Erling Haaland’s assault on history shows a new path for Manchester City

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Erling Haaland scored his fifth goal in the 58th minute. Not that you would know it from his celebration, in fact more of a non-celebration: a jog of desire, a slight curl of the lips and a rise of the eyebrows, which is not so much the expression of a man who has just written his name. into the annals of Manchester City history as someone who has just found a partially melted Freddo in his pocket.

Of course, everyone expected Haaland to come out at that point: the game was won, Luton’s brief squall was extinguished in disallowance, passage to the sixth round safe. But it wasn’t. The clock ticked past 60 minutes, then 65, then 70. Still no plea from Pep Guardiola. You are 5-2 up. Wait, Mateo Kovacic has just scored, make that 6-2. You’ve got the derby against Manchester United at the weekend. It’s an open game, tackles and crowds flying in all over the place. Haaland only recently came back from injury. You have four employees left. So Pep. What is the idea here?

Related: Five-star Erling Haaland separated Luton and Manchester City in a 6-2 win

The temptation is of course to diagnose a classic case of Pep’s anxiety: that basic need for security and reassurance, an extra back comfort blanket in the wild mood of a game, respect – on the edge of play – for all the ways in which it is possible with the opposition you lose. The famous six-two is the most dangerous scoreline of all.

But I have another theory. I think Guardiola was just as despicable as the rest of us. I think he was trying to access one of the few emotions left in football that he still hasn’t experienced. He wanted to see Haaland score six.

And of course this is as much an inflection of power as it is a legitimate tactic: the football equivalent of an Australian cricket captain at the Gabba stubbornly running up a huge third-innings lead and refusing to assert it. After all, what’s the point of having the most destructive toy in sports if you’re not going to push it as far as you can? What’s the point of even buying Haaland if you’re not going to let him score six goals against a much smaller club for a fraction of your wage bill?

As it turned out, Haaland did not score six. Fraud, charlatan, blue-bottle billion-pound job, etcetera. All the same, this was a pretty consummate display: not just in terms of finishing and movement, the nuts and bolts of forward play, but in the way City are trying to operate these days. Gone – for the most part – are the kaleidoscopic triangles and tough patterns of Guardiola’s classic City sides. The fastest way to the goal is the same as it always has been: a straight line.

This is a more impatient City team these days, a more brutal and efficient City team, a more direct and physical City team: a team of bold direct lines and a distaste for ornamentation and small talk. That, perhaps, is why Jack Grealish fell out of favor earlier this season in favor of the hard-hitting Jérémy Doku. Why the Cole Palmer and the Riyad Mahrez were considered treacherous as a surplus of needs in the summer and signed a box to boxers, in Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes. Why City are so much higher these days. The 2018-19 title-winning side were the shortest in the Premier League. These days they are firmly mid-table, rebuilt and retooled, the height of Haaland and Rodri added.

And perhaps the ultimate demonstration of City’s newfound focus was their second goal here, a modern twist on a one-way, Haaland getting straight from goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, laying it back to Kevin De Bruyne and bombing straight ahead to get the ball. . Even the finish was a straight barrel of a gun, right between Tim Krul’s legs.

Related: Erling Haaland five goals to warn rivals Manchester City

Of course these things are partly defined by the type of game the opponent makes you play, and Luton’s decision to keep a high line, build through the third, leave Haaland one-on-one with Teden Mengi, approach helped shaping the City. .

Bernardo Silva roamed the pitch and Nunes switched from left wing to right wing and back again, but in a way this was all distraction and sleight of hand: the illusion of one flank movement when Plan A to go straight down the middle of it all. along.

And, of course, other plans are still available. Not all of City’s opponents will be as narrow-minded as this Luton team. Not all of them will leave themselves so open to counterattack. City’s relatively new tactic of holding the ball in deep areas won’t be as effective against a team that doesn’t allow themselves to be baited into the media. But even in the autumn of the Guardiola era, this side is still sharpening and shaping itself into new forms, still exploring its outer limits.

The substitution board finally went up in the 77th minute. Haaland pretended not to see it. Finally he reluctantly dragged himself off the pitch, thinking little of the five goals he had already scored but the five days he would have to wait until he could score the next one.

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