Erling Haaland doesn’t know how not to score every chance he gets in life. An extremely reliable Football Manager 2023 source has let us in on a little secret: he’s as much of a beast in the game as he is in reality.
That reliable source is Sports Interactive Managing Director Miles Jacobson, with whom we had the pleasure of talking face-to-face. We asked Jacobson of Haaland’s presence in Football Manager 2023 and the challenges the studio faced when replicating his dominance since joining Manchester City.
Here’s what Miles had to say about the big Norwegian:
“First season in my current game, and I can only go on what I see, he scored 13 goals but that’s because he was injured for four months. Second season, it was 55. First season, 13 in 20 games. Second season, it was 55 in 37 matches. He’s a beast in-game as you’d expect because he’s a beast in real life, and particularly the way Man City play, both in-game and in real life. Having that focal point to get on the end of all the chances they make was a very, very clever move by them.”
As you can see, we can expect expert goalscoring from Erling Haaland in Football Manager 2023. The series has always strived for maximum realism, so we would expect that to be the case. It’s great to see it is in fact the case with Haaland in particular, who’s turned into the story of the soccer season so far.
Some may question just how realistic scoring 55 goals in 37 games is. Let’s do the math: Erling Haaland has bagged 15 goals in 10 EPL games this season. That pace would put him at exactly 55.5 goals scored for 37 matches played. If anything, the unrealistic bit is Haaland only scoring 13 goals in 20 matches in his first season.
Of course, all of this data comes from a single Football Manager 2023 save, so numbers may vary. You don’t get to score 55 in 37 if you’re not coded to be a goal-scoring machine, however. You can fully expect Norway’s star man to shine on each of your FM 2023 save games.
You can do the eye test yourself once Football Manager 2023 is released to the public on Nov. 8, 2022.
