The art of centre forward play is changing...but it’s still Haaland keeping defenders awake at night
IT IS inevitable the focus of a compelling Premier League campaign has moved away, temporarily, from Erling Haaland, the Manchester City striker who smashed his way through English football like a Terminator who fell to Earth last season.
Other strikers, bulldozing, big front men who awe with their physicality as well as their skill, who feel like throwbacks to a time before the vogue for false nines, are seizing the headlines and providing the momentum to propel their teams upwards.
On Saturday it was Darwin Nunez, who has become a cult figure at Liverpool precisely because of his tendency to be a little wild, who caught the imagination with a brilliant, audacious chip that opened the scoring in his team’s rout of Brentford in west London.
Michael Owen, one of the greatest goalscorers England has ever seen, suggested that even though he admired the strike, it was too risky. He said Nunez needed to play the percentages more and aim for more simple finishes. The observation was well meant but fell on deaf ears. Part of the reason Nunez is loved is for his unpredictability.
On Sunday, it was Rasmus Hojlund’s turn to grab the limelight. Manchester United’s young Denmark forward is a captivating story because he has overcome a bleak start to his time in England to reach a point where he cannot stop scoring.
His two goals in the win over Luton at Kenilworth Road — one of them an instinctive but deliberate deflection of a wayward shot with his chest — made him the youngest player to have scored in six successive Premier League games. A muscular, raw, robust target man, he is already drawing comparisons with the likes of Mark Hughes and Didier Drogba.
If I were a fan of Liverpool or Arsenal, or if I were Jurgen Klopp or Mikel Arteta, it would be the thought of Haaland that would be keeping me awake at night though. He might not have had as explosive an impact as he had last season, but is still the Daddy of all Premier League strikers.
When he starts firing again — and it is when, not if — City will be close to invincible, just as they were last season. In what has become an enthralling three-way title race, Haaland holds the key. The Norwegian had an off-day against Chelsea at the Etihad on Saturday as the teams fought out a 1-1 draw and City lost ground on the top two. Haaland had nine shots without scoring and missed chances he would have buried on his 52-goal tear last season. Statistics say strikers are not scoring as many headers as they used to — the percentage has fallen well below the 20 per cent or more that was the average 30 years ago — and Haaland (left) did nothing to improve that figure against the Blues. There was a collective groan when he ghosted on to a delicious second-half cross from Kevin De Bruyne and, with the goal apparently at his mercy, ballooned a header high over the bar. He left the field after the final whistle inconsolable, horrified by his own profligacy. I know it’s a cliche, but the scary thing for the rest of the league — and particularly Brentford, who City play in Manchester tonight — is that Haaland is still getting in the positions to score.
His movement against Chelsea was still of the highest quality. He was still evading defenders, getting in front of them, peeling away from them, outpacing them and outmuscling them. There is no problem with his hunger.
Some rustiness is to be expected anyway. He missed two months of the season with a foot injury and is still the league’s leading goalscorer, ahead of Mo Salah and Dominic Solanke.
He has scored 21 goals in 27 appearances in all competitions, so is not exactly stinking the place out.
He still remains the most potent weapon any team could wish for in the title race. It is hard not to feel that when he hits top form again, Arsenal, in particular, will rue their lack of a front-line centre forward and their failure to sign a striker of the quality of Brentford’s Ivan Toney in the January transfer window.
Toney is a forward in the mould of Harry Kane. Kane is the main rival to Haaland for the title of best striker in the world, a player who has different dimensions to his game, who can drop deep and link play, who is a brilliant passer as well as a fine finisher.
But Kane is embroiled in the struggles of his club, Bayern Munich, in Germany. Arsenal and Liverpool do not have to worry about him, but they do have to worry about Haaland.
‘It’s good to have nine shots,’ City manager Pep Guardiola said on Saturday night. ‘And next time he’s going to score.’
It is hard to disagree. Brentford will be bracing themselves for the return of the king. So will the rest of the Premier League.