Why Erling Haaland would be an ideal replacement for Roberto Firmino at Liverpool

RedBull Salzburg sporting director Christoph Freund feels that Erling Haaland could join Liverpool (source – Daily Star). The Borussia Dortmund ace was tipped to join Manchester United in January last season but eventually moved to Germany instead.

Freund believes that the player will eventually sign for Liverpool and has the ability to play for any club. He also spoke about Haaland’s exit from the club and how quickly a deal was completed.

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The 20-year-old Norwegian forward started his youth career at Bryne in 2006 and over the next decade, progressed through their youth setup.

In 2015, he was promoted to the first-team and went on to make 16 appearances for them. After two and a half seasons, he signed for Molde FK. He had decent numbers for Molde in 50 games, with 20 goals and 6 assists.

RedBull Salzburg signed him in 2019 and that was where his path to stardom started. In 2019, Haaland broke onto the scene with a Champions League hat-trick against KRC Genk. Despite playing just 27 games for the side, Haaland had already scored 29 goals and 7 assists (source – Transfermarkt).

In January this year, he joined Borussia Dortmund. He has continued on his merry way, with 30 goal contributions in 27 games for them. Haaland was a regular part of the Norway youth sides and has 7 senior appearances to date, with 6 goals to his name.

Haaland would be an ideal replacement for Firmino

Roberto Firmino is a unique forward. His goal contributions are perhaps not the best way to judge his impact and importance at Liverpool. He is Liverpool’s first line of defence and often drops deep to bring the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane into play in central areas.

While both the wingers have carried on their goalscoring spree, the fact remains that Firmino’s numbers in front of goal are rather bad.

His goals have decreased over the years with only the 2017-18 season being an exception. Last season, he scored a paltry 12 goals in 48 games across all competitions (source – Transfermarkt). But guess who scored 44 goals in 40 games last season?

Yes, it’s Erling Haaland. The Norwegian burst onto the scene with a Champions League hat-trick for RedBull Salzburg and has not looked back since then. He has seamlessly adapted to his new surroundings in Germany and has had no problems whatsoever.

In Haaland, Liverpool would be getting a long-term goalscorer. He is young and is already showing glimpses of being a world-class attacker. At Anfield, he will have a star-studded cast to support him. The prospect of Salah, Mane and Haaland lining up together is sure to send chills down the opposition’s spine given the amount of goal threat this attack carries.

Haaland has proved he can score goals, and so have Salah and Mane. If Klopp can make some finetuning to change the team’s style of play to accommodate Haaland, the Liverpool attack could look scary indeed.

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Sure, it would be a daunting step to perform at those levels at Anfield but Haaland looks like a natural goalscorer. No matter the situation, no matter the club, he seems to keep finding the net with ridiculous ease. He looks like the ideal player to replace Firmino should the club decide on it.