Nordic Goal Yeti | Haaland at City

padr81

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Played well yesterday just left his shooting boots at home. If anything yesterday and the bayern game have me more confident he won't need a season to settle.
 

Pickle85

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I think people see him too negatively, because his father ended Roy Keane's career.
No no no, that didn't happen. His father slept with moyes' daughter, which is why we were never in for his son.
 

MalaysianRed7

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Enjoy the banter while it lasts lads.

On another day he has a hat trick by finishing the 3 easiest chances he had.

His finishing has been proven already. The fact he got into those positions to miss them is a good sign for City going forward.
Yeah, I’m laughing with full knowledge that he’ll probably win the golden boot this season. Thing is though, while that might happen, City definitely looked less fluid yesterday than they did when they drew 2-2 with Liverpool twice last season (not counting the cup game where they rested many players). Maybe it’s a coincidence, but it could be because he was close to anonymous in terms of build up play.
 

Bestietom

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He and Alvarez will score loads of goals and so too will Darwin for Liverpool. If we don't get some top forwards in we will be even further away from these two teams and others, at the end of this season.
 

Chief123

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Played well yesterday just left his shooting boots at home. If anything yesterday and the bayern game have me more confident he won't need a season to settle.
As good as he is, I certainly wouldn’t use yesterday as an example of a game he “played well” in.
 

AndySmith1990

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Played well yesterday just left his shooting boots at home. If anything yesterday and the bayern game have me more confident he won't need a season to settle.
Strange. He was shit yesterday; had the first touch of Fellaini and the finishing of Titus Bramble
 

Robbie Boy

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He looked shite yesterday tbf. I didn't watch much of him prior to moving to City, but his numbers have been consistently excellent. I'm sure he's going to get good numbers, bit he's a very different kind of striker for the system Pep plays at City. There will certainly be a bedding in period.
 

dove

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Some of the replies in this thread will look silly soon. Nailed on to be top scorer in the league by a clear margin.
 

Pickle85

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Some of the replies in this thread will look silly soon. Nailed on to be top scorer in the league by a clear margin.
His injury record combined with a new league makes this far from certain imo. I'm sure he'll score a hatful but the golden boot is far from a foregone conclusion.
 

SteveCoppellFan

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We may as well get the pot shots in early because if he is injury free this season then he's going to score a lot of goals for City.
 

BusbyMalone

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Played well yesterday just left his shooting boots at home. If anything yesterday and the bayern game have me more confident he won't need a season to settle.
You think. I genuinely thought he was completely anonymous. I'm not just saying this because I'm a United fan, I genuinely thought he didn't do much of anything. Apart from that shot when he fell over, and that miss.
 

TheReligion

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Played well yesterday just left his shooting boots at home. If anything yesterday and the bayern game have me more confident he won't need a season to settle.
He’s a great player who will no doubt do well and was let down by awful service yesterday, in particularly by KdB who was utter garbage.

That said I think it’s reaching to suggest he played well.
 

Dumbstar

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Front line of Haaland, Grealish and Mahrez with KdB behind meant it was the easiest press we've had to defend against in the first half when facing City. No wonder Cancelo, Silva and Rodri were blowing hard, they were doing the work of two men each.
 

padr81

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Really?!? That’s your honest opinion? Finishing aside, his all round performance yesterday was good?
Yup, his off the ball movement was good, got in all the right places.

Few poor lukaku touches and two shocking misses but did all the right things off the ball which is usually the thing people struggle with most at City.
 

padr81

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He’s a great player who will no doubt do well and was let down by awful service yesterday, in particularly by KdB who was utter garbage.

That said I think it’s reaching to suggest he played well.
Yup haaland is taking the stick but kdb was shocking and super weak in the press.

Despite the dramatics on here over haaland City had an xg above Liverpool and haaland alone had an xg of 1.5 almost the same as the entire Liverpool team minus the peno.

Made the right runs and bar a bit of rustiness in his touch I thought was genuinely our most dangerous attacker.
 

TheReligion

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Yup haaland is taking the stick but kdb was shocking and super weak in the press.

Despite the dramatics on here over haaland City had an xg above Liverpool and haaland alone had an xg of 1.5 almost the same as the entire Liverpool team minus the peno.

Made the right runs and bar a bit of rustiness in his touch I thought was genuinely our most dangerous attacker.
I still think it’s reaching to say the team goalscorer played well given he should have scored 1.5 goals then?
 

Acquire Me

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No banter for me. He will score more than anyone in the league I am afraid. KdB let him down and had a mare.
 

Dumbstar

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No banter for me. He will score more than anyone in the league I am afraid. KdB let him down and had a mare.
I'm avoiding comparing him to Nunez. A more interesting comparison for me will be Haaland v Jesus this season. Needless to say I have Jesus in my FF and no Haaland.
 

