Gerard Pique was FC Barcelona’s defensive spine for more than a decade. Last year, he announced his retirement as a player. Pique, however, remains involved with the sport through his Kings League competition. Hours before the English Premier League kicked off, the Spaniard discussed a defense strategy on how to stop goal scoring machine, Erling Haaland, from scoring goals.

Would you believe that this is only Haaland’s second season at Manchester City? Looking at the ease with which he plays, it seems like he’s been training under Pep Guardiola for aeons. Winning a treble in his first season, how often does that even happen?

This is how Gerard Pique would stop Erling Haaland

About a day ago, former Manchester United defender, Rio Ferdinand, had a short chat with Gerard Pique. The two share a good bond with each other after holding Manchester United‘s backline together for a couple of games. Pique was still young back then and hadn’t made a name for himself yet. Years later they belong to the ‘best of the best’ bracket. Together, they spoke about Haaland, who seems to be scoring goals for fun at this point.

Ferdinand asked Pique how he would defend against the Norwegian. Straightaway, he mentioned that it wasn’t a battle. He stated that trying to stop his ‘best qualities’ would be key. Pique quoted, “Haaland for me is a guy that in the box is a killer. Touch a ball and he can score goals. So you have to try to keep him outside the box. This is very difficult because he’s playing in a team like Manchester City that you are in the box all the time”.

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Trying to keep him as far away from the goal and showing him onto his left foot were some of the other pointers. The FC Barcelona legend concluded that soccer was about playing with your ‘brain’. He said, “Sometimes even you are not the strongest one, and if you’re not the quickest one if you play and you are very well positioned you win nearly all the battles”.

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Last season was just his first one in England and he was evidently a nightmare for defenders. Here are some of the records that he shattered.

Haaland’s exploits in season one at Manchester City

One of the first records that Haaland broke was when he scored his third hat trick in just eight games. Previously, Michael Owen had the record to his name and he took 48-league games to achieve it. By December, the Norwegian striker had seamlessly surpassed Mohammed Salah‘s goal tally from last season by scoring about 25 goals by that time already. After that, it got even better.

He became only the third player to score five goals in a Champions League game and entered Messi‘s bracket. In April, he scored his 50th goal of the season. The lethal striker ended last season with 36 goals in the Premier League and 52 goals across all competitions. As icing on the cake, he ended the season by winning the treble with the blue side of Manchester. The question currently is, ‘Can he really be stopped?’

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What do you think about Pique’s master plan? Let us know in the comments below.