It can often hard to shake a label once the football cognoscenti has made their mind up on something.
In a landscape where every match, every decision, every strike and every off-the-ball movement are analysed within an inch of its life, it sometimes feels like the same old debates come up time and time again.
On the back of a disappointing performance in Manchester City’s first-leg draw with Real Madrid, the issue of whether Erling Haaland can deliver the goods in a big match is once again under the spotlight.
The Norwegian was named ‘flop of the match’ by French newspaper L’Equipe, claiming his performance ‘confirmed his immense difficulties in very high level matches’ and awarded him a three out of ten rating.
“Erling Haaland was very bad," added former Real Madrid star Rafael van der Vaart on Ziggo Sport. "If he doesn't score, he's quite useless. I find him a very average player on the ball."
This came after Roy Keane’s ‘League Two player’ rant, after the Leeds-born forward failed to net against Arsenal.
It feels like everyone is piling on Haaland, but are they right to do so?
Let’s look at some of City’s bigger games last season. A hat-trick and two assists in his first Manchester derby wasn’t too shabby, while he also scored or assisted in wins over Spurs, Arsenal, Newcastle and Brighton, all of whom finished in the top six.
In Europe, he scored five goals in the second leg of their last-16 tie against RB Leipzig, before netting in both legs of the quarter-final against Bayern Munich and would end up with 12 Champions League goals.
While he failed to net any of City’s domestic semi-finals or finals last term, City won every single one of them and that’s a point worth drilling down on.
Such is Haaland’s ability in the box and physical presence, teams have to build entire game plans on stopping the 23-year-old. You will often see other team’s biggest, strongest and best defenders stick to Haaland like glue, while other teams will double-up on the striker.
Haaland’s mere presence and movement in the opposition box can be the deciding factor in many games, as the space he creates for his world-class teammates can make all the difference.
Just look at how Phil Foden’s recent goal glut has dovetailed with a comparative dip in Haaland’s appearance on the scoresheet.
There was a moment during Tuesday night’s draw at the Bernabeu that underlines how Haaland’s physical attributes illustrate this point. Foden’s equaliser for 2-2 came moments after Haaland moved out of the box to dispossess Vinicius Jr on the sideline, as he used his pace and power to prevent a breakaway, while also dragging defenders out of position.
Moments like that don’t show up in the stats, but go a long way in proving that even if Haaland isn’t troubling the scoresheet, he is a decisive factor in even the biggest of games.
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