Pep Guardiola showed Jamie Carragher that he can adapt Manchester City 's game to suit Erling Haaland - and to devastating effect.
Liverpool legend Carragher questioned earlier this year whether or not the City boss could alter his team's style of play in order to get the best out of Haaland, who thrived in a counter-attacking system at previous clubs Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund.
"I don't think we'll ever see Haaland at his 100 per cent best, showing every attribute he's got in a Manchester City team just because of the way Pep Guardiola plays football," Carragher told CBS Sports in February at a period when both City and Haaland were enduring some teething problems, saying that the 22-year-old's role under Guardiola made him "just a goalscorer, not a great player."
Yet in their biggest Premier League game of the season, the Norwegian striker produced a monstrous display to help power the Citizens to an emphatic 4-1 victory over title rivals Arsenal - and it was largely down to Guardiola's new tactics.
As Carragher correctly noted, Haaland is better-suited to receiving the ball quickly and his team moving up the pitch with haste. "The way Pep Guardiola plays football, he speaks a lot about passing, building up the pitch, getting his whole team towards the opposition, but I think Haaland wants the ball quicker," the former Liverpool defender explained.
"Even when we used to watch him at Dortmund and the Bundesliga, it is a different league and they played more on a counter-attack and run end-to-end. You see him in full flow and the speed of it is just absolutely frightening but we don't get to see that now because of the team he's playing for. I don't think it's really a criticism of Man City or Haaland, it's just not the perfect fit."
City usually build up slowly with their tiki-taka principles, but there was a stark difference on Wednesday which led to Haaland setting up two goals and scoring one of his own to take his tally this term to an incredible 49. Just seven minutes into the game, the Citizens began to play out from the back through goalkeeper Ederson but were pressed by an aggressive Arsenal front line.
With the hosts boxed in, defender John Stones rather uncharacteristically launched the ball upfield towards Haaland, who demonstrated some exceptional hold-up play to fend off Gunners defender Rob Holding and set Kevin De Bruyne free on the halfway line. The Belgian midfielder proceeded to drive through a wide open Arsenal before making it 1-0 with an ice-cool finish.
Throughout the game, City played more directly than we're used to seeing and notably reminiscent of how they approached both legs of their Champions League quarter-final clash with Bayern Munich. Using Haaland as their focal point, the Citizens cut through the German giants with ease during both games and ultimately came away with a 4-1 aggregate win, proof of their dominance.
The ex-Salzburg and Dortmund star's well-taken goal in the second leg epitomised Guardiola's adaptation. After a Bayern attack, Stones once again played a long ball towards the halfway line, quickly turning Bayern as De Bruyne played the role of provider and allowed his team-mate to finish off a counter-attacking masterclass.
This new strategy may be much easier to defend against by sitting deep, but City already know how to deal with those kind of situations and need different ideas if they're going to win the treble. For bigger games - like against Arsenal and in the latter stages of Champions League, such as their semi-final matchup with Real Madrid - inviting pressure from the opposition can allow Guardiola's side to be more direct and exploit the kind of space which they're rarely afforded in domestic football.
After dispatching Arsenal and taking the initiative in the title race, Man of the Match De Bruyne lifted the lid on how his manager tweaked his system to deal with Mikel Arteta 's Gunners. "Normally we play two eights, but Pep wanted more control so we were playing a double six with [Ilkay] Gundogan and Rodri, and if [Thomas] Partey or [Granit] Xhaka pressed, I occupied the space behind."
Guardiola even hinted at his team's fresh approach ahead of facing the Gunners, who still boast a two-point lead in the title race but have played two more games and are without a win from their last four. "When a team decides to be aggressive there is always spaces," the Spanish tactician declared.
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"It will not be a game when one team has 65-75 per cent possession tomorrow. It is not going to happen." He added: "Perfection doesn't exist in football. You can not be perfect and win the game.
"We know what happened with Bayern Munich and what will happen in the future, your standard has to be so, so high because teams demand you to be really good. We will try to impose our game."
Thanks to Guardiola's change of tack and Haaland, the reigning champions did just that.
