Why Erling Haaland Is Scoring So Many Goals At Man City
Following a hat-trick against RB Leipzig we look at how Manchester City's Erling Haaland is getting and taking a record number of chances.
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00:00 Hello everybody Adam Cleary 442 here and Early Harlins right you've heard the
00:05 name you know who he is what a horrid weird superhuman a natural little freak
00:11 hey I absolutely love him he's like the footballing equivalent of did you ever
00:16 have like a goth kid in your school who was really nice really sweet really
00:19 gentle and everyone secretly really loved him but he was also about six foot
00:23 five there would be kids at other schools who now couldn't do their exams
00:26 because he'd windmill into them and they'd have to sit in like one of those
00:29 metal neck braces for the next three months he's like that but football and
00:33 as well as that really paint analogy he's also scored let me think a million
00:37 goals this season playing for Man City even when it's been a season when Man
00:41 City haven't necessarily looked all that good and that is a lot of goals for
00:45 anybody to score he got five against Leipzig last night or three weeks ago
00:49 depending on whenever you're watching this video and by itself is a lot of
00:53 goals to score I don't know what team you support but I know for a fact that I
00:56 would be quite content if my team scored five goals in like five games and he did
01:02 it in 60 minutes and that's weird but that is the question isn't it how has he
01:07 scored so many goals in what as I've already said has not exactly been a
01:10 vintage Manchester City season so I could have put anybody up front and they
01:14 would have got 40 or 50 or whatever absurd number another good strike I
01:17 might have got 10 or 15 I think I would have got three he's got 40 gajillion
01:22 well you lucky lucky thing I'm going to explain it to you using only my brain
01:26 and these tiny little plastic men why Erling Haaland has scored so many goals
01:31 for City why he continues to score so many goals for City why he's probably going to
01:34 continue to score so many goals for City it's a combination of two things now
01:38 first off I'm just gonna start by explaining what Manchester City do when
01:42 they attack you've probably seen the lineups or any City game this season you
01:45 will have seen this kind of shape at the start of the game there's four defenders
01:49 Rodri tends to sit there that you've got some combination of De Bruyne, Gundogan
01:54 Bernardo Silva somebody like that then you tend to end up with either Mahrez
01:57 Grealish, Foden or somebody like that and Haaland the most consistent thing in the
02:01 team he's always up front but this get rid of this that's not how they play
02:06 yes you're right that does appear to be a back four but just as much as Haaland
02:09 is this like weird goal scoring freak Guardiola of course is the smooth
02:14 charismatic charming weirdly wants to get into Julia Roberts tactics freak
02:18 isn't he does all kinds of mad stuff and they don't play with a back four
02:21 despite starting with four defenders what happens and this is you'll hear this
02:25 term a lot over the rest of the season is they play with a box midfield now yes
02:30 well observed that is a triangle midfield but what tends to happen is as
02:33 the game goes on one of the midfielders he moves out to about there and then one
02:37 of the defenders one of the fullbacks normally comes in to this area and the
02:41 defense shuffles across and you end up with a back three now last night if we
02:45 look we can see this is the first minute they are defending that is clearly a
02:48 back four well observed but not a minute later as soon as they've got the ball
02:52 John Stones it was this time he trots into the middle of the park and all of
02:55 a sudden box midfield and what does a box midfield clearly give you using this
03:00 nice graph it gives you a rondo it gives you a new like game you play in school
03:04 you've got like two people in the middle and you're passing it around the outside
03:07 you try to know it's great it gives you that in an actual game of football
03:11 because you end up with a numerical man advantage in the center of the pitch
03:14 most teams tend to have three players there these days and oh look you can
03:17 knock it around they can't get anywhere near you superiority advantage keeping
03:22 the ball Guardiola's favorite things in the world and isn't just Guardiola by
03:27 the way Arsenal doing this really really well this season normally Zinchenko
03:29 comes into this kind of area Barcelona do it really well could turn it with it
03:33 and get like Gavi, Pedri, Busquets and De Jong in the same team so this is a it's a
03:37 popular thing it's a trendy thing you probably see it quite a lot it'll
03:40 probably become the new hotness over the next couple of years but Man City have been
03:44 doing it this year and it's been hit and miss. The thing about Man City and you may
03:48 have noticed this is they tend to have a lot of the ball right when your opponent
03:52 has a lot of the ball you tend to sit deep and sit deep and sit deep trying to
03:55 defend until you can get it back how many times have you seen Man City parked
04:00 on the edge of the opposition's area just knocking it back waiting for
04:03 something to happen. It happens pretty much every single game doesn't it right and the
04:06 problem with the box midfield is it gives you this straight line here or a
04:10 can like these demonstrate these graphs these demonstrations it never it never
04:13 is perfect in a symmetrical but you can end up with that problem where you
04:16 basically have your two midfielders and your two wide players effectively in a
04:20 straight line which is bad because it doesn't give you any sort of real
