Telepathy was the buzzword as Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne restored Manchester City’s network connections and swept the FA Cup champions into the last 16 once again.
The best double act in English football today, purring after a forced separation for the enjoyment of everyone with the possible exceptions of Rob Edwards and his Luton Town players, who will have to face them again in April at the Etihad Stadium.
Haaland and De Bruyne together are a destructive force. Very well separated but better together as Pep Guardiola knows.
“Kevin needs players like Erling and Erling needs players like Kevin,” City manager Guardiola said. ‘Erling needs a person with vision, quality and generosity. Kevin is the least selfish player in front of goal. Kevin needs Erling’s move. We know how aggressive they are.
It’s what happens when two of the most talented footballers in the world come together on one wavelength. In this case, in the middle of a quite exceptional team.
Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne proved they are the best duo in English football after the Man City pair combined to defeat Luton.
De Bruyne’s vision must be a dream for Haaland, as he has assisted on four of his five goals.
Meanwhile, Haaland must be a playmaker’s dream: reading his passes perfectly to ensure he is in the right place to finish.
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As a coach, Guardiola always seeks to innovate and push new boundaries, but central to his genius is the ability to recognize when the best thing to do is connect wonderful players and allow them to perform on the platform he created.
De Bruyne, for all his natural talent, plays with a sweet simplicity. His touch is reliable and his vision unmatched. He appreciates spaces, angles and speeds.
He then has the range to produce the pass with either foot. Normally, quickly and without complications. Most of the time, weight is judged to perfection. There is no hint of a desire to complicate anything with unnecessary flourishes.
He should be a centre-forward’s dream, just as Haaland should be a playmaker’s dream.
After all, a pass without a shot is just a pass. Do you remember those sublime passes that didn’t end in a goal? Of course not. Nobody does it. The shot turns a pass into an assist and, even in this day and age where people like to count passes, they like to count assists more.
The duo’s synchronicity is aided by the trust both players have placed in each other.
However, Haaland mainly deals with goals. He is one of the most determined forwards we have seen in the Premier League in a long time. He knows where he likes to play. He rarely strays beyond the width of the penalty area.
He can pick up the flight of the ball quickly, has an innate determination to get on the end of passes and crosses, the strength to break through crowds and the athleticism to conjure up a goal attempt in even the most awkward of opportunities.
Like De Bruyne, he avoids frills. In this, although his skills are very different, they see the game in the same way, a vision probably enhanced within Guardiola’s sphere of influence.
De Bruyne will know where he expects to find Haaland. He can trust that he will be there and they will train with those moments in mind. Haaland knows that De Bruyne will see his move and find him if he can, and won’t complain if he chooses another option.
Confidence helps their synchronicity because they will begin to react from the first glimpse of what could be a familiar change in body weight or the way they approach the ball.
City manager Pep Guardiola says De Bruyne needs Haaland, just as Haaland needs De Bruyne
De Bruyne will know where he expects to find Haaland, who knows that De Bruyne will see his movements and find him if he can.
At their level of experience, they only need a split-second head start to punish opponents, and this is where those of us in the stands think we should witness telepathy.
Thierry Henry would be irritated when journalists claimed that he had a telepathic understanding with Robert Pires.
The idea that what appeared to be a natural, effortless chemistry with Arsenal and France was due to a magical gift of thought transfer insulted the hours they spent perfecting their craft.
“Robert almost always knew what he was going to do,” Henry said at the time. ‘That’s because we spend most of the season together on the field.
“If, entering on the left wing, he got a yard on the opposing side, he knew that he would throw the ball towards the near post and that is where he should run.
“If I cut back with my right foot, he knew I would cut the ball to the back post, and if I took it to the back line, he would head to the penalty spot knowing I would cut the ball back.”
Robert Pires (left) and Thierry Henry (right) had a telepathic connection while playing for Arsenal, but only thanks to the hard yards they put in during training.
Harry Kane (left) once joked that he spent more time with Son Heung-min (right) than his own wife.
When Harry Kane and Heung-min Son combined to terrorize Premier League defenders, Kane liked to joke about spending less time with his wife than with his Tottenham strike partner.
“It’s a good relationship, there’s no secret,” Son said. ‘I know what H likes to do and H probably feels the same way. It’s always hard work and good effort, and I think this has always paid off.’
José Mourinho always said it helped that Kane and Son got along well off the pitch. Henry often talked about football with Pires. These players not only have uncommon talent, but they are also immersed in football.
The same could be said of others who combined to forge prolific attacking partnerships, such as Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba in Mourinho’s great Chelsea team or Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres at Liverpool.
Or from the pre-Premier League era, Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish or Kevin Keegan and John Toshack for Liverpool.
Haaland and De Bruyne only need a split second to punish their opponents; ask the Luton Town players
Keegan and Toshack, together at Anfield from 1971 to 1977, were football’s original Batman and Robin at a time when crime-fighting activities in Gotham City were as integral to Saturday teatime as the vidiprinter in Grandstand.
Their understanding reached a point where ITV organized a telepathy test. Sitting back to back, one of them studied a colored symbol on a card while the other guessed what it was.
They got them right to the astonishment of the audience, thus demonstrating their telepathy, and only later did they reveal that they could see what was on each other’s cards reflected in the studio glass.
So there is no telepathy at all, but two fast, competitive minds working as one. In football terms, it’s more or less the same. As Luton will tell you after a night with Haaland and De Bruyne.