Erling Haaland has already netted an astronomical 42 goals this season and we’re only just over halfway through March. Eight of those came last week alone.
The number of hat-tricks he has now tallied has risen to six - the number of goals some strikers will get all season. Pep Guardiola has even admitted that nobody could predict the incredible impact Haaland has had and he is showing no signs of stopping.
It will be hard to prevent him from clasping hands on a plethora of individual awards at the end of the season but the one he will ultimately want most is a Champions League winner's medal. He has got 10 goals in the competition this season, and that’s without him playing in all of the games Manchester City have played in the Champions League this term.
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Five of those goals were fired in during the 7-0 whitewash of RB Leipzig last Tuesday on a night that will probably make his book of memoirs at the end of his career. But despite his ridiculous haul, some have argued that he may be stifling the City team and that he doesn’t necessarily fit in.
One of those is Jamie Carragher, who last month suggested that not only had Haaland perhaps made the wrong transfer but said we are not seeing the best of Haaland this term.
He said: "I think we've only seen 60 per cent of Erling Haaland. He might have picked the wrong club to actually get the best out of him." Of course, many have batted away the latter suggestion but if the first is correct then we could witness something incomprehensible going forward.
The fact that anyone is firing that question at Haaland is scary in itself and Carragher is not alone in putting forward such a theory. Furthermore, it has become commonplace for Guardiola’s signings to need a year to bed into his system.
City fans saw this with Riyad Mahrez, Rodri and now more recently, arguably, Jack Grealish. If the same applies to Haaland then who knows how many he could get. Alan Shearer has not made it any secret that he is resigned to the fact that Haaland will eclipse his Premier League single-season record (34 goals) - he only needs seven more to get it.
City will be better versed in playing to his style and meeting his needs beyond the summer after 12 months in the side. Similarly, Haaland will know his teammates better and will have greater anticipation of how certain colleagues move and play the ball.
Carragher might have sent the rest of the Premier League the biggest Haaland warning yet. It is still possible that City walk away without a trophy this season. Conversely, they could enter the summer on the back of winning the Treble.
Haaland has been brought in to make up the shortfall that saw City lose Champions League and FA Cup semi-finals last year. If he can be the difference this time around, the signs are ominous ahead of next season. Perhaps he’d be able to pile up his hat-trick match balls to the Blue Moon and back.
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