The goals that show that Erling Haaland is an artist and not a robot

Erling Haaland is often portrayed as a deadly Scandinavian football machine whose sole purpose is to calculate the most effective way to score goals.

It’s a tempting way to describe a 194cm Norwegian whose goalscoring records are on another level: it’s now 97 goals in 102 games for Manchester City, if you’re wondering.

Most of Haaland’s goals for City are one-touch finishes inside the penalty area, a result of being in the right place at the right time. His excellent off-ball movement sees him in the right position most of the time, and that is complemented by constant scanning of his surroundings.

These are the kind of goals that portray Haaland as an inevitable cyborg – but that’s not entirely fair. Looking beyond his clinical strikes reveals a rich combination of technique and artistry in Haaland’s finishing.

In his first season at City, Haaland scored just once from outside the penalty area, against Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 2022. However, that is not the meaning of the goal, because what he does is more important than where he does it.

Here Haaland receives the ball with his left foot and it is Maximilian Kilman against him…

Kilman expects Haaland to shift the ball to his stronger left foot, which is evident from the centre-back’s body shape. However, the City attacker makes a dummy move towards his left foot…

…and then pushes the ball to the right, forcing Kilman to change his body orientation by turning clockwise…

… and lose sight of the ball for a moment.

That split second is enough for Haaland to fire the ball into the bottom corner.

Interestingly enough, he shoots towards the direction Kilman has just turned away from. That makes the shot harder to block because the defender’s torque moves it in the other direction.

Another often overlooked feature of Haaland’s game is his ability to use both feet to create the best shooting angle and finish chances quickly.

In this example, against Nottingham Forest last April, Kevin De Bruyne finds Haaland near the penalty area, and Murillo positions himself in a way that forces Haaland to stand on his weaker right foot. The City striker uses his left foot to dribble into space…

…but then shoots quickly with the right before the Forest goalkeeper can close the corner. In this case, Haaland’s ability to use his left and right feet together gives him a sub-second advantage compared to dribbling with his left foot and then shooting with the same foot.

In a much more recent example, against West Ham United last Saturday, Haaland waits for Rico Lewis’ pass inside the penalty area, with Emerson Palmieri the defender closest to the City striker. Lewis plays the pass to Haaland…

… and Emerson moves towards him, but the Norwegian controls the ball with his right foot, against the left back’s direction of movement…

…and curls it into the top of the net. By receiving with his right and immediately shooting with his left, Haaland again saves a split second compared to just using his left foot.

Another important point here is that his first touch moves the ball against the direction of Emerson’s movement, which makes the shot more difficult to block because the left back’s body weight is on his left foot and he tries to block with an unbalanced right foot. .

Haaland takes a risk by sending the ball back to the middle, where there is less space, instead of letting the ball roll over him, as the first option provides a better shooting angle. And it works because he disables Emerson by placing the shot in the opposite direction of the left-back’s movement, in addition to the speed of execution resulting from the use of both feet.

Whether Haaland controls the ball with his left or right foot depends on the situation and where he wants to shoot from. In this example, against Leicester City in April 2023, De Bruyne plays the ball into Haaland’s path during an attacking transition.

Against a disorganized defense, Haaland pushes the ball into space with his first touch, using his left foot to keep it away from Leicester’s center back, Harry Souttar, and the goalkeeper…

…before thinking about the latter to score another goal. The difference is minimal, but if Haaland uses his right foot to push the ball forward, it is more likely to be closer to Souttar and the goalkeeper when he shoots.

In another example, from the 1-1 draw against Liverpool in November, Haaland stands between Virgil van Dijk (No. 4) and Joel Matip (No. 32) when Nathan Aké passes the ball to him.

Firstly, Haaland is outside the goalposts when he receives the ball, meaning pushing Van Dijk and Alisson away with his left foot is a non-starter as the shooting angle is already narrow.

Instead, Haaland controls the ball with his right side instead of his left to keep him at a distance from Matip and allow him to quickly use his left side for the next action…

…in which he makes the recording…

… and shoots the ball into the far bottom corner.

The latest example is City’s 2-0 win against Chelsea last month. Here Bernardo Silva taps the ball to Haaland inside the penalty area…

…and the Norwegian controls it with his right hand…

…but dribbles with his left hand instead of shooting…

…then uses his right side to shoot quickly with his left…

…which he ultimately does when he slams the ball into the back of the net.

The reason behind the delayed shot was that Haaland predicted that Robert Sanchez would stay on his line.

“Last year, Sánchez had a great save on me because he stays on the line a lot,” Haaland told Sky Sports after the match. “So I did a few extra touches, then he came running out and I knew exactly what to do.”

More often than not, Haaland will score with a one-touch finish because he is in the ideal position and that is all he has to do. However, there will be other situations where more work is needed and there too the City striker knows exactly what to do.

At times Haaland’s finishing may look robotic, but look a little closer and the artistry becomes apparent.

(Top photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)