Surprise Liverpool, Man Utd markers and Rudiger antics: Haaland can be stopped – and here’s how
Liverpool and Man Utd countered Erling Haaland with unexpected opponents, while Antonio Rudiger got on his nerves. Here is how to stop the Man City striker.
Haaland has failed to score in just 14 of his 43 appearances in the Premier League and Champions League in his debut Manchester City season.
In some of those instances, the Norwegian still ensured his impact was felt. On a handful of occasions he was truly silenced.
It is time to enter the Haal of fame and rank how well those clubs who prevented him from scoring actually did to thwart the forward, which centre-halves were given the task and how they did it.
14) Bournemouth (August 13)
The result: a 4-0 Manchester City win
How did they stop Haaland?
They didn’t. Not really. The striker didn’t score but his eight touches produced two shots and a wonderful assist for Ilkay Gundogan’s opening goal. Phil Foden also squandered an opportunity to give the unmarked Haaland a tap-in from six yards in what was something of a theme earlier in the season.
13) Aston Villa (February 12)
The result: a 3-1 Manchester City win
How did they stop Haaland?
Well the Norwegian was restricted to just six touches before being taken off at half-time, so it seems like mission accomplished. But he also provided an excellent assist – again for Gundogan – with a Manchester City-flavoured driven cross.
12) Newcastle (March 4)
The result: a 2-0 Manchester City win
How did they stop Haaland?
Again, the man was silenced only on the technicality of his absence from the scoresheet. Haaland had two shots and 29 touches, including a very clever flick to set up Bernardo Silva’s clinching goal.
11) Real Madrid (May 17)
The result: a 4-0 Manchester City win
How did they stop Haaland?
Two things: by relying on some absolute Thibaut Courtois brilliance while pretty much ignoring every other Manchester City player to the point of complete annihilation. Haaland had four shots, created one chance and completed two dribbles while terrorising poor Eder Militao, but could not get his goal; Julian Alvarez replaced him in the 89th minute and rounded off the 4-0 win.
10) Leeds (May 6)
The result: a 2-1 Manchester City win
How did they stop Haaland?
That depends entirely on whether you think someone having six shots, while playing a crucial role in the build-up to one goal with excellent hold-up play and a pass for Riyad Mahrez to set up Gundogan, with 40 touches and one effort hitting the post, counts as them being suppressed. But if you’re struggling: it doesn’t.
9) Nottingham Forest (February 18)
The result: a 1-1 draw
How did they stop Haaland?
In the words of Nottingham Forest centre-half Felipe, he “managed to stay close to him” and “when he tried to move forward, I was touching him and bothered him a lot”.
It might be generous to suggest Forest silenced Haaland, however, as the Manchester City striker and his teammates seemed to scupper themselves more than anything. He hit the crossbar when unmarked and somehow skied the follow-up, while Foden again wasted an opportunity to play him in for a simple finish.
8) Chelsea (January 5)
The result: a 1-0 Manchester City win
How did they stop Haaland?
Manchester City were again their own worst enemies and Pep Guardiola picked a weird old team and Haaland understandably struggled for service with Joao Cancelo as a right-winger.
The striker had 31 touches, three off-target shots and one key pass, with Barney Ronay of The Guardian describing his state as ‘almost total invisibility’ before asking: ‘Was he actually playing football in any meaningful sense?’.
Nizaar Kinsella of the London Evening Standard claimed it as a victory in man-marking for Thiago Silva, who ‘impressively caged’ his opponent. But it seemed that a lack of service was more of an issue for Haaland.
7) Liverpool (October 16)
The result: a 1-0 Liverpool win
The centre-halves: Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk
How did they stop Haaland?
‘Gomez and Van Dijk showed what partners need to do by teaming up on Haaland,’ was Martin Keown’s expert assessment. ‘They were aggressive and up for the fight but, more importantly, they were smart and worked together.’
Keown added that the centre-half pairing ‘took up deeper positions and were retreating towards their goal in readiness for the ball’ instead of being ‘too tight’ to Haaland, while they ‘did really well to read the link-up’ between the striker and Kevin de Bruyne.
Van Dijk admitted after the game that it requires “a lot of running and communication” while Gary Neville crowned Gomez as his man of the match after “some brilliant interceptions”.
Jurgen Klopp revelled in the performance of Gomez: “Outstanding, outstanding talent. Great player, can play different positions, and today he was sensational. It was near perfect doing it today.”
Yet Haaland did have six shots and one key pass, even if no Manchester City teammate was tackled more often (four times).
6) Leipzig (February 22)
The result: a 1-1 draw
The centre-halves: Josko Gvardiol and Willi Orban
How did they stop Haaland?
Guardiola claimed that the “fault” was with the function of the rest of the team rather than Haaland, saying: “We need to look for him a little more. Striker is the most difficult position, one man has two defenders and with Erling it’s more. I’m frustrated too. Happiness is overestimated!”
Danny Mills felt it was down to the “set-up” deployed by Manchester City, who were struggling to adapt to a new approach :”You fall back into old ways, and their old ways is movement, passing, keep passing the ball around. They’re not looking necessarily for him. he’s making good runs. he’s demanding the ball to feet and it’s not coming in because that’s not how these players are used to playing.”
