Stopping Erling Haaland: More about City's football heritage than it is about the Norwegian’s devastating prowess

To stop Erling Haaland from scoring, it is not by man marking him because this leaves your defense vulnerable.

The aforementioned only affords other City players making late runnings into the box more opportunities to wreck havocs as continuously stalking one man leads to men disadvantage.

It has never been easy dealing with Manchester City on their day and the presence of Haaland is just that of a hungry striker in the midst of creative players, goals after goals until he breaks every single record available as long as he remains a City player.

After only eight games in the Premier League, Erling Haaland is already nine goals away from equaling the tally that won both Mohamed Salah and Son Hueng-Min the top scorer award last season. They help him make it look so easy and now he is unstoppable.

Of the 12 games he has played in all competitions for the club, he has score two or more in six of them, failed to score in two and failed to register a goal contribution in just one, and that one game, he missed some great opportunities.

How do you even think of stopping a player that averages 11 touches per goal contributions in the league, and also plays for a team that enjoys more of the possession than unarguably any other side in world football today.

Once the play is allowed to flow, there's no way Haaland can be stopped. His pace, positioning, strength and physic makes it difficult for any defender to man mark him.

He is built for the kill. Whether when he was at Salzburg, Dortmund, or with the Norwegian National team and now Manchester City, he has earned himself quite a reputation from utilizing the unreal physic to bully his opponents.

Even the tallest defenders will have a hard time coping with his nature when crosses come in. When he came up against Virgil van Dijk, who plays for the better National Team of the Netherlands and came out hurting the Liverpool defender's fingers.

At City, almost every player is technical, even down to the Goalkeepers, they know exactly where to put the ball and Haaland, being a very deadly a hungry striker who can as well score any type of goal, it is literally impossible to stop him.

Chances will be created with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez and the likes constantly on the ball and dictating the tempo of the game.

Whatever way you get the ball into the box looking for him, he is bound to beat him man at least three of five times. Nine of his goals 14 Premier League goals have been scored with his favourite left foot. Two with his right and three coming via headers. 

Against teams that loves to park the box, unlike before when City had the likes of Raheem Sterling or Gabriel Jesus in the center forward position, whence opposition defenders can easy bully them for physicality or in aerial duels when crosses comes into the box, Haaland is a breath of life here.

He is the striker looking to get the shot away and the crosses are meant for him. Whenever he positioned his body ahead of a defender, the only solution is say prayers to the lord that he doesn't get his desired connection.

For his second goal in the Manchester derby, Kevin De Bruyne’s cross would have been allowed to roll out of play by most of the other strikers and they won't be criticized for it because it is easy to think the Belgian had over hit it.

However, Erling Haaland showed he is a striker like no other, and stretched out his leg to connect and divert it past a helpless David de Gea.

Haaland is also the top scorer in the Champions League, scoring in all three games. Despite only playing the first half of their latest game in the competition, he still scored twice to take his tally to five, which is more than any other player.

It's scary hours for any side facing Manchester City because Erling Haaland is on the loose, and there is no stopping him because there is no stopping City from dominating.

In the Premier League, Haaland has scored double the goals scored by Harry Kane, who is next to him on the top scorer list.

His arrival is added advantage for City and having hit the ground running already, Pep Guardiola will hope the player can be crucial in the decisive games later in the season, and help him to the Champions League title, which has eluded him since leaving Barcelona.

City return to league action on Saturday at home against Southampton and a win will see them assume the top of the table before Arsenal host Liverpool at the Emirates on Sunday.

This is the Gameweek many sees Pep Guardiola’s side moving to the top of the standings in the league and it will take something extraordinary from the Gunners to retain top spot even after their home game with Jürgen Klopp's Red.

Should City move to the top of the standings and manage to keep Erling Haaland and everyone fit, it would prove very difficult to see them relinquish their position till the end of the season.

Erling Haaland has made the best decision for his future and development. It is a win-win for himself and his new employers and bad news for rivals domestically, in Europe and in the world.

Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi