Manchester City journalist Sam Lee has questioned Erling Haaland’s decision to look for a foul in one incident during the club’s recent 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
A late Chris Wood equaliser saw City drop two points after Bernardo Silva gave the visitors the lead in the first half.
The previously mentioned incident in question saw Haaland snatch the ball from isolated Forest defender Joe Worrall before running towards Keylor Navas’ goal.
After Worrall looked to have pulled the City striker back by the shoulder, Haaland went down looking for a foul, which was not given by the referee, rather than continue towards goal.
In a Twitter post at the time of the incident, Lee had this to say about the Norwegian striker and his decision to go to ground looking for a foul.
He said: “Why would Haaland dive there? He needs his head looking at if he has. City bench are absolutely livid.”
In a following post, Lee had this to add on the matter.
He said: “Why has he gone down there? Guardiola booked for his protestations but it was never a foul.”
Did Haaland have a bad game against Forest?
Yes
No
In our view, with the attacker being clear through on goal and having his strength as a big advantage, we feel that it would have been better for him to continue heading towards goal with the ball and getting a shot away rather than going down easily looking for a foul.
Bearing in mind how the 22-year-old has the joint-third highest rate of goals per shot (0.29) in the Premier League this season with 26 goals to his name in 23 domestic appearances, it seems likely that he would have had a high chance of scoring if he’d managed to have got a shot away.
As well as this questionable incident, Haaland also failed to have a shot on target throughout the game as well as giving two fouls away and losing six of the seven duels he was involved in, making it a rather poor day at the office for him.