- 14 hours ago
Haaland worth €140 million? Brentford show Norwegian goal-machine can be stopped
FT Desk
- 12 Nov 2022 15:43 GMT
- 3 min read
Erling Haaland would cost more than twice as much as Manchester City paid Borussia Dortmund for him should he move onto to Real Madrid in the future, but Saturday's showing shows he is a mere mortal after all.
Haaland was a relative snip for City, costing just €60 million when he swapped the Bundesliga for the Premier League this summer, and he has wasted little time in making a mockery of that fee, scoring 18 goals league goals with a further five in the Champions League.
He had scored every 57 minutes he had played in the Premier League before Saturday's visit of Brentford, but the Bees left the Etihad with all three points, Haaland's opposite number responding to his England World Cup snub with a brace.
READ: Haaland could have played for England… and might have been worth even more!
"I won't let it put me down, I'll keep pushing with Brentford!"
Ivan Toney talks missing out on a place in the England squad after bagging a brace to secure the win for his side over Man City!
🎙️ @TheDesKelly pic.twitter.com/A7e2I1jg74— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) November 12, 2022
But Toney's two-goal contribution wasn't the only reason Brentford beat City for the first time since 1937. Ethan Pinnock put in a stellar performance at the heart of Thomas Frank's three-man defence, with Mathias Jorgensen and Ben Mee picking up the scraps on either side.
Shocking stats
The result was that Haaland had just 21 touches in the 100 minutes of football played at the Etihad, failed to win the ball back once - Toney did that four times for the visitors alongside his goals - and was kept out for just the third time in this season's Premier League; and he assisted Ilkay Gundogan in the first of those.
READ: Revealed: Man City's Plan B if Guardiola leaves
"The best team won, we struggled from the beginning, and we couldn't deal with their long balls," City manager Pep Guardiola told Match of the Day. "Usually you press the balls to win it, but this was different. They defended so deep and so well."
And therein would seem to be the blueprint to stop Haaland. Play three centre-backs, sit back, and hit City on the break. Whether other teams employ the same tactic after the World Cup - against a rested Haaland with Norway missing - remains to be seen.
