As complex as it has become, with its set-piece coaches and analytics teams and intricate tacticians within every team around the globe, soccer can sometimes be a simple game. For example, when you take one of the best young strikers since the turn of the century and put him in a team that creates goalscoring opportunities better than any other, you instantly have an unstoppable attacking force.
As young as Erling Haaland is (he turned just 22 in July), he has virtually every attribute you can ask for from a striker: pace, strength, intelligence and otherworldly finishing. And as powerful as Manchester City has been (four Premier League titles in five years), it has missed just one thing since Sergio Agüero started to decline after the 2018–19 season: a pure goalscorer to spearhead the attack. Now after a summer transfer from Borussia Dortmund, two of European club soccer’s most electrifying forces of the last few years have joined together. Haaland has lit the league on fire, scoring nine goals (a record for most goals in a player’s first five Premier League games) and becoming the first player with two hat tricks before the end of August. The partnership between player and club has somehow raised the level of both, creating an attack that seems destined to shatter records and perhaps shift the power balance on the European front in favor of City.
The last two years have seen a combination of Agüero, Gabriel Jesus, Ferran Torres and, at times, nobody at all fill the striker role at City. The use of a false nine grew increasingly common as Pep Guardiola adjusted to life after Agüero. While City never really struggled to put the ball in the net—it led the Premier League in goals and won the league in both seasons—there was still the sense that there was another level it could reach, particularly against top competition.
