Last season was an amazing blast for Manchester City ace Erling Haaland. While he lifted the Premier League and the Champions League trophies with his staggering performances and goal-scoring prowess, he has found it rather difficult to match his numbers this season, considering his comparatively sluggish start.  While many wonder what is happening to Haaland, shortly following his firing blank in City’s 1-0 loss against Arsenal, a former Premier League manager explained how Haaland is ’emotionally detached’ on the pitch.

The Norwegian striker has scored 8 goals in 8 games in the EPL this season but has underperformed his overall xG of 8.66 by 0.66. Compared to this same stage last season, after his first 8 Premier League games, Haaland had 11 goals. But according to ex-Premier League manager Alan Pardew, the Norwegian frontman is increasingly isolated and ‘not actually enough in the game’ at the moment.

Ex-Premier League manager suggests Haaland is emotionally detached at Man City at the moment

Alan Pardew, who coached West Ham, Newcastle, and Southampton amongst others during his managerial career spoke about Haaland’s performances recently from a manager’s perspective.

Speaking in an interview on the TalkSport podcast, the former Hammers boss said, “Yeah, and funny enough right at the end he emotionally gets involved with someone on the sidelines, as he’s walking off the pitch. Actually, on the pitch, he looked unemotional at times you know like he wasn’t in the game.”

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“And sometimes, when you are a striker, I’ve had many strikers over the years, sort of come to me and say ‘I didn’t feel like I was in the game gaffer’, You know, ‘I didn’t get enough of the ball’, you kind of become emotionally detached, and I think that’s where he is actually at City at the moment, he looks like he’s not actually enough in the game, to bring the best out of him.”

However, some pundits also seem to think that Haaland’s poor form has to do with the ‘lack of service’ he’s getting from his teammates at the moment.

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Erling Haaland not getting enough service from City teammates

The elephant in the room is obviously that Man City’s primary creator Kevin De Bruyne’s injury, which is perhaps why City has been struggling to create chances for Haaland. This is despite the likes of Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, and others starting against Arsenal. Also rather notably, City’s metronome Rodri did not play against the Gunners, which was further evident in the Sky Blues’ lack of progressive passes that would lead to chances to unlock the stubborn Arsenal defense.

As we reported earlier, ESPN FC pundits Craig Burley and Shaka Hislop also suggested that Haaland was not to blame for the “lack of supply“ from his teammates. This is rather apparent as Haaland accumulated an xG of 0.00 against Arsenal and an xG of 0.04 against Wolves.

However, it’s certain that once City’s entire squad is fit we could see Haaland scoring prolifically again. Nevertheless, Guardiola needs to address the issues in the meantime and get his star striker back to his goal-scoring best.

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