Erling Haaland had a meteoric rise as one of the most dangerous strikers in football. His move from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City, paved the way for him achieving the Treble.
He got to experience first-hand, the magic of Pep Guardiola’s coaching and under Guardiola, the Norwegian player is thriving.
His skills have improved as a goal scorer, finding the back of the net a total of 53 times for his club in the 2022/2023 season, after his move to Manchester City. But how exactly did Haaland improve his skills and who does he credit for it?
Haaland, however had his doubts and struggled with his head game as it wasn’t as good as his other skills such as agility and when you’re a striker who wants to score goals in the box, it is absolutely necessary to have a good head game.
In an interview with TV2, Erling Haaland credits all-time top scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo as his inspiration for improving his head game in the box.
I remember always watching Cristiano Ronaldo. His movements in the box: He used to make two or three moves before attacking the space he wanted to be in. It’s kind of a duel in that situation with the centre-backs. It is important to time it perfectly. And the post must be good. If you don’t get a good cross, you won’t be able to score with your head.
Haaland reveals he watches the Portuguese legend’s YouTube clips to learn and improve his skills. There is so much to learn from the top goal scorer and his movements. This way Haaland gets to sharpen his game inside the box and score more.
This has indeed helped, and the numbers proves it as well. Among his first 182 goals, only less than 20 goals came from the head. But his most recent goal stats point to his improved heading skills as almost one fourth of his last 45 goals have been through a header.
He credits Ronaldo for improving his own skills when he was playing for Manchester United and Real Madrid and how Ronaldo evolved from a winger to a proper striker at Real Madrid.
So far Erling Haaland has the fastest goal scoring stats and only time will tell where his stats will end up in the future.