Erling Haaland is inevitable — but Manchester City’s over-reliance on striker is unhealthy | OneFootball

For Manchester City’s second highest scorer this season, Saturday brought a 2-0 win to enjoy. Not a City victory, admittedly, because he can scarcely savour a status as Erling Haaland’s closest challenger. But, more than two months into the campaign, only the Norwegian has scored more goals for City than Maxime Esteve. Who, rather than participating in City’s defeat of Everton, helped Burnley keep a clean sheet as they beat Leeds.

In all competitions, Phil Foden has also struck twice for City. In the Premier League, no one has. Esteve’s two own goals came in Burnley’s 5-1 loss at the Etihad Stadium. Since the French defender’s inadvertent second, City have found the net seven times. The scorers? Haaland, Haaland, Haaland, Haaland, Haaland, Haaland and Haaland.

No wonder, then, that Pep Guardiola diagnosed an acute case of Haaland-dependencia. “As a team we have to understand we can't rely completely on him,” he said. “He's always there, but we need the other guys, the wingers and attacking midfielders. They need to score goals, otherwise we will not achieve what we're trying to do.”

open image in gallery

Pep Guardiola knows his side cannot become overly dependent on Erling Haaland (Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

If, before Haaland’s arrival, Guardiola’s City seemed to perfect the model of sharing goals around a squad, the danger is now they have veered too far in the other direction, to having a solitary scorer. Haaland has 65 percent of their league goals, 73 percent of those actually scored by City players.

Last season, he scored more than three times as many league goals as anyone else for them, 22 compared to seven. In all competitions, it was notable that only Phil Foden joined him in double figures. In 2023-24, when Foden got a career-best 27, there was a group of four. In City’s Treble season of 2022-23, Haaland was the headline-grabber with 52, but there was a six-strong group with at least 10. And in 2021-22, in the interregnum between Sergio Aguero and Haaland, and 2020-21, the Argentinian’s final campaign, there were seven.

Yet now, apart from Haaland, Foden and Bernardo Silva, everyone else who has got at least 10 in a campaign for City in the 2020s has gone now: Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Julian Alvarez, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Ferran Torres.

Guardiola has recalibrated his tactics around a giant, prolific centre-forward, but also rebuilt his squad, with a different cadre of attacking midfielders and wingers. Their responsibilities include scoring, rather than simply feeding Haaland.

open image in gallery

Manchester City need others to step up alongside Erling Haaland (PA Wire)

“For a long time we talk about it,” he said. “They are good. I saw in training they're good with finishing, so they have to do it. And I have no doubt, when they unlock, those players will score. Omar [Marmoush] is a top scorer, Savio [Savinho], in one moment it will happen, Oscar [Bobb] as well, Tijji [Tijjani Reijnders] and Phil, they're really good at scoring goals. We cannot deny how good Phil is in those positions, Tijjani as well.”

The five players Guardiola named have had 39 shots in the Premier League this season and got two goals between them. It is an inadequate return, but within that quintet, plus Jeremy Doku, Rayan Cherki and Silva, there are different tales, but the potential for more goals.

Foden’s form has been encouraging, and excellent at times. He is not flattered by his goal return, but provided incisive passes in the build-up to each of Haaland’s brace on Saturday. The captain Silva was never prolific and, with his running power less formidable than it was, has had a lone shot in the top flight this season; it is harder to imagine him in double figures.

open image in gallery

Phil Foden's form has been encouraging but the goals are yet to come (Getty Images)

Doku has been terrific and has added more productivity and better decision-making, though for now that is reflected more in assists than goals, and he spurned a fine chance against Everton with a tame shot. Bobb and Savinho lack a goalscoring pedigree for City. The Norwegian has three goals in 41 games for the club, even if only 13 of them were starts. The Brazilian has four in 56 games; the comparisons with Mahrez are most inaccurate when it comes to their respective goalscoring returns.

But Reijnders is shot-happy, possesses the drive and stamina to get into the box and scored 15 goals for AC Milan last season. Injury has limited Cherki and Marmoush to 71 and 150 Premier League minutes respectively but the Frenchman got a goal at Wolves and the Egyptian mustered seven in the second half of last season.

Cherki got 12 goals in his final campaign at Lyon, Marmoush 20 in his last few months with Eintracht Frankfurt. It is a moot point if either figures in the strongest side, with Foden renascent and Doku improving, but three 2025 buys – including Reijnders – represent signs Guardiola is looking for more goals from players beyond Haaland. It is an over-simplification but he may want Reijnders to replicate Gundogan’s goalscoring return, Cherki to provide at least part of De Bruyne’s contribution and Marmoush to offer something of Sterling.

He might think, too, that another midfielder could ease the reliance on a potent striker; if only Rodri were fit enough to play more often. Even without him, though, City would seem staffed with several possible scorers. For now, however, they only have one actual scorer. And Guardiola knows that must change.