-old Norwegian striker continues to impress fans everywhere with his goal-scoring prowess. Incidentally, the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski and Miroslav Klose have achieved that incredible feat in the past.
Haaland’s scoring rate is astounding
Haaland has scored 29 goals in 32 matches for Manchester City so far this season. Not to forget that he had scored 52 goals in 53 matches last season, which helped his side win the coveted treble. The young sensation has scored 80 goals in only 84 matches for the Cityzens, which is an amazing record by any standard.
Haaland also showed his exceptional scoring ability while playing for Borussia Dortmund, having scored 86 goals in 89 matches for them. Those are the kind of numbers that would make even a Lionel Messi or a Cristiano Ronaldo proud.
Only Harry Kane, who is in a stupendous form for Bayern Munich with 33 goals in 33 matches, has scored more goals than Haaland has this season. The youngster’s opportunism and finishing skills are absolutely top-class and one finds it difficult at the moment to predict the numbers he is going to achieve by the end of his career.
Manchester City will depend a lot on Haaland to win titles
Manchester City quite possibly havs the strongest squad among all the clubs in Europe. However, even keeping that in mind, it will not be overstatement to claim that they continue to depend a lot on their star striker to keep winning titles.
While it will not be easy to repeat the treble-winning act, Pep Guardiola’s team will continue to keep the faith in themselves. They are second in the Premier League table at the moment, trailing Liverpool only by a point after 27 rounds of matches.
While there are brilliant attacking players like Bernardo Silva, Kevin de Bruyne, Julián Álvarez and Jérémy Doku are there, Haaland should remain the primary source of goals for the Cityzens.
He is already quite adept at using his size and aerial prowess to score with headers. However, during his stint at Manchester City, he has also gotten used to combine with attacking midfielders and wingers of his team. He has learned to wait in the perfect position to get hold of the short passes played to him by one of his colleagues. Incidentally, four of his five goals against Luton came from de Bruyne’s passes.
All of that has made him a very dangerous prospect for any defence in the world. With that said, Guardiola will sincerely hope that he is able to demonstrate his form in the most important of matches like the semifinals and final of the UEFA Champions League. It remains to be seen whether he can do that.