It has been the season of Erling Haaland. He has transformed Manchester City to an unstoppably ruthless winning machine, clanking the top gears just as the season has rolled onto the business end. The Norwegian’s 47 goals and six assists across tournaments have defined City’s season, which could yet end in nothing or a treble, though the latter prospect looks likelier.
It has also been the season of Pep Guardiola, moulding and remoulding himself into a manager-legend. As fascinating as City’s crushing form has been—in the last 10 games, they have belted 37 goals and conceded just four—it has been about how Pep Guardiola has harnessed the best out of Haaland without tearing apart his ideals and how Haaland has seamlessly slipped into the schemes of Guardiola without altering his game.
Doubts lingered at the start of the season. How long will Haaland take to teeth in?
Even high-class operators from Bundesliga have struggled to cope with the relentlessness of the league. How will he embroider into the Pep’s tactical fabric? Will Haaland be forced to curb his directness and evolve into a pressing-passing forward or false nine? Or would Guardiola overhaul his fundamentals and adopt a more prosaic and direct approach, a throwback English league approach? Some pundits, among Jamie Carragher, even ridiculed that he has joined the wrong club.
As the season has blossomed and bloomed, waxed and waned, Guardiola and Haaland, like a happy marriage, have proved that both need not compromise on their definitive characteristics to strike an irresistible partnership. Haaland could press and pass, drop to midfield and if need be, he could be first defensive block too.
Pep Guardiola has harnessed the best out of Haaland. (File)
Guardiola has admirably woven his directness and physicality into the slick passing game with a few clever tweaks. Watching the latest, and arguably the deadliest, iteration of City is to be wowed by both the power and beauty of the sport, each dwelling and burnishing each other in a full and contended way.
The biggest alteration has been in how he has redeployed his full-backs. In the last season, one of his full-backs, often Joao Cancelo would drift into the central midfield, while Kyle Walker would maraud and overlap like conventional full-backs would, and would often position himself outside the line of the wingers. But post Haaland, when attacking, the full-backs would station on either side of Rodri, the central midfielder, so that they could repel quick turnovers. This has freed Rodri, who wanders into advanced positions with more freedom these days.
It was a change directly necessitated by Haaland’s arrival.
In the last seasons, after Sergio Aguero dropped off, City’s forward-most player used to be Gabriel Jesus, who used to drop as deep as Kevin De Bruyne as well as behind the two wingers. The Brazilian, according to Guardiola, “could press three defenders in 10 minutes”. With Haaland not dropping as deep, City effectively lost a body in the midfield. But Guardiola has ironed out that crack by inserting a full back.
Guardiola has admirably woven Haaland’s directness and physicality into the slick passing game. (File)
So effectively, when in possession, City play in a 2-3-4-1 formation. Though Guardiola has tweaked shapes and systems, roles and duties according to the opponents and form of his own, his primary endeavour has been to extract the best out of the Norwegian goal colossus.
Though Guardiola has always emphasised on the collective rather than individual dazzle, great managers chisel their team and formation to maximise the genius of his finest player. Guardiola stretched the possibilities and functions of a false nine to produce the best out of Lionel Messi and Barcelona’s pass virtuosos Xavi and Andres Iniesta. In that specific system, conventional nines like Samuel Eto’o and Zlantan Ibrahimovic were counterproductive to his finetuned methods. It was not that Guardiola was disenchanted by conventional strikers, but at the particular time, with that particular group, he didn’t need one. At City as well as Bayern, he had used Robert Lewandowski and Sergio Aguero to title-winning effect, though neither were as central to his team as Haaland is now.
Guardiola has always emphasised on the collective rather than individual dazzle. (Reuters)
Even the passing has become sharper and more direct. The passing outlets and channels are straighter than it ever had been. His movements and quality makes City’s creative forces put as many balls in the box as possible, so that Haaland is not starved of goal-shooting chances. Though there are other goal-scorers in the side, the leitmotif seems to be finding the tall, big bloke at the tip of their attack.
Haaland’s goal against Bayern is a classic case. Bayern cleared a corner, but Julian Alvarez picks the clearance some 25 yards away on the right. Instead of building the play, as is the characteristic of most Guardiola’s team, he pings a cross upfield to John Stones, who wafts a header across to a lunging Haaland, who twisted the ball home with a sliding volley. Such three-sequence goals had arrived more frequently for City than ever before. Subsequently, there are have fewer through balls inside the box, instead replaced by wider, even longer, crosses. The directness and explosiveness have made them lethal in breaks too, though Guardiola recently dismissed suggestions that his team is evolving into counterattackers. “At the end of the day, it is just regain the ball and run,” he quipped in a tone of sarcasm. “How do you train that? Ok, just run,” he added.
Thus, this has been the season of both Haaland and Guardiola. The Spaniard’s gift to evolve, the readiness to change, to add deeper and subtler layers to his coaching at a juncture of career where he has achieved all laurels and trophies a manager could, has been as striking a facet of City’s domination as the emergence of Haaland.
Erling Haaland has hit the ground running in the Premier League (Courtesy: Reuters). 
Pep Guardiola has harnessed the best out of Haaland. (File)
Guardiola has admirably woven Haaland’s directness and physicality into the slick passing game. (File)
Guardiola has always emphasised on the collective rather than individual dazzle. (Reuters)
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