Sterling and Jesus gone! - Man City gambling on crock Haaland
Stuart Telford
- 10 Jul 2022 14:26 BST
- 4 min read
Erling Haaland is an exciting yet injury-prone striker. In selling Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, Manchester City could be gambling away their chances of silverware this season.
City won the Premier League last term - for the fourth time in five years - losing just three games to edge Liverpool by a point. They were also minutes away from a Champions League final, Real Madrid's Rodrygo late show helping deny them at the last in May.
Fine margins indeed.
Sterling and Jesus were central figures at home and abroad last season, combining for 21 goals and 13 assists in the Premier League and a further seven and three of each in the Champions League.
Who will be the better signing from Man City?
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) July 9, 2022
This despite sharing minutes with fellow final third operators Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva. Squads win titles, and City's strength in depth was what set them apart.
Player for player, Liverpool's first XI is arguably as good as, if not better than, City's, but Jurgen Klopp's men have only nicked the title from the Citizens one time since 2018.
What about Haaland?
City went without a recognised centre-forward last season, Pep Guardiola plugging the Sergio Aguero-shaped gap in his squad with any one of the aforementioned attacking midfielders depending on form, fitness and opponent.
And Haaland clearly addresses that problem. The 21-year-old Norway international - son of former City midfielder Alfie - smashed in 29 goals in 30 games for Borussia Dortmund last season, at a barely fathomable rate of one every 82 minutes he ended up playing.
Every Erling Haaland Bundesliga goal.
All 40 of them. 🤩
pic.twitter.com/dCazJebQwu— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) July 18, 2021
He did this leading the line for an otherwise abject Dortmund team, one who finished eight points off Bayern Munich's title-setting pace and couldn't get out of their Champions League group before losing to Rangers in the Europa League's knockout round play-offs. Coach Marco Rose was sacked at the end of the campaign.
Is there a downside?
Haaland's goalscoring exploits get plenty of column inches, but less written about is the fact that the striker misses a disproportionate number of games through injury, normally of the muscular variety. He missed 16 matches for Dortmund last season, and 12 the season before.
It is perhaps unsurprising for a hulking 6'5"-tall player who boasts a Bundesliga record-setting top speed of 22.4 miles per hour that there are strains on his joints and muscles, and no physio has yet been able to help Haaland towards completing all the games in a top-flight season.
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Unless City can solve that particular problem, they will have to go without Haaland for a significant part of the 2022/23 campaign. Granted, they have already signed Julian Alvarez from River Plate, but the Argentine is unproven in the Premier League.
That leaves one of those City midfielders - likely Foden - to deputise, but with Jesus and Sterling gone, the wide areas would have to be occupied by Grealish and Mahrez. And if one of them was injured at the same time as Haaland, Guardiola could find himself with a real headache.
