Manchester City signed Erling Haaland for his goals, and boy, are they getting them.
Haaland scored City's fourth goal in a 4-0 defeat of Southampton on Saturday, taking his City goals tally to 20 in 13 matches in all competitions.
For a time Haaland's afternoon looked to be panning out like it did when City took on Bournemouth back in August. That match is one of two games the 22-year-old has not scored in since joining City, the other being his debut against Liverpool in the Community Shield.
Things didn't turn out that way, but even if they had, no-one could have argued that Haaland did not impact the match. While he had a quiet game by his standards, in the build-up to City's first goal it was clear that his teammates had so much space to work in precisely because Haaland was occupying and distracting the central defenders.
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Whether he scores or not, Haaland is helping City to wrap games up by the hour mark. That might seem like an insignificant point, but when you consider that it allows Pep Guardiola to relax slightly and use all five substitutions available to him, an unexpected advantage of Haaland's signing becomes clear.
Last weekend, with City 6-1 up against Manchester United thanks in part to a Haaland hat-trick, Guardiola made a quadruple substitution. The fact the game was already won meant he could risk disrupting City's rhythm by giving minutes to Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez and Julian Alvarez, but also affording Cole Palmer valuable game-time.
On Wednesday night, after a Haaland double had helped give City a 3-0 half-time lead against FC Copenhagen, he did the same. Palmer replaced his record-breaking teammate to gain valuable European experience, and shortly after he was joined by 17-year-old right-back Rico Lewis and 19-year-old left-back Josh Wilson-Esbrand.
And - you've guessed it - Pep pulled the same trick against Southampton on Saturday, introducing Palmer, Lewis, Alvarez and Sergio Gomez once Haaland had put City four goals ahead.
When games are hanging in the balance and City are not home and dry, Guardiola doesn't like making substitutions. Making too many changes disrupts his team's rhythm and players coming into an intense game from the bench are hardly going to be up to the speed of the game. But when things are done and dusted with 30 minutes still to play, anything goes.
Lewis looked a real talent during his 12-minute cameo against Saints, and regular minutes - even if he isn't starting games - are only going to help his development.
When City signed Haaland, some supporters and pundits feared his presence would limit the opportunities of other young players. Ironically, the opposite is turning out to be true.
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