Manchester City beat Everton 3-0 yesterday, with Erling Haaland on target once again.
The Norwegian striker bagged the second goal of the game, after Ilkay Gundogan had opened the scoring with a wonderful goal.
Gundogan then added a fine second in the second-half from a free-kick. It was a magnificent display from the German.
It was a relatively comfortable afternoon for City at Goodison Park.
City were very assured on the ball and Everton just didn’t threaten.
It is always difficult for teams facing City to cause damage when the control City have is so good.
Several players often finish games with over 100 touches to their name. But one man who will likely never do that is Haaland.
During his time with City, it has become a well known thing that Haaland can be quiet in games before inevitably scoring.
Very often, broadcasters will flash up the fact he’s had the fewest touches in a game. And this is something that annoys Ian Wright.
The former Premier League striker was speaking about it on Premier League Productions.
He said: “It’s such a ridiculous stat. Against Forest I think he had 11 touches and scored a hat-trick. It doesn’t make any difference. They used to say the same about (Romelu) Lukaku. Some of these players are low-touch strikers.
“When you’ve got the service, they’re not fussed about that. Erling Haaland doesn’t need to be coming into midfield to do stuff, really. There’s so many players in and around that area. He can just stay in the box. Of course he’s going to have a minimal amount of touches and he’ll probably score two or three goals. It’s a stupid stat how many touches he’s had.”
Ian Wright is spot on about Erling Haaland touches statistic
Wright makes a good point about the narrative around Haaland’s low amount of touches.
It is becoming slightly tedious.
Ultimately it is irrelevant, because his job is to score goals and score goals often. He was signed to be the clincal striker City really needed.
Wright is correct when he says Haaland does not need to be dropping into midfield.
Especially because City overload that area of the pitch with John Stones now.
