Real Madrid and Man City NEED to beware of Haaland's drop off in 2022

FT Desk

4 Apr 2022 10:27 BST
5 min read

Dortmund striker Erling Haaland — © ProShots

There’s little doubt that since making the move to Borussia Dortmund, Erling Haaland has become one of the biggest names in world football.

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Due to his incredible goalscoring form in the Bundesliga, the Norway international has risen to the top of most shopping lists among Europe’s elite clubs.

If reports in Germany are to be believed, Haaland is now picking between a move to Manchester City and Real Madrid next season, while the rumour mill continues to spurt out links to other clubs, such as Barcelona and Manchester United.

However, while fans get excited about the prospect of Haaland plying his trade in England or Spain next season, it’s worth bearing in mind that the Dortmund striker has actually struggled to live up to his own hype since the turn of the year.

Erling Haaland stats for Dortmund pre + post winter break:

2021: 0.96 xG per 90 / 1.25 goals per 90 / 1363 mins

2022: 0.57 xG per 90 / 0.59 goals per 90 / 606 mins

• 41% drop in xG per 90
• 53% drop in goals per 90
— Stefan Bienkowski (@SBienkowski) April 4, 2022

What’s gone wrong with Haaland?

In the first half of the season Haaland was truly mesmerising for Dortmund, as he put together an incredible run of 19 goals in just 16 games for the German club across all competitions.

Not only did that mean that the striker was averaging 1.25 goals per 90 for his club, but an underlying xG (expected goals) average of 0.96 per 90 also pointed to the fact that Haaland was terrorizing defences and getting into numerous good chances in each game.

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A post shared by Erling Braut Haaland (@erling.haaland)

However, since the turn of the year there has been a drastic shift in Haaland’s performances. The striker’s xG per 90 has fallen from 0.96 to just 0.57 per 90 and his goals for Dortmund have more than halved from 1.25 to 0.59 per 90 for the Bundesliga side.

Of course, much of that would be down to the muscle injury Haaland picked up in early February, but the player has now played over 600 minutes for Dortmund in 2022 and still doesn’t look like his old self.

While such a blip in form is unlikely to get in the way of a big summer move to Man City or Madrid, it may be worth keeping an eye on as we approach the end of the season and to see whether the forward can get back to his best for Dortmund, knowing fine well that he may well be leaving in a matter of months.