Striker Erling Haaland has just returned to the field after a recent injury and is facing many issues regarding performance, ball feeling, family stories that affect his playing spirit, and whether the Norwegian striker Can they overcome the pressure to regain their status as an unstoppable monster for the half-blue Manchester team?
From the beginning of the 2023-2024 season until before his injury, Haaland contributed 14 goals to the defending Premier League champions in 15 matches. However, on December 7, 2023 after the match against Aston Villa, Haaland suffered a foot injury. On December 10, in a session with the media, coach Pep Guardiola said: “He can’t even walk normally.” At that time, this striker had a stress reaction in his metatarsal, he could not run and no one knew when he would be able to return to the field.
Coach Pep Guardiola confirmed that Haaland had no broken bones but only showed signs of stress in the bones of his feet. A few days after the match against Aston Villa, Haaland felt better, but the possibility of playing on the field was still open.
After about 2 months of recovery, on February 1, Haaland returned in the 71st minute of Man City’s match against Burnley but did not score any goals. However, that could not affect the standing ovation from “Blue Man” fans for their best striker at the moment.
Haaland returned in the context of Julian Álvarez’s high form, typically with an impressive performance scoring a double against Burnley on the day the Norwegian striker returned to the field. It is said that the Premier League’s top scorer in the 2022-2023 season must compete for a starting position in Man City’s attack in a situation where he has not been able to regain high form after injury, which is a big challenge.
On February 10, Haaland was in Man City’s starting lineup against rival Everton. Everton’s players applied a close-pressing style of play, causing many difficulties in Man City’s attack lines. The Citizens had a superior ball possession rate of up to 74% but could not launch any shots on target in the first half. In the 71st minute, Haaland broke the deadlock with a corner kick on the right wing by Álvarez, causing the Etihad stadium to explode.
They celebrated because after 70 minutes of struggle, the home team also scored, they celebrated because their number one scorer returned. At that time, people told each other that Haaland had “cleared the air”. In the 86th minute, Haaland eliminated the opponent’s defenders, faced them head-on and defeated goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, scoring a double for Man City.