– I have been impressed by it for many years – VG

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– It makes a lot of sense to orient yourself in the field, and it is something we have studied over many years. We constantly find a connection between orientation skills and performance, says Geir Jordet, a professor of sports psychology at the Norwegian Sports Academy.

Jordet is known for his research on the psychology of penalty shootouts, but he has also conducted several studies on how footballers look up for information about their surroundings during a match – the so-called “scan”. They followed Arsenal all season and found with this dataset how they scanned the various positions.

The average striker in the Arsenal study scanned 0.28 times per second, which is consistent with a larger study they have done of 30 forwards previously (0.27 “scans” per second).

When Jordet looked at Erling Braut Haaland, he found the jærbow to be between 0.35 and 0.50 scans per second, significantly above average. He illustrated this through a Twitter thread, where he explains how Haaland looks ahead of various Manchester City scores.

– When Erling moves in and around the area and seeks goal chances when the ball is within range, he is very active in his orientation. He is well above average. I’ve been turned off for years. He is very good at gathering information that allows him to find good scoring chances, analyzes Jordet.

He points out that most attackers, even at the highest level, can have enough of focusing on the ball in scoring position. According to Jordet, Haaland can search two, three and four times when he’s in scoring position, which, according to the NIH researcher, gives him great control over the opposing goalkeeper.

The NIH professor highlights other forwards who use their gaze just as actively: Harry Kane (albeit especially when he is deeper on the pitch), Robert Lewandowski and Kylian Mbappé. However, Karim Benzema, another of the best strikers in the world, scores much lower than these, without for that reason he has difficulty scoring.

– I also saw how Haaland looks for positions and scoring opportunities, and this is a crazy advantage. Being a scorer means two things; to be efficient and to get into position, says Eliteserien’s all-time top scorer, Sigurd Rushfeldt.

He’s not surprised by Jordet’s figures that good scanners score higher in performance, and he believes it’s all about reading and anticipating situations. Some say he is innate, but Rushfeldt believes he is largely trainable – and calls the individual’s ability a combination of this instinct and mindful training.

– Haaland is very good at sniffing scoring chances and reading the game. This is quite unusual at such a young age. He wouldn’t have become a top scorer if he hadn’t had this part, says Rushfeldt, who after his career worked as a forward coach, among other things, for the national team.

The legend of Rosenborg and Odd Frode Johnsen says for its part that there was little attention to the appearance of the scan when it was active. He believes the stretch must be in the spinal cord.

– When I played there was no focus on scanning. It just had to be in the blood and you can’t waste time training it. Then you don’t have time to train in football. It is an innate thing. I’m pretty sure, says Johnsen.

Jordet also points out how Jærbuen used his gaze ahead of his third goal against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

– He sees very clearly that the ball is coming, he watches the stopper coming towards him and he is in control of the stopper with his two searches. Then he resists like a feather and manages to keep him away, not only because of the physics, but also because he has scanned and has an overview.

Rushfeldt, for his part, focuses on the first goal against Crystal Palace, where the Norwegian is the first able to reach the post Not gets – before it then collects new information and reaches the position that eventually makes it score.

On Wednesday evening at 8.30pm, the city will be visited by Nottingham Forest. At Tuesday’s press conference, Pep Guardiola was cryptic that Haaland would start, previously saying the Norwegian won’t play everything when there is a match every three days, as he is now.

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