Four goals between them, each setting up the other and yet another hat-trick for Erling Haaland. This partnership with Julian Alvarez might just be something special, eh?
A quick glance at those numbers and at the 5-1 scoreline suggests business as usual for Manchester City against Fulham on Saturday, and in the sense that Haaland did his thing and City (eventually) clicked into gear, it was.
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But, and this is by the admission of Pep Guardiola’s right-hand man, Juanma Lillo, City struggled in the first half and, as a result, so did Haaland — and his strike partner.
We know what Haaland does by now: if City create chances for him he will score, and City create a lot of chances. Compared to his team-mates, most of whom can play in several different positions and could ping the ball around a rondo all day, he does not make a huge contribution on the pitch other than what he does inside the box.
He is not going to pick up the ball 30 or 40 yards from goal and change the game with a dribble. As Guardiola says, he is not Lionel Messi.
That is OK, because he is Erling Haaland and between the goals and the trophies he is clearly doing enough right.
Erling Haaland has played 39 PL games and yet only eight players in PL history have scored more hat-tricks than him
— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) September 2, 2023
Lillo is a fantastic analyst and was happy to put things into context.
“Today, in the first half, the team wasn’t good, we weren’t ‘fresh’ with the ball, the opposition won the ball off us a lot and stretched us a lot,” he said, while asked specifically about Haaland. “A game like this isn’t easy for anybody, but for a No 9 with these characteristics, it is even harder because it’s hard to find the right moment to link up with the others.
“In fact, at half-time, I told him that this type of game is not easy for a striker with your characteristics, but you can have a bad game and still help us with goals, and look, he didn’t score just one, he scored three.”
This is not new for City: they won the treble this way. Many of Haaland’s seven City hat-tricks almost go under the radar; you almost come away from the game totting up his tap-ins just to make sure they do indeed add up to three.
Haaland with the match ball (Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)What is new for City is that Alvarez, right now at least, is doing the same thing. The Argentinian is a more rounded player than Haaland: he is not half bad in the box and he does a lot more outside of it, with and without the ball.
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He has already shown for City, River Plate and his country that he can carry the ball, pass long and short, receive the ball and turn in tight spaces, and is a relentless presser.
The fact he has shown that already at the Etihad surely suggests that normal service will resume soon, but it is curious that, so far this season, such a well-rounded player is ‘doing a Haaland’; contributing goals (and assists) but not a lot else.
Again, Lillo was happy to talk about this, even when the questioner had suggested that they clearly bring a lot to the team, but perhaps they take away something too (wording which would most likely not have flown had Guardiola been in the hotseat).
“Normally the game dictates what a player can do no matter how good they are, and for those who play inside that is even more the case,” Lillo said, again pointing to the sloppy performance in other areas.
“Their characteristics mean they push more towards the opposition goal than contribute to the game itself, so if the team is not giving the number of passes that we need to get closer to them then it makes it even more difficult for them.
“Julian is not shy to keep attacking, he is always ready, and so is Erling. So I think that overall the characteristics of this performance itself affect this type of player a lot.”
Lillo also said that the performance had ‘lacked fluidity’. Indeed, having spent much of last season trying to refine the art of picking the right moment to play balls in behind for Haaland to run onto, they lost possession several times in the first half by trying to force the issue too much.
At what point, though, does the presence of both Haaland and Alvarez on the pitch contribute to City’s lack of fluidity? Alvarez was, as is to be expected, more involved in the game than Haaland but he was just as guilty of losing the ball as the likes of Mateo Kovacic, Jeremy Doku and even Rodri.
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The reason Alvarez has been a fixture alongside Haaland this season is partly due to Kevin De Bruyne’s injury and partly because Guardiola wants the 23-year-old to be more than just a substitute for the Norwegian, and he prefers him to play centrally than on the wing.
So far it is a work in progress. Alvarez made far more passes in the game than Haaland (35 compared to six) but of the three that the two of them exchanged it was in fact Haaland who made all of them. Haaland’s assist for Alvarez was actually a dragged shot and Alvarez setting up Haaland was a pass that was only partially cut out by Tim Ream. If you can’t be good, be lucky.
Passes between Haaland and Alvarez against Fulham.Early last season Guardiola seemed seduced by the idea of playing both Haaland and Alvarez together but by January he suggested that he needed other players to bring the ball up the pitch patiently (to provide the amount of passes that Lillo talked about on Saturday) rather than to have so many players up front in the first place.
“Maybe you are there with Haaland and all the processes aren’t correct and we have a lot of people up front, we have more transitions and after we have a problem,” Guardiola said.
That was exactly how the first half looked for City against Fulham, losing the ball and seeming as if they had a problem. In fairness, they solved that at half-time by moving some players around, and it was not Alvarez and Haaland who had to move but the others. Lo and behold, they looked much better and Haaland smuggled home another match ball. They linked up a bit better, too.
The biggest challenge for Guardiola last season was ensuring that City were actually no worse off by using a striker “with these characteristics” compared to a midfielder who knew exactly how to give them more possession and control.
Alvarez celebrates scoring the opening goal (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)In these early few weeks of the season, the challenge seems to be doing what they did last season but with two strikers. They can live with Haaland ‘only’ scoring goals — arguably it has made them better than ever — but can they make it work with two?
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It took a while for City to find their best form last season but this time they have already won their first four league games and on Saturday they were able to improve their performance with a few well-timed tweaks thanks to the versatility of the others. Alvarez will presumably start to show his other qualities sooner rather than later, too.
Then they really will be dangerous.
(Top photo: Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
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