04:23 passing angles between them and it's quite easy to block that off meaning you
04:27 have to go backwards you have to go here to go there and you end up with this
04:30 horseshoe sort of effect of knocking it from wide player to central player to
04:35 defend it and all the way back again with nothing really going on that's the
04:38 problem they've had it's why they sometimes looked off the ball. I say off
04:41 the ball obviously they're clearly on the ball when they look off the ball but
04:44 I mean off the ball in the sort of metaphorical sense while they're on on
04:46 the ball in the literal sense. You've watched yeah it's fine. And if you cast
04:50 your mind back to that part of the season where City were having a little bit of a
04:53 struggle the goals had sort of dried up for Haaland the results weren't great
04:57 Arsenal were pulling away every video package every pundit everybody was just
05:01 like well they're not using Haaland correctly he's making all these runs
05:04 here he's constantly moving around desperately trying to find space in
05:07 these congested areas and they're just not playing the pass through. How many
05:11 times did you see a little graph Haaland's got round here he's pulled off
05:14 that defender oy oy he's made the run and they put a big arrow on it and gone
05:18 why don't they just hit this perfect 35-yard pass under pressure through six
05:22 players when they can't even really see what's going on why don't they just
05:25 drop that on his foot every single game. Well I'll tell you why because that's not
05:29 what Man City do. Man City don't like playing passes if there's a very low
05:33 chance of it coming off they don't play those low percentage ones they like to
05:36 keep the ball and work a situation by the very definition of the word if you
05:40 play a low percentage pass then a high percentage of the time you are going to
05:44 give the ball back to your opponents and what do Manchester City hate doing not
05:48 having the ball Pep Guardiola is the golem of football this is the most
05:53 precious thing in the world to me will not give it up unless you physically
05:56 kill him and the reason I'm highlighting this is this system actually works
06:00 better without an Erling Haaland type making those runs trying to stretch the
06:03 defence trying to get around the back last season if you remember they kind of
06:06 played De Bruyne or Gundogan as a false nine in that system and they would drop
06:10 back into the midfield and just create a bit of chaos because then the defence
06:13 don't really have anybody to mark and they're all moving around a lot better
06:16 and it worked slightly better than it does with a player desperately trying to
06:20 be the focal point to get on the end of a cross to get on the end of a pass
06:23 it's not what gets the best out of that system and as a result this system does
06:27 not get the best out of Erling Haaland and yet he has scored 39 goals in March
06:34 that's sick and the reason I said there's two reasons for this is because
06:37 there is the first reason is just Man City even when you defend the system
06:40 very well are very good at playing it and you can create chances for a player
06:44 like Haaland and indeed he scored loads of his goals coming from this system
06:48 because that's just the thing about having a good system even if teams know
06:51 how to defend against it and it has inherently got problems if you're very
06:55 good at it it will still create chances look you can still oh look I found a gap
06:59 Haaland's beat his defender and the ball is there and I'm gonna do this and warm up
07:03 Oh I can't believe that I tell you what goalie didn't move though did he? He thought it was in
07:09 so reason number one why Erling Haaland has scored so many goals for Man City is
07:13 because it's Manchester City even in a system that doesn't get the best out of
07:17 him and has its own problems they're still good enough that they can create a
07:20 lot of chances and he's good enough as a finisher that he's gonna take them that
07:24 can just happen can you imagine if that was the entire video how has Erling
07:28 Haaland scored so many goals for City it's because they're a really good team
07:32 and he's a really good player thanks like and subscribe be an easy little job
07:35 wouldn't it but no that's the reason why he has scored some goals not the reason
07:38 why he scored so many goals the reason he has scored so many goals is down to him
07:42 as an individual and the really clever little things he does when he is playing
07:47 football which I will now illustrate for you now I've got a set up here in what
07:50 you probably call like the first stage teams where possible don't like to sit
07:54 too deep they can possibly help it so when Man City got the ball on the back
07:57 you tend to find teams would kind of be in this sort of position they'll be
08:00 contesting the very center of the park the defense will be pushing up but
08:03 obviously crucially not too far and trying to stay back for they try to be
08:07 compact while not being deep Erling Haaland is a player you have seen score
08:11 loads and loads of goals by running very fast pass the defender a really good
08:15 ball comes in he gets on to it he gets through and he scores a goal here is an
08:18 example of him doing it at Borussia Dortmund here is an example of him doing
08:22 it at Manchester City in that position where do you think Haaland would be when
08:28 the ball is being passed around waiting for that opening now common sense tells
08:31 you he is here he is on the shoulder of the last defender waiting for that ball
08:37 he knows he's got better acceleration he knows he can beat him in a run but he's
08:40 desperately trying to pull that defender back pull him back pull him back make
08:44 the whole back four go with him create a little bit of space allow his teammates
