Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Manchester City, Erling Haaland 30 goals
The legend of Erling Haaland evolved over the weeks. The Manchester City superstar continued his hot campaign on Saturday, scoring a brace in a 4-1 win over relegation-threatened rivals Southampton. After that, the Norwegian player reached the milestone of 30 Premier League goals in a beautiful way.
Time and precision to hit that volley perfectly. Just not real. There was also a nice assist from Jack Grealish, who put Haaland in a favorable position to score the second goal of the game. The British tennis player also scored the winning goal.
Erling Haaland is firmly holding the Golden Shoe, 7 goals ahead of Harry Kane, who has 23. More impressively, this young player has 44 goals in all competitions for Man City. If there was any doubt about Haaland taking time to adapt to the English style of play, they were quickly quelled when he arrived last autumn. Many believe that the 22-year-old could very well be the missing piece for Man City's Champions League aspirations. In Europe's most highly-rated league, he has scored 10 goals in six appearances.
ENCOURAGE
Steve Zavala · 50 minutes ago
Steve Zavala1 week ago
With three more points on Saturday, Pep Guardiola's men are five points behind first place Arsenal, but have played one game less. The Gunners face Liverpool on Sunday at Anfield.
As for Erling Haaland, he will be looking to continue his killer form on Tuesday when City face very strong Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in Germany.
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Romeo Lavia has shown perfect technical ability for Manchester City but has enough room for improvement to make Pep Guardiola drool in his £40m comeback.
There is an obvious argument to be made for Liverpool, but the Premier League opponent with whom Pep Guardiola feels the most substantive connection since taking over as manager of Manchester City in the summer of 2016 could be is Southampton.
This is the team that Manchester City have earned their Centurions spot, the team that has attracted a lot of outrage led by Spaniard Nathan Redmond, the club have hit the Etihad academy to refine talent and finally finally moved in last summer.
Such a gem may be returned to the sender sooner than expected. Gavin Bazunu, Samuel Edozie and Juan Larios will eventually return to their ranks, but Romeo Lavia has proven he belongs at least to such a respectable company. The strange thing about Southampton is that anyone can easily recognize 3-4 players who deserve the attention of clubs in the top 6 after relegation.
– Carl Anka is OOO (@Ankaman616) April 8, 2023
"I'm really impressed with what Romeo has done and continues to do," said Guardiola before the champions began the weekend's game at St Mary's. "We've got, and we have an incredible opinion of him. We thought about keeping him, but he probably won't get the minutes he did against Southampton. .
It may be an exaggeration to suggest that Manchester City regret selling the teenage midfielder, but Lavia has been an island of excellence in a sea of ??underdogs in Southampton. He's one of the few credits this season that is likely to be relegated. Manchester City's fingerprints can be seen on the Belgian in every game and at the start it was no different. The way he stops and takes a little extra time to track a pass through the crowd combines wonderfully with his ability to throw and direct counter-attacks. There were times when Guardiola's men really struggled to get close to him in the first half.
Predictably, that faded as feet and spirits - both individually and collectively - began to grapple with Manchester City's towering tides. Lavia was less reactive than his teammates after Erling Haaland opened the scoring in the first half of injury time. Ruben Selles was screaming in midfield for not allowing Bazunu to take a corner at 2-0. Three minutes later, Haaland scored and within a quarter of an hour, Lavia had to leave the field with an injury as the score dropped to 4-1.
That is the balance Southampton have had to try to strike with a 19-year-old, whose physical development has yet to live up to his technical promise. A hamstring problem sidelined Lavia in September and October and he has played the full 90 minutes in the Premier League just five times since August.
There are still flaws to coax and train beyond that. Selles and Nathan Jones have little in common, but both have openly criticized Lavia's shortcomings this season. The second stressed the need to "show more dominance in games, more ball control and more leadership on the pitch if he wants to be the person people talk about him." " in March, adding that:
"I have no doubt he will be there, but he needs to take more steps and everyone around him needs to calm down." The manager then disqualified him for the loss to Brentford, sending the score home.
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