Erling Haaland Has Taken Control

Manchester City has five players who have scored exactly one goal this Premier League season: Matheus Nunes, Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders, and Nico O'Reilly. That makes for a five-way tie for third-most goals for the club, behind Burnley's Maxime Estève, whose two own goals on Sep. 27 rank second on the Manchester City Goal Sources Rankings.

In first place? That would be Erling Haaland, whose 13 goals are far and away not just the most on Manchester City, but more than double the next highest mark in the Premier League (Brentford's Igor Thiago, Brighton's Danny Welbeck, Bournemouth's Antoine Semenyo, and Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta are all tied for second with six goals each). Haaland has been pretty much the entire Manchester City attack, as he demonstrated again with a 16-minute brace on Sunday against Bournemouth in City's 3-1 win, which helped the club keep within range of high-flying Arsenal at the top of the league.

Haaland's size has always been intimidating, but it's really the way he combines his enormity with his speed that has caused defenders in every league he's played in massive fits. There's no way to defend him in open space, because he's both stronger and faster than pretty much every defender who tries to stop him. His brace on Sunday showed that so perfectly that it might as well have been a mini-highlight reel in game form. Both of Haaland's goals came not from patient prodding outside the box, but rather from long balls into acres of space, which his long legs covered with terrifying speed:

Both goals were crucial, too, thanks to Tyler Adams's equalizer in the 25th minute. (City would go on to add a third on the hour mark, thanks to Nico O'Reilly adding his name to that aforementioned one-goal clusterfuck.) That's been the story of Haaland's season, for club and country; he's always there when you call, and he's always on time. The stats, frankly, boggle the mind: In 10 Premier League matches, two World Cup qualifiers, one friendly against Finland, and three Champions League bouts, Haaland has scored 26 goals.

Ludicrously, he has only not scored in two matches all season, both Manchester City losses and, unsurprisingly given his dictatorship over the goals, both Manchester City shutouts; only Tottenham and Aston Villa have kept the big guy off the scoresheet. (City's only other Premier League loss came in a 2-1 defeat to Brighton on Aug. 31; Haaland scored the opener before the Seagulls scored two in the second half.)

While not all of Haaland's goals have come against especially formidable opposition—five goals against Moldova, and a hat trick against Israel—he's also been a key part in two important draws for City, scoring the only goal for his side against Arsenal—in a game City should have won, save for a very late Gabriel Martinelli goal to rescue a point for the Gunners—and both goals against Monaco in the Champions League—in a game City should have also won, save for a very late Eric Dier penalty to rescue a point for the Monegasque side. More than ever before, it really does feel like as Haaland goes, so goes City.

The big question here is a simple one: Is this actually a good thing for Manchester City? Haaland has never had trouble piling up the goals, and his 13-goals-in-10-games pace is actually not out of the ordinary for him:

The difference this season is that no one else is really scoring for City. In theory, you could read that fact as evidence that the attack has completely stalled out and the plan is simply to chuck it up to the big guy and let him do his thing. This isn't quite accurate, though, and that's what is scariest for every other team in the Premier League. Since moving to City in 2022, Haaland has been a bit of a passenger in his team's overarching playing system. This is not to diminish his talents or his impact, both of which have always been at all-world levels, but Pep Guardiola's trademark possession style has never truly meshed with Haaland's skillset. He has averaged just around 12 passes a game his whole time in Manchester, with a peak of 15.5 in his first season. His dribbles also float around the one-per-game mark, a sure sign that he's not being asked to do much with the ball save for shoot on goal.

This season, though, City is incorporating Haaland into every facet of its attack: While his passes count is still on the lower side, he's upped his dribble count to 1.3 per game, his highest total in a City jersey (this may not sound like a massive upswing, but given the low count, any improvement is seismic). He is also shooting more than ever (4.5 per game, his highest tally in the Premier League), and he's not shooting from outside of the box (0.1 attempts from distance per game). These all combine to paint a healthy picture of Haaland's involvement: He's getting the ball more, he's getting into better positions, and he's taking better shots.

Haaland's 13 goals have come, mostly, from within the structure of the system, and if he's vacuuming up all of the chances, that's more by design than it has ever been. Take a look at his first goal against Bournemouth once more: Haaland first touches the ball in City's own half, playing a deep target role to hold up the ball then hand it off to Nico González, before turning around and turning on the jets, giving Cherki a clear option with his knocked-on header. The latter part is a more common Haaland move—look at the second goal for a more traditional Haaland goal—but by not isolating himself in search of those line-bursting runs, Haaland forces the center backs to pay even more attention to him for longer stretches of the field, opening up space for his massive body to turn on his freakish acceleration.

This is not to say he is suddenly Karim Benzema, a playmaking No. 9 who also scores a truckload of goals. Haaland will almost certainly never be that kind of forward, but if he can get this many goals while also linking up for possession play, and popping up in unusual positions more often, then he becomes even harder to defend, and he's already pretty freaking difficult to defend.

A bit more than a quarter into the Premier League season, this feels like the best Haaland has every played, even if it's not his most prolific start. City has needed him more than ever, as it transitions into a new era without Kevin De Bruyne around calling the shots. Haaland is the bridge between the KDB teams and the new one, and he's taken on more responsibility as some of his fellow veterans of the Guardiola era have faltered (Bernardo Silva has not had a great start to the season, Foden has been good but not in terms of goalscoring, Rodri was poor before picking up another injury, and Mateo Kovacic has only played four minutes this season). While the defense has been mostly stout—eight goals against, good for third-lowest in the league—it's thanks to Haaland's growth that City has the best offense in the league, and that offense has helped City weather a couple of bad games to remain six points behind Arsenal. If help doesn't arrive before Haaland cools down, maybe City will fall back as it did last year, but I wouldn't bet on this red-hot start subsiding any time soon.