08:47 to get into a position you've used the box midfield they've got numerical
08:50 advantage they found a free man ball goes in Haaland makes a run and he's
08:54 through I'm not gonna try and score again that's disheartened me enough but
08:57 the thing is and watch this next time you watch Man City nine times out of ten
09:00 Haaland is not here he is here and that's not because he's coming deep to
09:05 try and receive the ball City are almost certainly instructed not to give it to
09:09 him to feet in that kind of position unless they absolutely have no other
09:13 option the reason he's doing it is because what are these two supposed to
09:17 think you've got this big strong center forward who you know will kill you for
09:20 pace the last thing in the world you want is to have him on your shoulder and
09:24 he's not doing it he's just not engaging with you so as a result you can't you
09:29 keep an eye on him but you're mostly just watching the ball because you
09:32 assume if he's dropping deep then there's gonna be another runner maybe
09:34 De Bruyne's gonna come out a sentiment feel maybe one of the one of the
09:37 wireplayers are gonna try and get in behind you and that does happen so
09:40 you've got lots of options but for Haaland personally he's doing that
09:43 because he wants you to forget he's there and the reason for that is because
09:48 let's say the ball comes over to this side right you're a defender you could
09:51 look at the ball or you can look at Haaland it's very difficult for you to
09:55 look at both and especially if Haaland is aware of this watching the ball get
09:58 passed around the defense they're moving across the following it around they've
10:01 got to keep their position Haaland will just edge and edge and edge and edge in
10:04 a position where he knows the defender can't see him he knows he's kind of
10:09 about there he's not on the shoulder he's not anywhere I'm too worried about
10:12 him but I also can't see him and the second the second the opportunity
10:16 arises City will try and get someone on the ball in that position and Haaland
10:20 will go and the reason he'll go is because he does not need to be there to
10:24 beat that defender in a foot race he is so quick and has such a burst of
10:28 acceleration he will beat that defender in a foot race even if he gives him a
10:32 five or ten yard head start here it is against Leipzig look this didn't lead to
10:35 a goal but you can see the exact scenario he gets in a position where the
10:39 defender can't see him in the ball and he knows he'll just beat him anyway
10:45 and the thing is you've got to add this clever little almost undefendable trick
10:50 he does to just his all-round ability like it's his pace that enables this to
10:54 happen but even if the defender somehow cotton's onto it or catches up to him for
10:57 whatever reason he's so strong that it's almost impossible to get him off the
11:01 ball without fouling him but also his technical abilities excellent as well
11:04 he's such a great strike for the ball he's such a great instinctive finisher
11:08 look at most of the goals he scored while we attempt most of the girls look
11:11 at four of the five goals he scored in 60 minutes last night they don't come
11:15 from a clever system or great positional play or this one neat trick that
11:19 defenders hate it's just he's a really good finisher like City ended up
11:23 congested areas chaotic situations and he got himself in the exact right
11:27 position the ball falls to him and he reliably put it away that is what most
11:31 of being a really really good center forward is all about and he does that as
11:35 well one thing that I can't quantify with like stats or graphs or anything
11:38 like that is he just knows Thierry Henry actually said this during the coverage
11:41 of the Leipzig game but he liked playing with David Trezeguet because he just
11:44 seemed to know he seemed to so instinctively read what his teammates
11:47 were gonna do Harland is already so good at reading his teammates intentions and
11:51 know what they're gonna do that the timing of these mad late deep runs is
11:55 almost perfect so bottom line here why does Erling Harland score so many goals
11:59 because he's capable of scoring so many different types of goals he's got this
12:04 clever thing he does which beats defenders great hooray yay but he also
12:07 plays in a team that can put the ball right on his head and congested spaces
12:10 when they need to perhaps not as much as they'd like to but they're still good
12:13 enough that they can do that he can score instinctive finishes he can score
12:16 headers he can score tap ins he can score with his left he can score with his right he scores so
12:19 many goals because the man's resume of potential goals he can score just says
12:24 all and uh and he's 22 he's 22 years old 23 this year but as we know he's 22
12:31 until he's until he's 23 so he's probably only going to get better that's
12:36 horrifying isn't it why even why even bother having a league but continue to
12:40 have a league we shall and continue to talk about it I will so thank you very
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13:10 look at it it's lovely means I know yes that was how early Harlan score so many
13:14 goals just so you know as a little reward for making it to the end of the
13:16 video I want to title this why early Harlan is such a weird little freak but
13:21 I bet in the end I am a coward and just call it something like how early Harlan
13:25 score so many goals there's a fun bit for you anyway they'll get me on Twitter
13:29 at Adam Cleary see le or why let me know what you thought of the video let me
13:32 know what you think of Harlan just let me know what's going on in general it's
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13:42 watching hope you had a nice time I will see you soon this week probably I'm not
13:47 doing much else bye