Manchester City’s leading goalscorer in their history and club legend Sergio Aguero has written about their first true replacement for him, Erling Haaland. While the Argentine striker, now living in Miami was quick to confirm Haaland’s proven ability, he did hint that City fans might want to show some patience with the Norwegian in the initial phases.
Haaland has had a rapid rise to prominence after a two brilliant seasons with Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund. Yet there’s little doubt that this will be his toughest challenge yet. Writing on his blog for Stake.com, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo, Aguero explained that Haaland’s first steps under Guardiola might not be different from his own.
“Haaland will take time to adjust to England and Pep’s demands just like I did. Haaland’s is a very important signing. I think his goalscoring ability is proven. His stats through the German league and in Europe confirms this.”
“Logically he will have a period of adaptation to a league as strong as the Premier League but I think he will go through his own process and the results will be seen soon.”
“I think that an elite player like him will know how to reconcile his style with that of Pep’s teams. It may take a while, as it did in the beginning for me. But once he gets into gear everything will be simpler. I think he has the talent to fulfil what is asked of him, which are goals.”
There is certainly an argument to say that it might not be smooth sailing from the start. Guardiola has often favoured systems without a fixed point at the top of his side and more often than that, struggled to see eye-to-eye with cold-blooded strikers. Aguero’s struggles to adapt to Guardiola follow on from cases including Samuel Eto’o, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and to a certain extent, Robert Lewandowski and David Villa. Whether Guardiola is ready to sacrifice some of his own principles to accommodate Haaland will play a large part in their relationship.
