Erling Haaland's intelligence and vision has been proved in a thread documenting his hat-trick of goals in Manchester City's comeback win against Crystal Palace.
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City looked in trouble on Saturday afternoon at the Etihad, as Palace went 2-0 up and threatened to spring yet another shock on the Premier League champions.
The south London side have twice previously rocked up to Pep Guardiola's gaff and won in recent years and on at the weekend they may have even been 3-0 up, if it wasn't for a controversially disallowed goal.
Whilst Bernardo Silva's goal kicked started City's comeback, it was Haaland who was the most important man for the team to secure all three points.
The former Borussia Dortmund striker was always likely to be the key difference in those games that City would often dominate without managing to turn into three points, and so it proved here.
A thread by football psychologist Geir Jordet explains how brilliant the 22-year-old's movement and ability to scan the pitch to find the requisite space was.
Erling Braut Haaland does not only have an enormous physique & great finishing, he has an extraordinary vision and ability to scan.
— Geir Jordet (@GeirJordet) August 29, 2022
So often when those around him all look at the ball, Haaland looks away from it, to prepare what happens next.
Here's how he does it.
Thread 1/6 pic.twitter.com/unv5yvLhwE
Haaland uses scanning in 3 different ways leading up to his goals:
— Geir Jordet (@GeirJordet) August 29, 2022
1. When in or around the box, he constantly scans to find pockets of space, where he can receive the ball with time to get a shot in.
Before his first goal vs Crystal Palace, he scanned 4 times in 5 seconds. 3/6 pic.twitter.com/ul0xHtB4aa
3. Once Haaland is clear of the defenders, he scans again to look at where the goalkeeper is positioned - he picks up every detail in the GK's stance (which foot he stands on, where he is leaning etc) so he can aim his shot accordingly.
— Geir Jordet (@GeirJordet) August 29, 2022
His second goal vs West Ham shows it. 5/6 pic.twitter.com/zDaSpFfhOR
Haaland's outstanding goal scoring talent comes from a series of highly adapted skills. One of these is his excellent ability to collect & use information on the pitch.
— Geir Jordet (@GeirJordet) August 29, 2022
Even in tight situations, Haaland typically has an updated view of events around him. This puts him ahead. 6/6 pic.twitter.com/jl61GmsAqv
Jordet is quite the expert on the subject, having been studying it since 1997 and has studied, videoed and analysed over 400 players on their ability to scan.
The fact that Haaland has yet another facet to what we already knew about his many tools as a striker is sure to worry his opponents even more.
Rival managers in the Premier League have already been having phone calls to discuss how on earth they're going to stop the Norwegian.
And they'll also have even more to worry about if Phil Foden is going to be passing to his new teammate more often, after the former Red Bull Salzburg striker revealed he was happy the midfielder 'finally' gave him the ball, for his first goal.
Opposition managers and defenders aren't the only ones worried about Haaland's start to life in England, with even Alan Shearer a bit scared by the forward.
The Newcastle United legend, speaking exclusively to SPORTbible, backed the 22-year-old to potentially break his record as the Premier League's all time top scorer.
He has another 254 goals to go just to equal Shearer and right now Harry Kane is more of a worry for the Match of the Day pundit, but anything is possible.
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Twitter
Topics: Premier League, Manchester City, Erling Haaland, Crystal Palace
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