Erling Haaland has enjoyed another prolific season. But after Man City’s defeat at Nottingham Forest, the Norwegian is facing criticism.
Already in what is his third Premier League season at Man City, Erling Haaland has 20 goals in 27 league games, with his goal in the 1-0 win at Spurs last month making him only the second ever player in Premier League history to score 20+ goals in each of their first three Premier League seasons.
He’s certainly City’s talisman, but he couldn’t provide the goods during a 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, in what had panned out to be a crucial game in the race for 4th place in the Premier League table.
Callum Hudson-Odoi’s second half goal condemned Pep Guardiola’s side to a 9th Premier League defeat of the 2024/25 season.
Man City fans blast Erling Haaland after Nottingham Forest defeat
Haaland was a bit of an enigma against Forest. He had one good chance in the first half and squandered it. “Barely touched the ball in this game. Ghost!” said one City fan.
Another said: “He’s obviously phenomenal at what he does but Haaland can also look so bad.” A similar comment read: “Is Haaland even on the pitch? Spent 90 mins stood on the back post.”
“Players like Foden and Haaland need to step up,” said one City supporter. “Awful week in week out at the moment.” But there was also a case that Haaland wasn’t getting the service he needed against Forest.
One lengthier post read: “When you talk about this service it kills me. Do strikers not have assists. Can he not come out and be a play maker.
“When Kun was our top 9 we never had the conversation of him being serviced. Haaland should also learn to help the team when the ‘service’ is not coming forth.”
Erling Haaland’s shocking stats for Man City against Nottingham Forest
Haaland’s performance can be summed up by one statistic in particular: the number of touches. He had just 17 in the game which was the lowest of any Man City player who played a part in the game.
He also failed to record a single shot on target whilst recording two off target. Here are his stats against Forest:
| Statistic | Haaland vs Nottingham Forest |
| Touches | 17 |
| Accurate passes | 10 (77% accuracy) |
| Key passes | 1 |
| Shots on target | 0 |
| Shots off target | 2 |
| Expected goals | 0.16 |
Ultimately, the buck stops with Guardiola. He has a diamond in Haaland but he failed to get him into the game against Forest, who completely nullified City’s weak-looking attack.
Up next for Man City is a game against Brighton at the Etihad next Saturday.
