Chelsea: Erling Haaland would fit right into Thomas Tuchel’s 3-4-2-1

Chelsea’s No. 1 target, Erling Braut Haaland, is a traditional No. 9 in every sense of the word. He’s a poacher, but he’s so much more than that. His goal tally often makes people see him as nothing but a player that lurks in the box and pounces on loose balls to score goals. This is unfortunately how players get false reputations, they often get these reputations based off pure assumptions. For some reason, Haaland has been branded as this selfish player who does no work for the team and just waits for them to feed him the ball to score.

Haaland is not an attacking midfielder or a winger, so his primary job is not even to track back or press. His job is to press the centerbacks in their own third of the pitch and look to force errors in the hope of winning possession high up the pitch. His job is to bring others into play and provide goal scoring opportunities for himself and for others. He does these things exceptionally well and for this reason, he’d fit right into Thomas Tuchel’s 3-4-2-1 system.

In the Borussia Dortmund team, of players who have played 15 league games or more, Haaland and Jadon Sancho lead the team in possession won in the final third per game (1.0). That is extremely high for a player who doesn’t even rank top 10 in his team in pressures, though ranks second for pressures in the attacking third. To put Haaland’s ‘possession won’ numbers into perspective, of the highest scoring center forwards in Europe’s top five leagues, only Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski (1.1) wins more possession in the final third than Haaland.

Haaland clearly satisfies the off-ball requirements of a high-pressing side from a center forward’s perspective. We know this because he’s been extremely impactful for Dortmund. Die Borussen have ranked third best for percentage of successful pressures. Center forwards have to occupy the central areas of the attacking third when their teams are in possession to be effective in that role, and Haaland has found a way to occupy that space on and off the ball for maximum effect.

He often drops deep when his team is under pressure to help contain opposition players. This explains why there are many instances of Haaland sprinting from deep in his own half on a counter to finish off a counter attack with a well-placed finish. He scored a similar goal like that against RB Leipzig in the DFB Pokal final and one against VFL Wolfsburg when his team was down one man. He also scored one against FC Koln, where he starts running, reaches top speed, then just decelerates in time to take a perfect finish in his stride.

“How would Haaland fit in with other attackers at Chelsea? I have doubts.”

Haaland’s link-up play is superb—outstanding even. His ability to bring others into play and lay off the ball to better positioned players is remarkable. He has recorded 1.0 key passes per game on average in the Bundesliga. He has also created five big chances and recorded the third-most assists in the league for Dortmund (six), five behind Sancho, who led the pack.

Add all of these factors to the main ingredient, his impeccable goal scoring ability and record. He has scored 40 league goals in 43 games for Dortmund, and this is while having a goal drought at some point last season. He has scored 18 Champions League goals in 16 games, in fact winning the UEFA Champions League Golden Boot for the 2020/21 Champions League campaign, despite being knocked out in the quarterfinals. Like I wrote three years ago, Haaland is the all-in-one center forward that the Blues need.

Stats found on SofaScore.