Haaland knows one way to save City's 'horrific' season

Prolific striker is banking on FA Cup win to banish the blues

- RICHARD JOLLY SENIOR FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT

Erling Haaland is often a man apart. Perhaps it is the freakish goalscoring feats, perhaps the immediately identifiable look of the giant, long-haired blond. The Norwegian’s assessment of a Manchester City season that few predicted may jar with those outsiders who had tired of their dominance.

“It is not nice to lose so many games,” Haaland told BBC Sport. “It is boring and not fun.” Others found the repetitive element came in City winning, in an unprecedented quartet of consecutive league titles, in four seasons when they racked up 187 victories in all competitions.

Those who suffered amid City’s superiority, therefore, may have found much to enjoy in their demise, in 15 defeats, in five of them being in succession, and in eight in 12 games. Even in a 00 draw with a Southampton side who had been marooned on 11 points.

Haaland is accustomed to better. A man who takes the direct route to goal can be similarly cutting in his comments.

“The club has set the standards so the bar is so high that this season is a catastrophic season,” he said. Catastrophic, it seems, was not Haaland’s only verdict on a year which, if City win one of their remaining two league games, should bring Champions League qualification and which, should they prevail against Crystal Palace at Wembley tomorrow, will also provide silverware.