Without Erling Haaland, Manchester City strikers have no place to hide

In the absence of Erling Haaland, a moment will have to come when the other strikers of Manchester City take a big step forward.

The 2-0 victory on Wednesday evening over Leicester City was certainly comfortable, but this owes equally to the terrible form of visitors as to the incisive game of the hosts.

Pep Guardiola’s first attempt to replace Haaland involved Jack Grealish and Omar Marmoush as central strikers in what was essentially a front Four, with Savinho on the right wing and Jeremy Doku on the left.

There is a lot of dynamism there, many players you don’t want to defend … but not a huge amount of real final product.

Both Grealish and Marmush, the most widely expected man to fill Haland’s boots, went up to the report, but there was more an hour to add to those counts and, in truth, the game lying.

Haaland has its defects, but if there was a word in the lexicon of football attackers to describe it it would be “murderer”. It is not a word that you would use to describe the contributions of the other attackers of the city at the moment, and certainly not on Wednesday evening.

Doku and Savinho played a key role in the first goal – the first won the ball in midfield and guiding towards the box, his passing slightly starting from the latter and retired for Grealish – but the frustration for some of their contributions was audible inside the Etihad stadium.

The most obvious example came after Savinho rejected a good chance of shooting in favor of a mannequin, just to lose control of the ball.

Some of his missed occasions this season have caused the City technical staff, including Guardiola, to complain in the way he suggests that they have complained about the same thing for some time.

Doku has also been frustrating even in recent times and although this was not the most evident example of its disproportionately good dribbling capacity, but the final product disproportionately scarce, there was more than there was at the forefront.

City has two dazzling wings that can really illuminate a game in some way, and since Doku is 22 and Savinho only 20, there is time on their side.

Against Leicester, Savinho became the first player to attend eight goals in the Premier League in a season before 21 years since Trent Alexander-Arnold was 12 years old in 2018-19. Doku is truly a fantastic dribbler and someone who creates danger more indirectly when he brings the ball and detaches it for someone else, but it cannot be denied that both have been enormous sources of frustration.

There may be more varieties of racing inside the box without Haaland now – this game suggests the same, with Grealish reaches the Savinho cross in the way a second attacker would make – and in this case, the challenge for large men will be to choose them with much more regularity than the case has not been in the last two months.

Even Grealish and Marmoush have become less involved while the game went on, and while it might seem hard to take stock after a victory, City will not have many easier games than this. Leicester has now lost 14 of the last 15 league games.

“They have to do it with Erling for five or six weeks; perhaps there are actions that they have to take and do it, you’re right,” said Guardiola later when he was asked for the need to improve.

“Perhaps, step by step, they will do so. Unfortunately, Savinho had the opportunity to shoot and it did not happen, even Nico (Gonzalez), but in general the control was really good except an action in the end when Nico lost the ball. We did not allow anything and I think I created enough to win with a higher margin.”

Jack Grealish opened the markings against Leicester (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

At risk of working at the point, Phil Foden is the only player in the city other than Haaland to hit double digits so far this season, and has obtained six of his 10 goals in four games in January. They will need more.

Doku scored three league goals this season, without just one. There is a room for maneuver that you can grant young players and new arrivals in the championship but, at the same time, the city will need objectives now.

Grealish’s goal was his first for 474 days, by a match against Crystal Palace in December last season. Marmotoh, who signed in January, now has five league goals, enough to make it the third joint scorer of the city of City, together with Josko Gvardiol-and even has not marked for two months.

Foden is struggling for the shape and Kevin de Bruyne is clearly reaching the end of his high-level-level career has not started the last four championship-the-the matches that means that there are no enough players in normal form.

Marmoush, therefore, has the greatest hope attached to him. On Sunday he also scored the winner in Bournemouth in FA Cup and is the most widely expected man for Haaland until the end of the home season.

It makes the same type of Norwegian racing, something that no one else in the team fa (the graphics below does not include Leicester’s game), but also with its decent target return, it is clear that it must still be more decisive, more involved in the game and more engaged in duels and other actions around the box.

Okay because the Egyptian is new in the championship. He made a positive beginning, but as with Doku, Savinho, Grealish and those behind them, he will have to do even more.

Perhaps this is the opportunity that these players need to thrive: without Haaland, there is no place to hide.

(Another collaborator: Conor O’Neill)

(Top: Oliver Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)