A case for the ‘less complete’ and why the future of football suits Haaland most.
On footballing completeness, the Haaland and Mbappe debates and why the Norwegian is the perfect player for modern football given the changing tactical landscape
I wrote this piece on 24/07/2023 on another platform. I’m resharing it here as this is where all of my work now lives and secondarily because I think it is relevant and has aged nicely given the current climate of the sport in November 2024, especially following Kylian Mbappe’s recent Real Madrid transfer.
The human body replaces (almost) all its cells every 7 years is the saying. The truth is probably between 10 and 15 years but for this introduction, I’ll abide by the rules of the lie.
In the same way, Guardiola’s City are technically the same ‘Manchester City’ — only their Champions League win had them stand as a human body with every cell replaced: a completely novel outfit 7 years into Pep’s tenure when compared side by side to the 2016/17 side.
John Stones’ metamorphosis into the flawless centre-back is an arc that has progressed into wanting to master midfield. He was excellent. Akanji, Ake, Dias too — formidable, pure defenders. Bernardo, Gundogan, De Bruyne and Rodri technical, difference-makers through season too but it is the big Norweigen fella up top who I can’t shake from my thinking when reflecting on this season gone by.
Erling’s interesting because his profile and performances have forced me to reflect on my hard and fast football rules. The more complete player being better when that completeness is paired with infallible quality is a rule I still align myself to but Erling’s game is so impactful within its restrictions it bridges the gap of his competitors’ completeness. In fact, it surpasses and leaves a gap in the opposite direction.
Completeness in the ilk of Lionel is quality paired with completeness that remains untouchable; it’s why the Ronaldo comparison’s have never made sense to me but Erling’s quality and uniqueness have forced me to do a double take like even the prolific goalscoring version of Cristiano has never made me do.
What I find most valuable with respect to Haaland is not only the acceptance to play with such few touches but the joy in playing with such few touches. Haaland just wants to score.
3 touches, 3 goals would be an ideal day out for Erling. Looking to the intangibles and through a lens of squad harmony, how valuable is that?
For generational types, ones that live in the history book’s pages — football is almost exclusively an expression of playing with the ball at your feet.
Wayne Rooney did not want to play traditional 9; he wanted to feel the ball, to dribble, pass, dance. Cristiano was an expressive winger — selfish. Lionel, Maradona, Pele…the list goes on.
In the post-Messi world, the crown has prematurely been given to Kylian. Mbappe is a young player who arguably boasts one of the greatest young CVs in football history. That trajectory to greatness has slowed a little since his World Cup win in 2018 — the reigning king in Leo putting a halt to being usurped this season.
Kylian too, however, has been vocally critical about his usage as this last line player — to finish off moves created for him.
The burden of ball-volume has been assigned to the geniuses: Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. Given their on-ball quality, in their dribbles, passing, vision and timing, this is the right decision. Sure, Kylian could do that role of greater ball-responsibility and volume but would he be in the all-time conversations playing in such a way? I personally wouldn’t bet on it.
Mbappe is one of the most dangerous (and one of the best players on Earth) but his completeness is probably overstated. I don’t think he displays a completeness in the mould of Messi compared to the Ballon d’Or winning scoring version of Ronaldo. I don’t think he displays completeness Thierry did (eg. back to goal game, variety of angles) compared to the ‘scorer’ van Nistlerooy. The impact of the formers compared to the latters’ on their sides were greater, especially for their time.
With all of that in mind, Kylian remains like like Rooney ideologically. They want to vacate the forward line. The want to score sure, but above everything they want to play.
“That type of player who plays with the ball, connected with the game, but can also play without the ball and create some movement without it
This is the type of complete player I want to be.”
— Kylian Mbappe
The problem then arises when the player who ideologically wants to be connected to the game, to play at a high volume, isn’t as genius in that regard. There’s a secondary issue too of the changing context of football. We will discuss both.
The crux of keeping the best talents in the world happy is one that could be discussed forever. Football (coaching) is ultimately about the individuals as humans and keeping them happy bleeds through the camp. Clubs are mini societies. If a player, no less the biggest player, has their expectations unmet, there exists an inherent dissatisfaction and unrest can be bred. There also becomes the issue of other ‘non-Mbappe’ players (Mbappe simply being an example here) wondering why their role is diminished. This is a non-issue if the quality of the player given that mass-responsibility is accepted by everybody to be at a level unmatched (Messi, De Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes etc.) but it is still worth mentioning.
The intention of this reflection isn’t to criticise Mbappe and force this Mbappe x Haaland debate which it probably ends up doing. That is the lens though, through which I explore and make sense of the idea of Haaland’s relative ‘incompleteness’.
The macro landscape of football is narrowing — many top teams share many of the same principles but the same thing happened in basketball.
Now the areas in which the game can be won or lost are more precise. Finer margins everywhere have to be utilised to gain advantages on teams that look similar.
To afford Kylian Mbappe the role of an entirely connected, facilitator, creator, scorer to me makes less sense to for that reason. It is wasteful in the grand scheme of a team’s game-model. There are better uses of the ball (eg. travelling between players, or being at the feet of natural creators).
Therefore, given the changing landscape of the sport, perhaps how impact can be provided is changing too. The spaces on the field for most top teams are becoming ever-smaller.
There looks to be a hegemony with regards to the most popular and successful footballing philosophies at the highest level in football at present. There is a monopoly of attractive, high possession football and I suppose this makes sense some sense (although I prefer variety in the sport, always).
Take Conte’s Spurs as a case study, with stories of their players discontent and lack of commitment to the cause following relatively good results over the two years. Football players as humans compare themselves to others. It takes a certain temperament of footballer to be content with ‘tough conditions’ when traditional footballing pleasure in style and execution remains an option elsewhere. Either players need the mental fortitude to play in a pragmatic, ‘ugly’, low possession style always or they need to love those defensive actions and scoring no matter how (eg. happy with launching counter attacks) in a way similar to how most others love to play with the ball a lot.
