‘Life Is Not Easy’ – Haaland Penalty Miss Sums Up Man City Crisis
Nothing seems to be going Manchester City’s way at the moment – and star striker Erling Haaland is not a happy man.
If there was any player currently in the Premier League you would hand the ball to for a penalty to win a match, it would be the prolific Norwegian. Not on this occasion, though.
Looking to land a knockout blow, Haaland saw his second-half strike saved by spot-kick expert Jordan Pickford, as Manchester City’s crisis continued with a 1-1 draw against Everton at Etihad Stadium.
“How do you react mentally?” asked boss Pep Guardiola about the penalty miss. “Life is not easy. Sport is not easy. When it happens, it is OK.
“There are still a lot of minutes to play and we had the chances afterwards. We created, incredible how they ran and fight. In some games it was not good but today well played.”
At the full-time whistle, there were a smattering of boos from home supporters at Etihad Stadium and a despondent Haaland ripped off his hair bobble and shirt before heading straight down the tunnel.
As Haaland trudged off out of sight, Guardiola stood motionless on the pitch with the look of a man unable to find answers to their current crisis.
City’s all-conquering side have suffered a remarkable drop-off and now won just once in their last 13 games in all competitions.
In the post-match news conference, the stunned Spaniard was barely audible in the responses to the questions fired his way.
“My body language was positive,” he uttered. “The team played really good. We had I don’t know how many shots. The first half was brilliant.”
Haaland underperforming xG
City have a lengthy injury list, but their downturn has coincided with Haaland’s struggles in front of goal.
The striker made a blistering start to the campaign looked to be on his way to setting more goalscoring records when netting 10 goals in his first five games, but has only managed three in 13 since.
This has largely been down to underperformance on his expected goal (xG) rate, with statistics showing he has scored five fewer goals than he should have done during this recent run.
There is also a stark contrast from his shot conversion rate from the first five games to his last 13, dropping from 38.5% to a lowly 6.4%.
The penalty miss was Haaland’s only shot on target in the contest – but Everton did not set out to pay him extra attention.
Asked if there had been a special plan to handle the frontman, Dyche said: “No. I was asked the other day when playing Chelsea about Cole Palmer and what a great player he is turning out to be.
“We know Haaland is too but I believe in the team. I don’t look at one aspect of it, I look at the team, what they are doing and they have done a good job today.”
‘Poor penalty but good save’
After Toffees forward Iliman Ndiaye had cancelled out Bernardo Silva’s opener, the defining moment came in the second half when Vitalii Mykolenko tripped Savinho in the box.
During the VAR check, it was a battle of the minds with Everton captain Seamus Coleman receiving a yellow card for trying to put off Haaland, who had the ball in his hand.
The booking ultimately appeared to be a well-earned one for the team and Pickford seemed to revel in his big moment, jumping up and down on his line, sticking his tongue out before stooping low to his right to push the ball away.
Pickford has made big penalty saves for England on the international stage and this was seventh spot-kick stop since joining Everton in 2017.
Such is City’s luck at the moment that they managed to recycle the ball and Haaland headed in, but it was ruled out for offside, much to the joy of the travelling supporters.
Haaland had scored 15 of 16 of his previous penalties in the league, with the other hitting the woodwork, while this was the first he had seen saved.
“It is good from the analysts to give him as much benefit of as many penalties as they can,” Dyche said of Pickford’s save. “Credit to him for making the right decision in the spur of the moment.”
Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson said on BBC Radio 5 Live: “Pickford is good at putting pressure on strikers. Haaland must have felt the pressure there, this place went silent.
“It was a decent save but a really poor penalty. He didn’t whip it around like a left-footer should. A poor penalty, but a good save.”
Ex-England defender Matt Upson added on Amazon Prime: “It was brilliant save from Pickford. He relishes situations like this. He doesn’t make life any easier for the penalty taker.
“But for Haaland to miss that penalty speaks a bit about where the confidence is in this team at the moment.”
