Haaland is the method in Guardiola's madness

Erling Haaland is like 'Inception'. He is a machine, inside a machine, inside a machine. With 51 goals in 45 games this season, till May 4, he is, evidently, a goal machine. He plays for Pep Guardiola's Manchester City—a title-winning machine that has won the Premier League in four of Guardiola's six completed seasons. And City is the flagship of the Abu Dhabi-owned City Football Group—a well-oiled machine (literally!) with football clubs in 12 countries. Haaland's record-breaking season can be undeniably tied to the blueprint that Guardiola has carefully developed over the last seven years at City. But, more on that later.

The City factor—just how bloody good City are—is cited by Haaland's detractors (read bitter rival fans) to argue that this kind of performance was to be expected. It is true that City is a factor. But, that is not to say what Haaland does is easy. The physicality is an obvious advantage. It is thrilling to watch the 6'4” Norwegian in full flow because he outmuscles other mostly big men and outruns more athletic-looking men with relative ease. He also has a sharp football brain with a great appreciation of free spaces and, apparently, the ability to calculate angles while running at high speeds.

Interestingly, Haaland, who now has 35 Premier League goals, has missed 23 clear chances in the league so far—that is more than any other striker has scored, with the exception of Harry Kane (25). Despite the misses, he surged past the record of 34 goals, in just 31 games (City has played 33; Haaland missed two). What is even more remarkable is that the record of 34, which was jointly held by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole, was set in an era when there were 42 league games in a season, as opposed to 38 now. This also means that Haaland has five more matches to extend the new record of 35.

But, he is yet to develop into a complete striker. The majority of his goals are with his favoured left foot—for example, 66 per cent of his goals in the Premier League so far this season. Also, many of his goals have been slotted to the goalkeeper's right. Therefore, a degree of predictability persists in his game. With most Haaland goals, viewers have a fair idea of what he is going to do. So, naturally, his opponents, too, know what he is likely to do. They are just unable to react, and run, fast enough to stop him from doing it. The out-of-form Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale benefited from the lingering predictability in Haaland's game in a recent match. Even as City smashed Arsenal 4-1, Ramsdale made multiple saves from Haaland.

However, Haaland's use of his right foot has improved by leaps and bounds in his first season at City. His heading ability has been fine-tuned and, most remarkably, his movement without the ball has reached the levels required of elite strikers. He is also more comfortable now in dropping deep to collect the ball and linking up play.

And here's where the earlier-mentioned Guardiola blueprint comes into play. Training under arguably the world's best football coach has worked wonders for Haaland. It also helps that the team has been moulded by Guardiola into a technically and tactically astute unit that penetrates opposition defences with frightening regularity and precision.

While Haaland deserves all the praise he is getting for his performance, there is a clear pattern of such individual seasons spread across Guardiola's coaching career. During his first coaching job at Barcelona, Guardiola reshaped the team around Lionel Messi for the first three years of his four-year tenure, all while winning trophies. Guardiola's final season was disappointing for the team, but it was Messi's best individual season in terms of goals—he scored 73 goals in 60 games in all competitions. It is still the Argentine's best goalscoring season.

Similarly, at Bayern Munich, Robert Lewandowski breached the 40-goal mark, in all competitions, for the first time in his career in 2015-2016—Guardiola's third and final season as coach.

At City, Guardiola spent six seasons perfecting his attacking mix, again, all while winning trophies. A new attacking spearhead was brought in only after this process. It is interesting to note that despite the team's success, no City player has won the Premier League Golden Boot during Guardiola's time in charge. The reason is simple—it is only after Haaland's arrival this season that one player has been given so much of the responsibility to score goals. City's all-time leading goalscorer, Sergio Agüero, for example, helped the team play well and scored his goals as part of that process. With Haaland, Guardiola tweaked the so-called City way—the team now plays to give its striker the best chance to score.

When news first broke that City were pursuing Haaland, there were concerns that there would be a mismatch of styles. That Haaland would not be suitable for the way Guardiola's City play. But, it now seems as if a modified style was the master tactician's plan all along. For example, when City play with Haaland, the roles of his teammates are more strictly defined. When he is not playing, there is an evident change in the approach play, with the midfielders making more forward runs and getting into goalscoring positions. That is why Guardiola's plan B is Julián Álvarez, the 23-year-old Argentine World Cup winner who is known for his aggressive pressing and dynamic link-up play. If Haaland fails, City can go back to playing like they were doing before by using Álvarez up front. Moreover, Guardiola has also used Haaland and Álvarez together many times and it has worked well.

Unlike at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Guardiola is not expected leave City after the season in which his primary attacker went into god-mode. He has signed a contract extension at City till 2025. And with Álvarez knocking on the door for a starting place and City expected to spend more in the summer, as they usually do, it seems like the only thing that can stop the Haaland-led City attack is the 100-odd financial rule violations they have been charged with. But, a sentencing is not expected to take place any time soon.

However, football has a way of grounding the best. And Haaland, 22, has already had injury problems in his career. So, all we can do as football fans is enjoy the goals for as long as Haaland and City keep scoring.