There was a period during Erling Haaland’s transfer drama when questions were raised regarding the Norwegian’s fitness and if it should impact any major club’s decision to sign him.
Was Haaland a prone to injuries? Was it a risk to spend so much money on him? Was it possible to correct it?
The 22-year-old missed 16 games for Borussia Dortmund due to injury during the 2021-22 season, but he returns to Signal Iduna Park far fitter than many thought following that Bundesliga campaign.
In Pep Guardiola’s post-match conference yesterday, after a thrilling goalless draw between his side, Manchester City, and Borussia Dortmund, he laid a few words with regards to why he substituted Erling Haaland after 45 minutes of game time.
He said, “Three things: I saw him so tired. The second one, he had a little bit of influenza in his body. Third, he had a knock on his foot. That’s why he was not able to play in the second half.”
Haaland has become the first Premier League player in history about whom formerly-good football website Football365.com has started doing a Ridiculous Stats piece and then realised to their horror is going to have to be updated once a week. At least.
With 17 goals to his name, Haaland is eight goals clear of his nearest ‘challenger’ for the Golden Boot, Harry Kane having managed only a feeble nine goals in his 11 games so far. Indeed, Haaland has as many goals as the second and third leading scorers this season, with Ivan Toney one behind Kane on eight.
Those 17 goals he’s plundered in his first few months in Our League are more than the career totals of Alvaro Morata, Jose Antonio Reyes, Michy Batshuayi, Arjen Robben, Joe Allen, Fabio Borini, Demarai Gray, Odion Ighalo, Alex Iwobi, Robinho, Kai Havertz, Luka Modric, David Platt, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Edinson Cavani, Mousa Dembele, Samuel Eto’o, Dimitri Payet, Ademola Lookman, Harry Maguire, Emmanuel Petit, Granit Xhaka, Daniel Amokachi, Joelinton, Diego Forlan, Serhiy Rebrov, Andriy Shevchenko, Ronnie Rosenthal and Timo Werner
