Erling Haaland has veritably banged in the goals for Manchester City(opens in new tab) this season – but he feels he wouldn’t be quite the player he is if not for Manchester United(opens in new tab) favourite Ole Gunnar Solskjaer…
Haaland played under his Norwegian compatriot during his time with Molde, and he’s praised Solskjaer for developing one key aspect of any complete striker’s game: heading. In an interview with GQ(opens in new tab) magazine, Haaland said:
“The first thing I think [Solskjaer] said to me was ‘You have no idea how to head the ball; we have to work on that’.
“This is what we did for two years, the whole period I was [at] Molde. And it was a good thing, because I couldn’t hit the ball, and now I’m scoring goals with my head – thanks to them.”
Haaland is indeed scoring goals with his head – but perhaps not as many as you might think for someone who stands a towering 6ft 4in tall.
During his three years in Europe’s top five leagues (two-and-a-half with Borussia Dortmund(opens in new tab) prior to joining City), Haaland 62 league goals – but only eight (just under 13%) have been headers.
Then again, considering he’s averaging better than a goal a game in all competitions, City probably aren’t overly fussed about how their number nine finds the net (although he hasn’t scored in his last three outings, his longest ‘drought’ in almost a year…).
Source: fourfourtwo.com
