Erling Haaland\u2019s opening weekend was less a story about his new haircut than about the shape of Manchester City around him. In the 2026\/27 Premier League opener against Bournemouth, City edged a 2-1 win, yet the centre forward again looked short of the kind of supply that has long made him so dangerous.<\/p>\n
That issue had already surfaced in the Community Shield defeat to Arsenal, where Haaland was also denied meaningful service. By the time the league campaign began at the Etihad Stadium, he had cut off his trademark golden locks, but his movement still reflected a team not yet settled under a new manager.<\/p>\n
The missing pieces were impossible to ignore. Bernardo Silva, Rodri and John Stones were all absent after summer moves to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Inter respectively, leaving a group with a very different feel. Record signing Elliot Anderson covered ground in midfield but made little impression before going off injured after 63 minutes. Marc Gu\u00e9hi started in midfield ahead of Nico Gonz\u00e1lez, while Nico O\u2019Reilly, originally a midfielder, was used in the No. 10 role.<\/p>\n
City improved after Rayan Cherki replaced O\u2019Reilly 18 minutes into the second half. Cherki provided both assists in the late turnaround, first from an 84th-minute corner that Gu\u00e9hi headed in to level the match, then with the pass that set up Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol\u2019s stoppage-time winner.<\/p>\n
Still, the goals did not change the larger concern around Haaland. He registered five shots against Bournemouth, but only one troubled \u0110or\u0111e Petrovi\u0107, and his best opening arrived in the 75th minute while City were still behind. The move ended with a save that was comfortable for the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
The day before, Paul Merson had warned on Sky Sports show Soccer Saturday that Haaland could get \u201cfrustrated\u201d because this City side is not built in the same way as before. \u201cIf you\u2019re Haaland, you\u2019d be worried,\u201d he said. \u201cKevin De Bruyne, Silva, they put him through, but they\u2019ve got dribblers [now], not someone who\u2019s going to put the ball through [to him].<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re only as good as the players that provide you, and he isn\u2019t going to have that service.\u201d<\/p>\n
City remain a work in progress, even with news of a deal being agreed for Lille prodigy Ayyoub Bouaddi, who is expected to fill the Rodri role. As Maresca noted, the club is still searching for the \u201cnew Rodri\u201d, and Haaland\u2019s opening display only sharpened that point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haaland\u2019s opening day exposed City\u2019s lack of midfield service and unfinished rebuild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[182],"class_list":["post-18708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}