Haaland was involved in the team press which led to Manchester City’s goal, but was otherwise shackled by Josko Gvardiol and Willi Orban. That was not quite the case three weeks later when the Norwegian scored five times in a 7-0 win.
5) Brentford (November 12)
The result: a 2-1 Brentford win
The centre-halves: Zanka, Ethan Pinnock and Ben Mee
How did they stop Haaland?
Ben Mee rather helpfully explained that “it’s all about concentration” during a recent stint on Monday Night Football. Breaking down Brentford’s approach to stifling the striker, he said that “the relationship between De Bruyne and Haaland himself” was key, “and trying to stop Kevin from playing those passes”.
“So closing him down, getting out to him, with the ball coming over to my side, getting out to him as quickly as possible, the nearest man, and stop him being as dangerous as he can be. If the ball’s on this side of the pitch, he’s my man to mark and he’s a danger here. We’ve got the other two centre-halves here still doing the job on Haaland in the middle.”
Gundogan said that Haaland “was always against three men” and lamented how Brentford closed the “space between the midfield and the back five”.
“On the very few times that De Bruyne got out of Mathias Jensen’s vice-like grip, they just couldn’t get it going,” said Ian Wright. “With all the bodies in and around him, they were stopping the ball at source.”
Haaland did have three key passes but his only shot was off-target and he was not involved in Foden’s goal.
4) Real Madrid (May 9)
The result: a 1-1 draw
The centre-halves: David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger
How did they stop Haaland?
By being incredibly annoying. James Ducker of the Daily Telegraph noted that while Rudiger did not make a single tackle and technically came off worse in his duels, ‘what the statistics do not tell you is how great an irritant he was to Haaland, and how unsettling his presence was. Pushing, grappling, shoving, pinching.’
Guillermo Rai of The Athletic praised Real’s ‘tight defensive coordination’ and Alaba for ‘often dropping deeper to close down space in behind’. Carlo Ancelotti said “we focused on controlling the players between the lines” and “the work of Kroos, Modric and Valverde was good” in that area.
Guardiola said similar, stating that “it wasn’t easy for Erling” because “the spaces between Camavinga and Carvajal and the centre-backs were not occupied by the centre-backs – they were occupied by Valverde and Kroos”. There were three shots and eight passes in 21 touches for Haaland, but no contribution to De Bruyne’s stunning equaliser.
3) Man Utd (January 14)
The result: a 2-1 Man Utd win
The centre-halves: Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw
How did they stop Haaland?
A magnanimous Shaw said “it’s about the whole team” and “we defended so, so well” despite his impressive performance as a makeshift centre-half.
Erik ten Hag explained that deployment thus: “It is a big decision but when you analyse the profile of Haaland and the combination with De Bruyne it was also the right decision because Luke has the physical power to compete with them and has the tactical view to make the right decision and technical skills to play in that position.”
Once again, it was pointed out how an opponent stopped Haaland by cutting off his supply rather than specifically marking him. Will Unwin of the Guardian wrote about how ‘the Brazilian bash brothers of Casemiro and Fred worked tirelessly, ensuring City did not have the time nor space to open up United’.
Both of Haaland’s shots were off-target and the Norwegian failed to create a single chance for his teammates, playing no role whatsoever in Jack Grealish’s goal.
2) Borussia Dortmund (October 25)
The result: a 0-0 draw
The centre-halves: Nico Schlotterbeck and Mats Hummels
How did they stop Haaland?
Familiarity might well have helped: Schlotterbeck joined Dortmund in the same summer Haaland left, but Hummels spent two-and-a-half years playing and training with the Norwegian. And Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph said Haaland ‘was shackled superbly’ by his former teammates, ‘having just 13 touches and one speculative blocked shot’.
Jude Bellingham gave it an air of simplicity that only a player of his natural God-given brilliance can: “I think we did well to keep the ball away from our goal and that’s where he does his best work.”
But Guardiola shone a light on a few other potential reasons for Haaland’s ineffectiveness before being brought off at half-time, stating that the forward was “so tired”, “had a bit of a fever” and “had a knock on his foot”.
READ MORE: The ridiculous stats of Erling Haaland: New Premier League record with Dixie Dean in sight
1) Spurs (February 5)
The result: a 1-0 Spurs win
The centre-halves: Cristiano Romero, Eric Dier and Ben Davies
How did they stop Haaland?
It was the first time since September 2020 in which Haaland had no shots in a game he started. Twenty-eight touches, 12 passes and one chance created, but not a single attempt on goal himself.
“Haaland is making the runs, he is ready to go, they are just not playing the pass,” was Gary Neville’s take. “The amount of runs he makes that get ignored is incredible.”
In The Athletic, Tim Spiers picked out the performance of one man: ‘Romero generally took to his task of shackling Haaland the only way he knows how: in an aggressive fashion, on the front foot. And Haaland didn’t even need to be in a particularly advanced position for Romero to quickly close him down.’