Manchester City: Now That It’s Confirmed What Can We Expect From Haaland?

Manchester City started the week off in style with them finally announcing the arrival of Erling Haaland to the club.

With him now making his dream move to the Premier League for the club his father captained, what will be expected of him as he joins Pep Guardiola’s already ruthless attack?

Haaland played his last game in the Bundesliga and for Borussia Dortmund when they run out winners against Hertha BSC 2-1; a game in which he scored a penalty.

Thereafter, the former BVB player touched down in England, settled down in Manchester, and starts the next journey in his football career.

His job: to score an absurd number of goals, fill the void left by Kun Aguero, and bring them endless success by consistently winning them silverware.

So here in this post, I will break down all the things expected from a player reportedly signed for an initial fee of £51.1 million that could rise to a whopping £200 million in add-ons (some even suggest it works out to £300m).

The long search for a new number 9 after Sergio Aguero left has finally come to an end with Erling Haaland’s arrival at Manchester City.

When Aguero first arrived from Atletico Madrid in 2011 success at the club soon followed. No matter what manager he played under and that was at the club, he just kept on scoring and stealing the show.

In his 10-year reign as City’s hitman in front of goal, he featured 375 times (310 starts), scored 247 goals and amassed 61 assists across all competitions. Because of his keen eye for goal and deadly firing range, he is now Manchester City’s all-time top scorer.

Haaland will need to replicate this impact from the offset, if not, better it. He is another statement signing made by City with the Norwegian in the top class of Europe’s brightest talents and a potential Ballon d’Or candidate.

He is well on his way to meeting this feat, even before taking the pitch for his first Man City outing.  During his four seasons at Signal Iduna Park, he scored a ridiculous 86 goals and assisted a further 20 in as little as 89 games.

He is also the youngest and fastest player to reach 20 goals in the Champions League. This does display the goalscoring machine that is Erling Haaland and it does also display that he should handle the goalscoring load well throughout his Manchester City career.

They also barely fail to score during games; last season they only failed to register a goal in 9 games across all competitions, which includes the FA Community Shield. This shows he will not be short of opportunities, seeing they averaged 3.74 goal-creation actions per 90 minutes.

Does Manchester City see the 2021/22 season as a failure having only won the Premier League title?

Honestly, no, as they prevented their direct modern-day rivals, Liverpool, from getting the English treble and stopping their quadruple run. However, Pep Guardiola and his City side have become so successful, that many expect more from them per season and see one trophy as just not enough.

They will be expected to be on the hunt for every trophy now that they have an out-and-out striker, especially one of Haaland’s calibre. Kun Aguero brought Manchester City their first-ever Premier League trophy and did it in his first season at the club.

That will certainly be expected from Erling; he will have to bring Pep another EPL trophy, as well as the elusive Champions League trophy that he has been unable to secure since leaving Barcelona.

The EFL Cup and FA Cup should only see him feature in the latter stages of both tournaments; and if they are to make it far in either of the two, his job will be to bring home gold.

Think there is any pressure on Erling Haaland yet?

Erling, with the early reputation he has built, will want to and will be expected to: break every goalscoring record there is for the club and in the Premier League and Champions League.

There will be a host of the world’s best forwards all fighting for individual honours this season in the Premier League. Just to name a few: Mohamed Salah, Harry Kane, and Cristiano Ronaldo (if he stays at Manchester United) will be his direct competitors for everything up for grabs.

With Liverpool also set to announce the arrival of Darwin Nunez from Benfica, the competition for individual accolades has just heated up. The anticipation is for Haaland to be in the mix all the time during his spell at the Etihad.

This is a list of some of the records Erling Haaland is expected to break and some of the battles he will be expected to win during his Manchester City tenure (obviously not all in one season):

• He will have to rally the rest of the world-class forward in the league for the Golden Boot, season in and out. This will be a top battle this season with Mo Salah trying to retain his award and others trying to take it off him
• Mohamed Salah, since joining the Anfield side, has scored on consecutive Premier League opening days for a record five times. Haaland is only 21 (he will be 22 when the league kicks off), he should be equalling it or breaking the record in his time in the EPL. That’s if Salah doesn’t add another opening day goal or more to his illustrious Liverpool career
• The big one: He must beat Salah’s most goals scored in a 38-games campaign. Mo Salah holds the record with 32 goals scored. Haaland’s expect goal ratio of 17.6 xG sets him up as one of the best candidates to break the EPL record
• Another record many will be watching closely if he can break it, is Jamie Vardy’s 13 goals in 11 consecutive Premier League outings.
• Kun’s goalscoring record at the club is under threat. Judging by Haaland’s youthfulness, he could be in England’s top flight for many years to come. With his goalscoring rate, he should catch his 247 goals quickly.
• Sergio Aguero’s hat-trick hero record: The Argentine has scored 12 EPL hat-tricks, the most ever scored in the history of the English game. To prove that he might be up for the task; Erling has scored seven career hat-tricks and once scored three hat-tricks in one game. He was 12 years and playing for his country when he scored the three in one game.
• The battle between him and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk will be a top prospect to look forward to. One of the best defenders in the world will battle it out regularly against one of the best up-and-coming strikers in the game. Who isn’t excited about this?

He will also have to score 20 plus/30 plus goals per season, especially while playing for a free-flowing, attack-minded Manchester City team.

Sergio Aguero’s lowest total for a season was six goals across competitions, however, this was when he was struggling with his fitness and struggled to stay injury-free at the back end of his 10-year stay.

He only featured 12 times for Pep in his final season at the club and seven of those 12 games were starts. Every other season he hit 20 goals plus. Erling Haaland has also scored 10 or more goals during his time at Borussia Dortmund.

Regarding silverware, will he and must he bring it all home in one flash? Or will it be baby steps for the Norwegian in his first season? Guardiola strongly believes his new summer signing will hit the ground running and have an instant impact on the team and in the league.

Of these records, which one do you think Erling Haaland will break first?