Manchester City - Spurs: Haaland is a goalscoring freak by barely ever touching the ball

The Premier League champions were formidable last season, and it's almost impossible to criticise them for pretty much anything. But if there was one tiny detail, it was potentially the fact that they missed a little too many chances.

Yeah, sure, that sounds ridiculous. They were the top goalscorers in the league last season, hitting 99 goals. 

How dare they not reach 100. They must be rubbish.

But regardless, amongst all the goals they scored, they were lots of opportunities they didn't take.

During their Premier League campaign, they statistically missed the most big chances (65) out of everyone, with Spurs (60) and Liverpool (59) behind them. Perhaps most memorably (or not so memorably for City fans) was that first leg in the Champions League semi-final against the eventual champions, Real Madrid.

That contest could have - and should have - been well and truly out of sight within the first hour. Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden were just two of the players guilty of missing absolutely gilt-edged chances. Madrid would go on to win the tie in the most jaw-dropping fashion.

It was absolutely criminal. Heart-wrenching. Soul destroying, etc, etc. Any other synonym fits.

Enter Erling Haaland.

A man who looks like a Norwegian Viking, is built like a tank and runs as if an android had been programmed to be a 100m sprinter.

At Red Bull Salzburg, he scored 29 goals in 27 games. Borussia Dortmund? 86 in 89. Now at Manchester City, Haaland has gotten off to a start that mere mortals would only dream of: 12 goals in eight games, including consecutive hat-tricks and a brace in City's opening Champions League game.

Haaland broke former Manchester City player Sergio Aguero's record of most goals after five Premier League games, scoring nine. No player had also ever scored back-to-back hat-tricks before the 21-game mark. Remarkable.

There are lots of other fun stats, for example, he averages a goal every 48.4 minutes. 

But one aspect of his game that is absolutely perfect for the Cityzens is the fact that he barely ever gets involved in the build-up play. He lives in the penalty area. He thrives in it. Every single chance created will be gobbled up.

That's exactly what Pep Guardiola ordered.

In the month of August, Haaland scored nine goals (an August record) from just 105 touches. That's a goal every 12 touches. 

10 of his 12 goals this season have been with his first touch. Against Bournemouth when he failed to score, he had just eight touches all game, while only having five in the first half against Sevilla.

This man is the supreme goalscorer. All he cares about is putting the ball into the back of the net. He never drops deep to receive possession and rarely spends any time anywhere else besides the penalty area.

And he's just so damn good at it.

This man is perfect for Manchester City. Those big chances they missed last season? Those sitters missed in the Champions League? A thing of the past. He will be there waiting to take all those chances.

They face Tottenham at the Etihad this weekend where they face another striker who could have been donning their sky blue kit instead.

Harry Kane (29) scored two goals in a pretty much faultless performance against the champions last season when Spurs claimed a startling 3-2 win at the Etihad. City had been desperate to sign the player that summer, and were willing to pay around £100m for the England captain.

Kane is an unbelievably good striker, and frankly a better all-round footballer than Haaland. He can drop deep, pick out a pass as well as anyone, link up play brilliantly, and can also score a fair few goals. He is on track to break Alan Shearer's all-time Premier League record after all.

There's no question that Kane would have been superb at City, and bagged a lot of goals. But maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have fit quite as well as Haaland.

He would have dropped deep, looked to receive possession in deeper areas, maybe got in the way of the likes of De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva in midfield. Sure, Pep could have asked him to stay up front and tuck away all the chances that they create.

There's two issues with that:

1) Are you really getting the best out of Harry Kane if you are limiting him to just a handful of touches per game?

2) Is Kane as good as Haaland at being an absolute unabated force of nature in the penalty area?

The answer to those two questions is most probably no. Hence why Haaland may be a bit of a better fit than Kane.

So how will Antonio Conte deal with Haaland on the weekend? Only time will tell. With his three-at-the-back formation, he is likely to stick one of his centre-backs on the shoulder of the big striker.

Cristian Romero vs Haaland would sure be fun.

Haaland has played against a back three twice this season. Once against Bournemouth, where he failed to score and only had eight touches in the game, and once against Sevilla - he scored twice, despite being limited to only five touches in the first half.

The Spanish side's formation did tend to shift into a back four at times though, with Nemanja Gudelj dropping from the heart of defence into midfield on a fair few occasions.

So you know what, maybe there's something to playing a back three against Haaland. Maybe there's not. But there's no doubt about one thing - Erling Haaland is a goalscoring phenomenon and best of luck to Romero, Eric Dier and Clement Lenglet on the weekend.