Haaland only touched the ball eight times during his 73 minutes on the pitch in last week's 4-0 win over Bournmouth. For the 27 minutes of the second half, he did not touch the ball. Rico Lewis - a young player coming on as a substitute in the 82nd minute had more touches than Haaland. This shows that Pep's tactics are changing, the 4-0 result is still the most important thing.
In 8 touches, Haaland had 2 shots and 1 accurate shot. When the Norwegian striker did not have the ball, Man City took the initiative to control and did very well as usual. Even in these situations where the striker does not participate in the attack, whether directly or indirectly, the number of players he attracts from Bournemouth is enough for his teammates to have more space than usual.
In the match against Liverpool in the English Super Cup, Haaland had 16 touches and 3 shots, 1 of which was on target. Then on the opening day of the Premier League against West Ham, Haaland had 32 touches, 5 shots and 2 goals, bringing home 1 penalty.
This is the early stages of the season, it is difficult to look at the above 3 matches to evaluate Haaland's overall performance. In the most recent match against Liverpool, both Haaland and Man City did not play well, not just the Norwegian star. When playing with his teammates around him, Haaland needs to learn patience because the rest were trained by Pep in this personality too well when playing on the field.
Haaland creates many gaps for his teammates but the gap for himself is a luxury. To get it, he mustn't get away from the penalty area.
Previously, Man City did not use the way they are creating such a large space. For Haaland, they accept losing a player who is considered the key to opening up opportunities for the remaining players in the upfield. The 4-0 victory over Bournemouth in the context of Haaland only touching the ball 8 times was the clearest proof.
Whether Haaland appears often or not in total attacks, this is not too important for Pep because the results are still guaranteed. It shows that this veteran strategist is having new approaches to gradually change philosophies. He often let the striker operate widely as a midfielder. After that, a midfielder will receive the ball, hold and pull the ball over a wide area, trying to pass as much as possible to increase the speed for each attack.
As soon as Haaland touched the ball 32 times in the match against West Ham, this figure was still about 30% lower than the average of Sergio Aguero under Pep. When he was in charge of Aguero, Pep always wanted this striker to participate more in the overall play. However, now he has abandoned that old philosophy because of Haaland's appearance. Simply put, the consecutive Premier League titles in recent years are no longer a representative image of Man City's success. What they need is the UEFA Champions League. Still playing the same way, Man City only reached the final and kept slipping in the most unimaginable way. Pep was once commented as a person who thought too much, built a very complicated playing style but continuously lost in the Champions League. Now, with Haaland simple, will things be better?
In the context of Liverpool buying Darwin Nunez, Gabriel Jesus was arranged by Arsenal to play as a pure center forward, which shows that the values of the true "number 9" are still intact, having only fading over the past few years and not disappearing at all. Pep is famous for being strict and meticulous but not too conservative, shy about change or not adapting to new things.
