How Haaland must adapt at Manchester City to succeed under GuardiolaAhmed Walid
Jul 20, 2022
Have you ever got a job you weren’t quite qualified for? There was probably a good reason. Your employer saw in you some transferable skills they can work on and improve to make you excel in your new environment. In football, at the well-run clubs, it’s pretty similar. A player signed from a team with a different style of play is signed for his abilities that can be honed and improved to suit his new side.
During the transfer season, that is often forgotten. A player who has a good vision, but needs to work on his passing, can do that with the coaching staff. Take Joao Cancelo, for example. Coming to Manchester City, he expected to play as a traditional, forward-thinking right-back and struggled with being asked to come inside, into midfield. Then he transformed in 2020-21 to become one of City’s key players. “He was confused in the beginning,” Pep Guardiola said later on after Cancelo’s turnaround. “He expected something that we could not offer him.”
Cancelo took time to adapt, and Guardiola acknowledged that. “We needed time to understand each other, him to me and the team, and me to him too.”
This isn’t the only case of a new City signing taking time to learn, or even an established star taking time to adjust to Guardiola’s style of play. During the manager’s first season, he wanted more from Sergio Aguero: “Aguero could definitely be contributing a lot more to our game, to the whole process. It would be great if he improved his use of the ball, keeping possession better. I can’t do anything for him in terms of his performance in the box, because he’s outstanding there. He’s going to do a lot for us, but I’d like to help him become a better player.”
Aguero’s link-up play and pressing needed to improve and, after a meeting with Guardiola in January 2017, the adaptation process started. Speaking to Lu Martin and Pol Ballus for their 2019 book Pep’s City: The Making of a Superteam, Aguero elaborates: “I had to adapt and do much more pressing. We did a lot of work on that in training. I have to press the goalkeeper and centre-back. Maintaining the intensity like that is really tough for me and it was something I’d never done before. But I’ve become much stronger physically over the last few years and my game outside the box has improved. I just wasn’t used to playing like that. I still do what I need to do when I’ve got the ball, but off the ball, my positioning and pressing abilities have greatly improved and I move much more effectively.”
From one City striker to another, Erling Haaland is the Premier League’s highly anticipated debutant this season, though there’s a good case against the move. The key for Haaland will be to work on the skills he might not have needed in the Bundesliga but definitely will in the Premier League.
First, link-up play. Haaland isn’t the type of striker who’s unwilling to drop and link play. He does, but the issue that may need tweaking is that he almost exclusively plays one-touch passes. This is important as it shows that Haaland has awareness and it doesn’t slow down the attack. Like in the example here against Bochum, the forward is dropping to link up…
….before playing a one-touch pass into the path of Marco Reus to put him through on goal.
However, a single touch isn’t needed in situations where Haaland has enough time to control the ball and make a better decision. Like below against Ajax, Haaland drops to receive Julian Brandt’s pass with little to no pressure, but decides to play a one-touch pass into Ajax’s right-back, Noussair Mazraoui. A better solution is to control the ball and weigh up the options.
Or here against Besiktas, where the 21-year-old’s movement is textbook. He drops to receive Jude Bellingham’s pass but miscues his pass to no one. With the Besiktas defender not close enough, he had enough time to control the ball and see Donyell Malen’s run in behind the defence.
To succeed at City, Haaland will need to know when to link up with one touch and when to control the ball and wait. Just like he did here against Greuther Furth. After receiving a pass from Marius Wolf…
…a normal Haaland reaction is to play the pass quickly into Marco Reus, who is offside, but uncharacteristically, he waits for a second…
…and then plays the ball into the path of Raphael Guerreiro out wide, whose shot falls kindly for Brandt to open the scoring.
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Another area where Haaland may need to adapt is finding runners in smaller spaces behind the defence, which, in the Premier League, are much smaller than in the Bundesliga. Haaland won’t have the same luxury of running with the ball, facing the goal and picking his choice of free runner. Due to City’s style of play and how teams usually set up against them, often in a low block, the playing field is totally different.
Defensive lines don’t play this high against City, especially if they are two goals up.
And in the Bundesliga, an assist like this one against Wolfsburg was common for Haaland. He is running into space, facing the goal and his passing options are clear…
…at the right moment, he finds Axel Witsel’s run for the Belgian to make it 2-0.
Assisting at 100 miles per hour is Haaland’s second nature. But most teams won’t allow City this amount of space, even if they are trailing. The more common situation will be something like this — a deeper defensive line with Haaland playing with his back to goal. Here, for Norway, Martin Odegaard plays the pass into him…
…Haaland then pins the centre-back…
…before focusing the weight of his body onto his right leg to receive with his left foot, while pushing back into the centre-back to keep him pinned back…
…this puts Haaland in a position to turn with the ball under his feet and find Mohamed Elyounoussi…
…who returns the ball to Haaland to lay it back for Kristian Thorstvedt to score Norway’s third.
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The right question isn’t whether Haaland’s profile fits City. It’s whether Haaland will work on his underdeveloped skills that will be needed in the Premier League.
Perhaps Haaland doesn’t have a choice. Just ask Aguero.
“Pep makes sure all his players improve. He makes the best even better. It’s just what he does. He won’t leave you alone for a second — there are no off days.”
by Nigels Tackle » Thu Jul 14, 2022 9:56 pm 
