Manchester City and Pep Guardiola bet it all on Erling Haaland in Champions League roll of dice - The Warm-Up

Wednesday’s big stories Haaland represents a huge risk for Guardiola Ad/> Erling Haaland's goalscoring record indicates that he is a near-guarantee of goals. Since his debut, he has scored 154 in 199 games. And, yet, his signing constitutes a sizable risk for Manchester City and, most notably, Pep Guardiola.

TransfersHaaland transfer confirmed with forward to join Manchester City, Dortmund to sign Adeyemi18 HOURS AGO The reason is two-fold. Firstly, and most crucially, for his acquisition to be deemed a true success, City must win the Champions League. Secondly, stylistically, he does not fit this Manchester City team in its current possession-first guise.

The Catalan has built his managerial career and success on ball possession. It has served him well. He has won everything — but last won Europe's premier trophy in 2011.

Haaland, as a truly elite goalscorer, has shown a laser-like focus on hitting the back of the net, and little interest in playmaking. That is fine as, to state the obvious, he is a striker, whose primary job is to score goals. However, Guardiola has never seen that role's sole purpose as just that.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sergio Aguero provide evidence of this fact. So, why sign Haaland? It looks like City are about to win the league for the fourth time in five years, but have, by their standards, struggled in cup competitions. They reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and FA Cup, and the fourth round of the League Cup.