When Manchester City announced that they had activated Erling Haaland’s release clause from Borussia Dortmund, everyone expected him to score and terrorise Premier League defenders. However, a lacklustre performance in the FA Community Shield cast some doubts on whether the Norwegian international could replicate his exploits in Germany and Austria.
However, after eight games and 14 goals in the league, including three hat tricks, the Premier League is debating whether Haaland can break Mohamed Salah’s record for most goals scored in a single Premier League season. But how good has the 22-year-old been this season?
AN HISTORIC START
Erling Haaland is on pace to shatter the record for most goals scored by a rookie in their first 25 games. Kevin Phillips currently holds the record with 24 goals, followed by Andy Cole with 22 and Mohamed Salah, Alan Shearer, and Les Ferdinand with 21 each. Haaland can easily break this record, since he has 14 goals in just 8 games and just needs 9 more in his next 17 games.
In addition, he is attempting to break the record for most Premier League goals scored in a season, which Mo Salah holds with 32 goals scored in his first season with Liverpool in 2017-18, as well as the record for most goals scored by a foreign player in his debut season. The Norwegian is presently scoring at an absurd pace of 1.75 goals per game, which may see him score 66 goals this season and surpass Lionel Messi’s record of 56 goals in a La Liga season. (Let’s be honest, this is a really difficult task, but the former Molde player might be able to pull it off!)
At this rate, he might potentially break the record for the fastest player to score 50 Premier League goals. Andy Cole holds the record with 65 games required to score them, with all-time Premier League goal scorer Alan Shearer needing just one more game than him and the Egyptian needing 72 games.
The only thing that could derail Erling is his patchy injury record. He missed 21% of the available league minutes for Dortmund last season and it was 37% the previous campaign.
While we are making comparisons let’s look at how Erling Haaland has been fairing compared to other Premier League greats as well.
PREMIER LEAGUE STATS FOR PLAYERS AT THE AGE OF 22
While the records of Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry, and Harry Kane are certain to be beaten, Cristiano Ronaldo is the only credible comparison on this list. In 2007-08, the Portuguese sensation was a fully developed star on the verge of peaking, leading Manchester United to double (league and European). However, even his record appears to be relatively simple for Haaland to exceed. The genuine analogy would be to the other GOAT, Lionel Messi.
Messi, just like Erling, was playing for a super club who were dominating domestically and continuously. He had scored a ridiculous 34 goals and provided 11 assists that season meaning the Norwegian needed to score a goal or provide an assist every game for 30 games. But even if Haaland does manage that the very fact he is competing to such a level is applaudable.
All comparisons we have made up till now were made with players who have finished playing their career and have played in different eras with different styles of play. Mohamed Salah is a player we can definitely compare him to see just how good of a start this is considering he is from the same era, plays in a system that has similar demands and he too like Erling plays for a club which has trophies after trophies this past decade.
ERLING HAALAND VS MOHAMED SALAH: COMPARISON
Let’s be clear about one thing: Salah is a Premier League legend, whether people prefer to admit it or not. His name may not be as well-known as Henry or Shearer right now, but his 168 goal contributions in 172 appearances for the Merseyside club are nothing short of world-class, including a remarkable debut season in which he set the record for most goals scored in a single Premier League season.
Haaland’s scoring may appear to be a bizarre run, and stats imply that the Norwegian is having a very good set of games, as predicted goals suggest that he should only score 9 goals. However, his underlying metrics appear to be quite solid, as he takes 4.1 shots and produces 1 opportunity each match. Salah, on the other side, took 4.5 shots and made two important passes while also exceeding his predicted goals. The Norwegian poses a threat to opposing goals since he shoots from just 10.6 yards away, whereas Salah shoots from roughly 15 yards out.
Part of the success enjoyed by both Salah and Haaland were the tactics deployed by their managers Klopp and Guardiola resp. But we will cover the Guardiola side of the story in this piece.
THE SECRET SAUCE BEHIND ERLING’S GREAT START
Manchester City under Pep are a machine. That’s it. Be any attacker who has played for Guardiola during his time at Manchester, they have performed amazingly well under stewardship. Sterling, Jesus, Leroy Sane, Aguero, Mahrez, de Bruyne, David Silva & B. Silva and even Ilkay on many occasions have all enjoyed a rich vein of attacking form to various degrees of success under Pep.
Man City’s incredible creativity mixed with a lethal striker is one of the key reasons they have blasted opponents out of the water, scoring 29 goals in the first eight games. How many times over the last two seasons, following Aguero’s decline, have people questioned and pondered if a No.9 would make this lethal?
Man City’s incredible inventiveness mixed with a lethal striker is one of the key reasons they have blasted opponents out of the water, scoring 29 goals in the first eight games. How many times over the last two seasons, following Aguero’s downturn, have people questioned and pondered if a No.9 would make this lethal?
Also, Pep Guardiola deserves a lot of credit for the alterations he made to allow the striker to adapt into his sophisticated and efficient system. He was well-known for being a manager who does not want to have players, particularly a striker who does not match his style of play.
Erling has been relieved of all the duties associated with a typical Pep number nine, and his stats back up that assertion. He’s averaged 12 passes, 23 touches, 11 pressures (he’s in the lowest 20% of all attackers across the top five leagues) and just 0.2 tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes thus far.
He has also been less of an outlet than he was at Borussia Dortmund, with less attempted dribbles and progressive passes received, while Manchester City’s teammates have targeted him with cutbacks.
This is not a criticism but praise for a player who has moved from a division which is known for its quick nature to a more physical one and he still manages to maintain or upgrade his level of play
Erling may not possess the skills possessed of Henry or Ronaldo nor does he bring the excitement bought by Luis Suarez when moved from Amsterdam and neither does have the versatility and creativeness of a Wayne Rooney but his goal-scoring exploits could mean he could continue to break records in years to come.
