Pep’s evolution can help Haaland grow
ONE of the realities of City becoming an ultra successful football club is that, even in the days and weeks following a Premier League title win, there is always something to look ahead to and get excited about.
In this instance, that thing is Erling Braut Haaland.
Earlier this month City ended year-long speculation about the striker’s future by agreeing to sign him from Borussia Dortmund for £51m.
Last summer City pursued Harry Kane, but in the end Tottenham’s refusal to entertain any business proposals scuppered any chance of a deal.
Finally, Guardiola and City have the out-and-out striker they’ve been craving. Not that they desperately need one – despite regularly playing without a striker the Blues still managed to score 99 goals on their way to winning the Premier League title this season. Inside the club and within the fanbase there is a confidence that the arrival of Haaland will only improve City’s attack further. However, the same cannot be said in some quarters.
Some critics question how Haaland will fit in at City, and whether he has the skillset to thrive in a Guardiola system. It’s a fair point - after all, Borussia Dortmund are a very different team to the Blues.
In Germany, Haaland thrived in a transition-based set-up, using his pace and power to latch on to balls in behind the defence. While his clinical finishing will see him score plenty of goals at the Etihad, he will have to adapt his game when facing the deep-lying, compact defences that City often come up against.
However, sceptics are overlooking one important thing – at City Guardiola has proven that he can adapt and evolve his side, something that he never really had to do at either Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
While at Barca he oversaw something of a squad overhaul after his first season, the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Gerard Pique all remained as the core of his team.
At Bayern the personal and style never drastically changed during his three seasons in charge.
At City though, Guardiola had to make some significant changes to his team after a disappointing 2019/20 season followed back-toback Premier League titles. The sides of 2017/18 and 2018/19 were built on the fast, dynamic and instinctive play of Sergio Aguero flanked by Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane.
Behind the front three were generally two of Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and David Silva, with
Fernandinho anchoring the midfield. As Aguero suffered more injuries and Fernandinho’s powers faded with age, Guardiola had to refresh his strategy. He introduced ‘inverted’ full-backs to help out Rodri in midfield, a holding player technically superior to Fernandinho but not as mobile.
His attack became slower but more calculated – they didn’t have the same ability to counter-attack, instead wearing teams down with sustained pressure. When Haaland comes in, Guardiola will no-doubt re-shuffle his attacking set-up again in order to get the most out of him. And that’s fine, because as he has shown at City, the Catalan is more than capable of taking a winning formula and making it even better.
Guardiola has shown he is more than capable of taking a winning formula and making it better