Erling Haaland has lifted the share of his Manchester City goals that come from headers from 16 per cent last season to 46 per cent this term, and Enzo Maresca’s wing-heavy system is a big reason why.
City lost 2-1 at Villa Park on Saturday, but the Haaland numbers from the afternoon still made good reading. His goal matched his longest Premier League scoring streak, with seven, and the Norwegian also impressed Villa fans with the credit he gave their side in an analytical critique of the whole game.
According to the Manchester Evening News, he can make it eight against Brighton on Saturday. He is also closing in on his best tally of headed goals in a single campaign at the Etihad.
Haaland headed goals: 6 from 13 so far
His best return came in his first season, 2022/23, when he scored seven headers in the Premier League and added another in the Champions League. That made up 15 per cent of his total goals. He then managed just four in each of the following two years, an area of his game that felt surprisingly lacking.
The Norwegian is a tall man, yet he never looked natural when the ball went near his head. Even Pep Guardiola, who rarely tried to tell Haaland how to finish, felt the need to question his heading as the two walked down the touchline at Old Trafford one year.
Last season brought a concerted effort to improve at both ends of the pitch. He won more duels and headers became a bigger chunk of his goals than ever before, at 16 per cent. That still amounted to only six headed goals, three of them in the Premier League.
This season, he already has four headers in the league and six in total out of his 13 goals. That is 46 per cent. For a player who focuses on the minor percentage points of his game, a jump of 30 is remarkable.
Is Haaland’s heading improvement sustainable?
It probably is not, at that rate. Last season there was also an early flourish, but there is enough evidence already that Haaland should finish this campaign with more headed goals than ever before.
He is consciously working on it. His dad Alfie was helping him in the garden days before his Champions League goal against Porto. But the shape of the team has shifted around him too.
How Maresca’s wingers are feeding Haaland
Enzo Maresca has the side getting the ball out to the wingers, whose job is to beat their man and get a ball into the box looking for Haaland. “They are part of the box where we can attack and we can be dangerous because we are quite big,” the manager said in September. “Erling, Antoine, Nico, the ones that are playing at front. Enzo is very good arriving inside the box. So we need that kind of ball.”
City have certainly looked for it. The Blues were not among the top ten teams in the last two seasons for successful crosses from open play, managing fewer than 100 in each campaign. So far this season, only Brentford, with 34, have attempted more than City’s 30, and City are on course for 143 if they keep going at the current rate.
Semenyo has taken on much of the responsibility for those crosses, and deadline day signing Iliman Ndiaye has relished it too. His ball for Haaland at Villa Park was the second time he has found his head for a goal in three games. It is the sort of service that Maresca’s tactics are built to produce.
Ndiaye knows what to expect from his team-mate. “It’s easy to play with him, you know he’s going to score goals for us,” he said. “You just have to get the ball to his head or his feet, and you know he’s going to get the goals.”
Haaland’s brand and the Ballon d’Or push
Haaland has also made great leaps with his brand this year, capturing the attention of the United States and beyond with his exploits on and off the pitch for Norway in the World Cup. With his heading improving too, both should help him push even harder for the Ballon d’Or next year.
Author Opinion
A striker who already scores with both feet and was once a doubt in the air is a nightmare for defenders. If the crosses keep coming, City have a second route to goal that did not exist two years ago. The 46 per cent figure will fall, but even half of that would be a big gain.
