Following Aguero’s departure at the end of the 2020-21 season, Manchester City won the 2021-22 Premier League title without an out-and-out striker in their squad.
Meanwhile, Liverpool, City’s only serious title rivals of the last few seasons, have also won trophies without a player you’d describe as a traditional striker in their starting 11. But the introduction of Erling Haaland to the City squad has turned all that on its head, and has shown that having an out-and-out striker who’s on top of his game is enough to make you one of the most feared outfits in the Premier League.
At Borussia Dortmund, Haaland was world-class and last campaign he netted 22 goals in 24 Bundesliga appearances, but this season, the Norwegian has completely altered the football world’s perception of what a top striker looks like statistically. The fact he has 18 goals after just 13 games is, quite simply, bonkers.
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To put it into perspective, at the end of last season, Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo finished on 17 and 18 Premier League goals respectively and both were deemed to have had decent seasons. But it’s not just Haaland’s statistics that display just how frighteningly good he is.
When you watch him in action, he has lightning pace, brute strength and he already looks like one of the best finishers the top-flight of English football has ever seen. In fact, it’s difficult to think of an attribute you could possibly want in a striker that Erling Haaland doesn’t already have.
Although this is somewhat of a cliché’ often seen on Twitter, it really is as though the Norwegian is a robot or that he was made in a lab. He is seemingly the perfect striker. He is more than likely to define his generation of footballers in the way that Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have defined theirs. Haaland is the epitome of a generational talent.
In recent years, traditional strikers like Haaland who you wouldn’t dream of selecting elsewhere on the pitch, have been a bit of a dying breed when it comes to the Premier League’s top clubs. This is why there has been a rise in the number of players scoring a high number of goals from elsewhere on the field.
Obvious examples are the numbers Mohamed Salah consistently provides from the wing for Liverpool, and the number of goals City’s Kevin De Bruyne netted from midfield last season. This trend has seen some out-and-out strikers fall out of favour at their clubs such as Chelsea's decision to offload Romelu Lukaku.
Of course, Harry Kane at Tottenham has been an exception to this and he is a thoroughly enjoyable striker for all Premier League fans to enjoy. But even Kane’s position was slightly altered when Jose Mourinho deployed him as somewhat of a playmaker a couple of campaigns ago.
The return of the out-and-out striker has been welcomed widely by Premier League fans, and Erling Haaland will redefine the expectation of how many goals we expect to see a top-level striker to score.
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