I think it’s always why I’ve held the highest of admiration towards Atletico and Simeone. They’re a cohort of mentally reinforced players with many simply fond of digging in to protect their home under siege. Their team in its configuration was made in the image of Simeone and suits to play in such a way. Their fans understand and accept it too.
For most other clubs, the players require stimulation, the artists want to express their quality and fans remain unsatisfied with results alone (especially when their rivals are competing for leagues playing exciting and ball-dominant). Comparison is the thief of joy and all that.
So, given this move towards a general oneness in terms of club’s philosophical ideals and the more compact defensive shapes team’s face — perhaps questions should be reframed as to what kind of player fits best into those teams to allow them to perform at the highest level?
Unless the high volume, all-encompassing midfield/attacker hybrid is of an elite quality in both those parts of the game, opting for that mould of player is perhaps counterproductive. Perhaps it reduces from the potential ceiling of a team, perhaps specialist creators would be better taking up ball-burden, or perhaps other final action players would be taking up final action responsibilities.
I think the pool for players who could in theory do both parts to a high enough quality to warrant that additional responsibility to be tiny and I don’t think this version of Mbappe qualifies, at least at this point. When this is the case, I think the completeness argument is less pertinent.
In the past, the game presented itself as more end-to-end. The spaces between defences and defending and midfield lines were greater. There was an increased frequency in the number of isolated 1v1s a player was afforded too. In those conditions, a player like Mbappe makes so much more sense. These spaces show up now in transitional moments for box to box pivot players to exploit but for attack-minded players, those situations simply arise less often.
Given Mbappe’s quality, maybe you coach your side to get Mbappe is situations that give him a higher volume of the ball with space in and around him ie. false/forced transitions by baiting the opposition press. That would make lots of sense but I still think this is using him in a deliberate way and as a relatively specialised attacker rather than the free protagonist.
In 2023’s version of football, Erling Haaland definitely couldn’t do all of those Neymar, Lionel Messi things but he doesn’t try to which is is why his profile to me is of such a great value on the field, and off it.
A player of his stature being a player happy to play on the fringe of the game. How utterly bizarre. And this is something he does with the biggest of smiles on his face almost exclusively.
‘The areas in which the game can be won or lost are more precise. Finer margins everywhere have to be utilised.’
And Erling Haaland does that better than most.
He is arguably the best shooter/finisher I have seen, he certainly lives in a list you could count on one hand for me. Perhaps Messi rivals him on that front but I genuinely think Haaland has a shout for the best in that regard.
In a sport of narrowing margins, how valuable is that?
A freakishly strong giant, a freakishly quick last line player to make use of counter attacks (a la Mbappe), perhaps the best shooter I’ve seen, an improving but not perfect header-er of the ball (at that height!), somebody who attacks the ball with power and precision inside the box against compact defences.
A player with superstar classification who presses with the intensity of an academy player on a debut (incredibly rare).
A player with a physical look and presence that naturally intimidates.
A player who has an attachment to the fans of the club he plays for, celebrating amongst them.
A player with the ability to rally them in quieter moments — a catalyst for shifting momentum directly.
Then, you pair all of that with the mindset of somebody focused solely on winning, managed by the greatest coach of all time who has already improved Haaland with regards to leaving his last line and playing on the ball back to goal for the greater good of the team’s flow in bursts rather than conducting the game’s symphony. Crazy.
Ultimately, I love players that recognise their own limitations. That allows for those limitations to be accommodated for and improved. My personal philosophy stands upon the idea that each player has to be deployed in a way that maximally uses their strengths and looks to hide their weaknesses. It sounds simple but I continually see teams and players where this isn’t the case suprised performances are sub-par.
Erling Haaland is an almost-perfect cog for top teams given the trajectory of the modern game. If he is able to become proficient dropping in and playing on the ball, back to goal in ways we have seen others do at 9/false 9 for Manchester City, I don’t think there is a striker imagined that would be better suited to the sport in 2023 and onwards.
The only way I see a player being more valuable, impactful, and better for the game, is if somebody were to show up and perform consistently for one of the dominant sides like Manchester City but with a role that marries both midfield and attacking influence with greater ball-volume — somebody who looks like the driver of the Manchester City car.
Essentially you would be looking for somebody in the mould of Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr able to produce consistent impact with the ‘keys’. Karim Benzema of last season fits into that picture too. The closest to that mould of player from the new school I feel would be a Phil Foden type — his season at false 9 the closest glimpse to that I think I’ve seen from his generation but given his injuries last season and rotation across positions this is not a reality as of yet.
Until then, the ‘robotic’ Haaland looks as the ideal player for where the game has ended up. He’s certainly the easiest of the generational types to fit in to these more deliberate, directed systems too. If I had to pick one player to sign, for any team in the world, Erling Haaland would make the most sense — a pure 9 able to play possession-football or pragmatic counter-attacking football. He’d thrive both ways and irrespective of the flow of the game, as long as he was scoring. As one of, if not the best shooter ever, this shouldn’t be massively challenging.
On top of all that, although ‘robotic’ in his game, when talking about efficiency and specialisation, the personality of Haaland to be charismatic, determined, funny, socially aware, and outwardly supportive matters more than you can believe for the superstar types. He is one of the rest whilst playing as one of a generation. Rare.
With Manchester City being arguably the most dominant of all the sides in world football, having Haaland slot in as the final piece only nurtures all of those freakish qualities.
What is scariest is Haaland’s acceptance to simply slot into that machine, to carry out those perfect actions, again and again and again and again…
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Thanks for reading!
Great piece