Former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam explains how to defend against Man City’s Erling Haaland transfer
The former Manchester United defender has revealed how to stop Manchester City's prolific goalscorer.
Jaap Stam, a former Manchester United defender, has detailed how to defend against Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.
In six Premier League games for Pep Guardiola’s side, the Norwegian has scored a whopping ten goals, including two hat-tricks. Haaland also scored two Champions League goals in his team’s 4-0 triumph over Sevilla last week.
With 32 matches remaining, the 22-year-old is now five goals short of matching Kevin de Bruyne’s 15 league goals last season, the club’s highest scorer in the competition. At his current rate of production, the former Borussia Dortmund striker will conclude the season with 63 goals, nearly double the all-time record.
Of course, that is exceedingly unlikely, but how quickly defenders figure out a means to stop Haaland from scoring will be one of the elements determining that conclusion. This is much easier said than done, but Stam has provided advice on how to defend against the league’s leading scorer.
“When the opposition gets the ball, you need to go on play in City’s half, you need to make sure someone is always very tight on Haaland and attempting to take him out of the game, especially when you lose the ball, he can’t be allowed to get hold of it,” he told Bet365.
“You need cover as well because if you attempt to play against him one on one with a lot of space in your back, nine times out of ten, it’s going to be a very difficult position.” As a result, you must be extremely active against him.
“Because of his threat, teams are changing how they set up defensively when he plays; people are saying we need to put a midfielder in front of him as well, to give them more time on the ball; but you have to make choices now as an opponent to defend against him.”
“In my experience, when you play higher up the field, one needs to be aggressive on him, and the other needs to cover you.”
Because Leeds’ visit to Old Trafford has been rescheduled, United’s next Premier League fixture will be against City at the Etihad Stadium – and Stam’s counsel could be crucial.
