Nah he’s too quick, too technically good to be old school and doesn’t play with his back to goal all that much, because City don’t need him to. If anything Haaland is most lethal as a counter attacking player because of his pace and power or just as a pure instinctive finisher in the box.

True old school long ball football has two strikers, a big man and little man in a 4-4-2. Big man plays back to goal, the team launches diagonal balls to him and he holds it up so everyone else can get forward. Little man, who is quick, plays off him and finishes off the chances. Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn are about as good an example of this as you’ll see.

I think what happened was that having two guys up top with little defensive responsibilities stopped working against teams with an extra man in the middle, so everyone evolved towards a 4-3-3. At the same time, everyone got technically loads better and much fitter and stronger, so suddenly you have a generation of strikers who can do both things - finish, play on the counter and also hold up and distribute the ball.

Your typical ‘forward’ of 2023 - quick, technical guy who isn’t an absolutely lethal finisher but can create and play anywhere across the front 3 - didn’t really exist as a prototype 20-30 and certainly 40 years ago, you were either a striker or a winger. Now everyone is a Marcus Rashford type.

I see a little bit of old school in Ivan Toney and before that, Jermaine Defoe. Wout Weghorst is definitely old school.