Erling Haaland is the 'new Ronaldo' - a goalscoring black hole

Stuart Telford

• 2 Mar 2023 12:38 GMT
• 4 min read

Erling Haaland may be scoring goals but Manchester City's overall game is struggling much like Manchester United's did with Cristiano Ronaldo last season.

Haaland hit the ground running following his €60 million arrival from Borussia Dortmund last summer, racing to 23 goals from just 17 Premier League outings in the first half of the season.

His goals slowed down in the new year, although four from seven games is not to be sniffed at, and he has already overtaken Sergio Aguero for the most goals ever scored by a City player in a single season with 13 games left to play.

READ: Erling Haaland at Man City: Goals, assists, results & fixtures in 2022-23

And yet City find themselves second in the Premier League after 25 games, five points off Arsenal's title-setting pace. Pep Guardiola has even been moved to explain away Haaland's negative tactical impact on his defending champions.

"Absolutely the coach [is responsible]," he said. "We share our faults together, its nicer. We cannot forget we play a lot, years, without a proper striker, Sergio [Aguero], Gabriel [Jesus], false nine.

"It's perspective, if we get the ball and he has seven players with him, I play the ball there [wide]. Now where's Erling? Six players [on him] - so I play the ball here [wide] instead. If he's alone I have to play with him."

READ: Guardiola: 'My fault' Haaland's struggling

It alludes to the fact that Haaland was a club signing rather than a managerial one. City won the Premier League last season without a recognised striker following Aguero's move to Barcelona and subsequent retirement. They still scored 99 goals between them.

Ronaldo example

A similar thing happened across town at Manchester United after Cristiano Ronaldo arrived in the summer of 2021. He top scored in the Premier League with 18 goals, but the Red Devils could only finish sixth having been runners-up without him the previous campaign.

Whilst Ronaldo is undoubtedly a great of the world game, few would argue that United have looked worse this season now that Erik ten Hag has jettisoned a player who was no longer good for the club, in his case on or off the field.

Haaland remains a popular figure in the dressing room, as he was at Dortmund, but even Dortmund have enjoyed an upswing without. Last season they finished eight points behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. This term they are on the same points as the record champions.

And now the goals come from everywhere: Julian Brandt, Youssoufa Moukoko, Marco Reus, Karim Adeyemi - the scoring is shared.

With Moukoko and Adeyemi injured ahead of BVB's Champions League last 16 second-leg meeting with Chelsea next week, there is little worry for Edin Terzic about where the goals might come from. Gio Reyna, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Donyell Malen are ready to plug in.

Dortmund or on the best run of form of any club in Europe's five major leagues since the turn of the year. City, with losses to Southampton, Man Utd and Tottenham Hotspur, aren't.

Haaland is to City what Ronaldo was to United: a goalscoring black hole whose influence is a net loss to the team.