Erling Haaland is human afterall
Erling Haaland may be tearing the Premier League apart, dismantling record after record, and scoring 25 goals in 20 matches, but he has shown that he is prone to the occasional stinker, and his performance against Tottenham was one of those.
The forward’s failure to get a goal was just one of many areas in which he struggled for Manchester City against Spurs, and his silence was one of the pointers to how good Tottenham were on the night.
Haaland had more touches in his own box than in Tottenham’s box
One of Erling Haaland’s biggest criticisms is that he can be a passenger on the pitch and not get many touches in the game outside the box, but against Tottenham, he was the antithesis of this as he racked up a reasonable amount of touches, but they were not in the usual areas you would expect Haaland to touch the ball.
Haaland touched the ball a decent 27 times, more than Tottenham’s Son Heung Min, but crucially did not record a touch inside the opponent’s penalty area while recording three touches inside his own 18-yard box.
Haaland recorded a woeful 0.00xG
Haaland’s failure to touch the ball inside Tottenham’s penalty area then snowballed into one of the worst statistics that he will ever be associated with.
He failed to take a single shot in a game for the first time in his Premier League career, and thus amassed 0.00 expected goals (xG).
For a Manchester City striker, this is almost unheard of, but plaudits must also go to Tottenham’s defending, not only against the league’s leading marksman but also against its top-scoring side.
They limited Manchester to zero big chances in the match and were comfortable defending for most of the game, as Manchester City simply could not find a way through.
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