Erling Haaland triple-captainers breathed a sigh of relief when the Norwegian powerhouse bagged a late brace in Manchester City’s 5-1 win over Burnley on Saturday.
It wasn’t until second half injury time that Haaland scored his seventh and eighth Premier League goals of the season as Man City returned to winning ways in England’s top tier..
Few can doubt that Man City were deserving winners against the Clarets. They managed 21 shots to Burnley’s nine and 68.5% possession in a dominant home display. The question will have been why it took so long to put up a score befitting of their control in the home triumph.
In this article, we’ll cover:
As Pep Guardiola lined up in a 4-1-4-1 setup, Man City were always expected to dictate proceedings. As such, Scott Parker sought to frustrate the hosts by lining up in a 5-4-1 formation. The resolve lasted just 12 minutes when Maxime Esteve scored the first of his two own goals of the afternoon. Even so, Parker’s plan was to remain as compact as possible in order to try and limit Haaland’s influence, and in truth… it did almost pay off.
The average player positions from Man City’s win on Saturday showed Guardiola’s side pushing as high up the pitch as possible. Gianluigi Donnarumma cast an isolated figure in the Man City box as the defence and midfield essentially morphed into one.
As the above image shows, Ruben Dias was essentially the only other Man City player in their half, with Josko Gvardiol allowed to push forward and essentially act as an auxiliary midfielder. The Croat is a master distributor, with Guardiola essentially tasking the versatile defender with instigating attacks from the back.
Gvardiol’s link up with Doku
The former RB Leipzig man did so with ease. Not only did he rank fourth for passes completed (69), he placed first for completed final third passes (30). Of those 69 completed passes, 19 were for Jeremy Doku (more on this later). For context, though, winger Doku completed 27, while a rejuvenated Phil Foden completed 24. Josh Cullen was Burnley’s top performer for this metric… with eight.
With Nico Gonzalez and Tijjani Reijnders dropping deeper to provide additional protection to the backline, Man City had complete control in the middle of the park. What did prove key, though, was that Haaland wasn’t operating as a conventional No.9.
We’ve seen Pep use a similar setup before, where Haaland dropped deeper to allow Kevin De Bruyne the chance to break forward to hurt a team, notably in Man City’s 4-1 win over Arsenal towards the end of the 2022-23 season.
Haaland dropping deeper to create space
Man City essentially operated in a 4-2-4 setup that day with De Bruyne tasked with getting as close as possible to Haaland before making darting runs in behind the Arsenal backline to capitalise on a lack of pace at the back owing to William Saliba’s absence.
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Against Burnley, however, Haaland was never going to find much space in the penalty area. While he so often needs just one chance to score, the Clarets’ compactness saw the 25-year-old operate a little closer to the midfield in order to help influence play. This was certainly the case for Man City’s opener, as Haaland received the ball in the middle of the Burnley half before shifting the play to Doku on the left.
The Belgian winger drove forward and his low cross was eventually turned in by Esteve for Man City’s opener. Utilising Doku’s dribbling ability down the left was ultimately what broke Burnley open, and he continued to utilise the weapon over the course of the match. With Kyle Walker starting at right-back, Man City capitalised on their former defender’s advancing years to get Doku into one-on-one situations with the 35-year-old.
It worked to great effect as Doku completed at least five more take ons (8) than any other player at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, while no player created more chances (3) than the former Rennes wing-wizard. With Gvardiol routinely looking to pick out Doku to get him into positions to hurt Walker and Burnley, it wasn’t a shock to 37% of Man City’s attacks come down the left side, the highest proportion in Man City’s 5-1 win.
The importance of Savinho
Notably, too, was Savinho’s position on the right side. The Brazilian didn’t have the same impact down his side as Doku down the left, in truth because he was up against a superior full-back in Quilindschy Hartman – the Dutchman was dribbled past just one time compared to Walker’s four – but Savinho was still just as important in the victory.
By hogging the right touchline, Burnley had to commit numbers to minimise his influence, thus opening up space in central areas for Man City to capitalise. Savinho keeping as wide as possible meant Burnley had to shift to their left and this presented Doku with the time and space to make his runs at Walker. And once the Burnley backline had well and truly crumbled, this was when Haaland did what he does best – put the ball in the back of the net.
It’s another indication on how Man City can use both Haaland and their direct wingers to hurt opponents that will operate in a low block against them this season. While Haaland’s overall game isn’t as refined as, say, Harry Kane, he’s still a presence when he does drop deeper. With Guardiola also willing to allow the likes of Doku and Savinho the chance to express themselves and operate as natural wingers, this variation to the attacking play is what will stand Man City in good stead over the course of the campaign.