How Erling Haaland Scores His Goals
The spaces he occupies and the movements he makes
March began with the sad news of Just Fontaine’s passing. The Frenchman holds the record for the most goals in a single World Cup, 13 in the 1958 edition. In the ‘57/58 season, his 39 goals in 32 appearances fired Stade Reims to a league and cup double. The following season he scored 10 goals in a run to the European Cup final that ended in defeat to Real Madrid. He was a man who knew a thing or two about goal scoring and he was famed for his repeated use of his mantra ‘premier poteau, premier servi’ - ‘first post, first served’.
Erling Haaland has scored 42 goals so far this season. 2 of those have been from classic near post runs. The 2nd in his hat trick vs Nottingham Forest in August after a short corner and this goal vs Liverpool in the League Cup. He darts across Gomez and gets to the cross first. Classic centre forward play.
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That this is the only open play goal Haaland has scored in this manner might come as a surprise. Near post runs are often a key weapon in a strikers arsenal. But watching City live this season, you’ll notice occasions where you might expect to see a striker darting to the near post, trying to get ahead of his marker in anticipation of a cross, but the run never materialises. So, if Haaland isn’t following Fontaine’s mantra, how is he scoring so many goals?
We’ll come to the ‘tap ins’ later, but for now I want to focus on where Haaland likes to position himself for crosses. There is a pattern. When the ball goes to the byline, he tends to stay in the middle of the goal. Instead of making a near post run, he often focuses on creating space between himself and his marker. Take this goal, his 3rd in the Manchester derby, he just holds his position to take advantage of Martinez’ natural movement back towards his own goal when the ball is played wide to Gomez. By the time the pull back finds Haaland, the gap between him and Martinez is too big and he can pick his spot from 10 yards out.
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Haaland opened the scoring vs Everton, again he’s using the defenders natural tendency to head back towards his own goal to create space between the two of them. This time he makes the space greater by taking a couple of steps back himself. He almost ends up in Everton’s midfield line by the time he finishes.
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Haaland’s opener vs Copenhagen was another example but this time the cross comes from a little deeper. Again he uses the defenders momentum to create the space between them, stepping back onto the cross and finishing with aplomb. Note the desperate lunge by marker, but again, the gap is too big.
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Haaland’s goal against Southampton was very similar. This time, he’s more involved in moving the defender around. His marker naturally goes back towards his own goal when Cancelo is put in down the wing but Haaland also makes a decoy movement towards the far post before pulling away to create the space. When the pull back comes, he has the whole goal in front of him to finish. This one has more of the hallmarks of a classic near post run, the movement towards the far post to create space and then the run towards the near post. But crucially he stays in-between the width of the posts. It’s not a classic near post run where he gets there just before the defender. His purpose is create the space between himself and the defender as opposed to beating him in a race to the near post.
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Going back to the goal in the Manchester derby. When Gomez receives possession, you might expect a striker in Haaland’s position to focus on getting round his marker one way or another with a run to the near or far post for a ball across goal.
Compare this still to the next one. Martinez has dropped 5 yards to defend his goal. Haaland has only advanced about 3 yards and the gap between the two has gone from half a yard to 2 yards.
Haaland receives the ball in space, he has the time to watch the ball onto foot from a static position and crucially he’s right in the centre of the goal when he takes his shot.
The approach Haaland deploys may be contributing to his ridiculous numbers. His xG per shot (as referenced in the graphic below from Sam Lee’s recent Athletic article) is 0.24. He’s scored 42 goals from an xG of 29.2. If a striker is running onto crosses at the near post he has to focus on winning the race to get ahead of his marker and then meeting the ball in motion, most likely taking a shot on from a more difficult angle than the areas we’ve see Haaland finishing from. Whilst Haaland is converting high vlaue xG chances, they’re also a little further from goal because of his approach to create space between himself and the defender and there are often opponents between him and the goal - both of which reduce the xG value. For Haaland, these are easy chances because of the time he makes for himself and the ease in which he can drop onto the crosses, they’re probably easier chances than the xG would suggest and are contributing to his xG over-performance.
The Back Post & The ‘Tap Ins’
Haaland might not follow Fontaine’s mantra regarding the near post, but he does enjoy scoring at the back post.
It makes sense, he’s a monster, standing crosses up to the far post for him to win his battle with a defender should be fruitful for Haaland. And we have seen a couple of examples of this, such as the first of his hat trick vs Wolves.
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More frequently, however, we’ve seen Haaland make himself the last man on the back post, putting himself in space on the outside of his marker and in position to attack a cross that misses everyone else out to find its target. Not an easy cross to make, but City have Kevin De Bruyne.
At Villa Park, De Bruyne digs out a cross to the far post. Look at Haaland’s movement as the play progresses, he heads towards the back post but crucially he create more space between himself and his marker, similar to the way he makes space for himself when in the centre of the box.
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When De Bruyne creates from deep, Haaland uses the same technique to put space between himself and his marker and stay on the outside.
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When City get in behind, if Haaland doesn’t step off his man to create the space for the cut back, he more often than not heads for the back post, De Bruyne again providing the assist vs Sevilla.
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It could easily be argued that all those examples are pretty sback post play, maybe exaggerated by Haaland’s physique and speed across the ground. I think that’s fair, but what I found more interesting was the so called ‘tap ins’ where the ball just seems to fall to Haaland by chance.
Is he doing anything special to get these chances? I think he is, and it’s a similar technique to what deploys for far post crosses.
Haaland’s second goal in his hat trick vs Palace is a great example. As the ball pings around in the penalty area, Haaland knows that most likely space for the ball to end up, when it finally comes in, is the back post. So if he can be the last man with some space ahead of him, he can be the one to attack any bits and pieces in that zone. When Stones miss cues his shot, it falls exactly where you’d expect a miss cued effort to fall and Haaland has his tap in.
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Haaland’s second vs Copenhagen comes when a corner is cleared. As Gomez shapes up to shoot from 20 yards, Haaland is putting himself in position as the last man at the back post, ready to attack any ball that ends up there. Gomez shot is saved by the ‘keeper and falls to the back post where Haaland has his tap in.
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Haaland‘a third of his five against Leipzig is another set piece that initially goes over Haaland’s head. Once it lands at Dias’s Haaland is now adjusting, effectively in a back post position now, he’s the last man, wide, with space to attack anything that drops in that area. When the ‘keeper saves Dias’ header, Haaland pounces and gets his goal. All of his non-penalty goals in this match showcase his instincts within the box.
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When Foden closes in on goal vs Burnley, Haaland could get himself into the middle of goal but he waits as wide as possible, knowing that anything off the ‘keeper might come his way. Instead it comes off the post, Haaland is there, last man, for his tap in.
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It isn’t luck, it’s intelligence, it’s knowing where the ball is most likely to drop and it’s putting repeatable actions into practice over and again.
I’m sure Just Fontaine would be impressed, but maybe first post, not best served.
absolutely great breakdown. I remember first realizing Haaland was a genius in addition to a beast when I noticed how he bends his runs to avoid offside calls. Not sure he gets to show that off as much at City, but I fully expect when defenders learn how to mark these movements better he'll come up with something new.