Acquire Me

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No offence, but being a noggie and all, I can't see you ever being critical of him...
I am no fan of him even if his from Norway. I really hoped we would get him, not going to say anything else. That said, the guy is so damn hungry to score goals and he will score goals. City will unfortunately not play so shit this season.
 

Robbie Boy

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I am no fan of him even if his from Norway. I really hoped we would get him, not going to say anything else. That said, the guy is so damn hungry to score goals and he will score goals. City will unfortunately not play so shit this season.
You're not a fan??

Yes, I think he will score a shit load for them. He will obviously have a bedding in period, but ultimately, I think he'll do very well there. Yesterday was nothing more than a glorified pre-season friendly, in all honesty.
 

Havak

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Sadly for him and City, he was average at best when he got the ball. However, I think off the ball he looked extremely dangerous and surprisingly to me, the creative City players just weren't finding him with that killer pass. Felt like I'd need both hands to count the amount of times he could have been played in and probably go through one on one.

That will come in a few weeks. No doubt he'll have some purple patches throughout the season where he takes the piss.
 

BerryBerryShrew

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Front line of Haaland, Grealish and Mahrez with KdB behind meant it was the easiest press we've had to defend against in the first half when facing City. No wonder Cancelo, Silva and Rodri were blowing hard, they were doing the work of two men each.
I think this is the real issue of his play. His performance was fine; if KdB had released the ball quicker on a number of occasions then he could have had a hattrick. Also, I'm not overly sure about xG and its limitations but the chance in the first half where he shrugged off Robertson and got a shot away was brilliant play- he had no right to win that ball and he slipped as he took the shot.

However, even Messi had to press under Pep so I'm fairly sure that Haaland will have to adapt to it too. Let's not forget that Guardiola benched Aguero for long stretches of his first season until he could rely on him to put in a shift. Anyone who is putting their house on Haaland to win the Golden Boot this year should maybe reconsider- if not due to his injury record, then due to it being very likely that he will be used as an impact sub/Plan B until he learns to put pressure on the ball out of possession.

This may be more likely as Alvarez already looks like a Tevez regen- the perfect no. 9 for Pep.
 

Acquire Me

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You're not a fan??

Yes, I think he will score a shit load for them. He will obviously have a bedding in period, but ultimately, I think he'll do very well there. Yesterday was nothing more than a glorified pre-season friendly, in all honesty.
Nah I don’t care about the national team. For me it’s United only. I support England more than Norway tbh.
 

DWelbz19

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Front line of Haaland, Grealish and Mahrez with KdB behind meant it was the easiest press we've had to defend against in the first half when facing City. No wonder Cancelo, Silva and Rodri were blowing hard, they were doing the work of two men each.
Letting Sterling and Jesus go to keep Jack Grealish is insane to me. Both are so much better at everything apart from winning free kicks.
 

Crashoutcassius

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Some of the replies in this thread will look silly soon. Nailed on to be top scorer in the league by a clear margin.
Pretty sure city are winning the league anyway so scoring the 4th and 5th goals every week doesn't matter. It's about if he makes the difference Vs the top teams in the world..not saying he will or won't be the goals are not relevant since anyone would get goals as a poacher in this city side and they will already win the league's until the oil countries get bored
 

Andy_Cole

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Lukaku MK II

Gonna be excuses for him for 3/4 months like we did with Falcao before Pep drops him. Predict he will be sold to Madrid next year.
 

Rozay

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I’m confident he’ll improve, but he has to go and do it first. I got into a few debates over the summer about the presumption of his success. People have a habit of dishing out prizes before the game has begun. He has to go and walk it.
 

mu4c_20le

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Some of the replies in this thread will look silly soon. Nailed on to be top scorer in the league by a clear margin.
Dont be silly.

That crown is destined to go to Sir Darwin of Nunez, most expensive player in the league.
 

Dumbstar

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Letting Sterling and Jesus go to keep Jack Grealish is insane to me. Both are so much better at everything apart from winning free kicks.
Sterling is a better diver so he knows how to win a free kick or penalty or three himself.

But yes, the £100m price tag and non performance by Jack basically meant City couldn't offload him and because they're such a well run club (TM of Abu Dhabi) :rolleyes: they had to show that they were keeping the books balanced.

Selling Jesus is cutting your face off to spite your nose though. If he got the same minutes as Haaland is definitely going to get and in the same central striker position then Jesus would approx. score the same number of goals while giving a great press from the front.
 

TheReligion

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Some of the replies in this thread will look silly soon. Nailed on to be top scorer in the league by a clear margin.
You can think he was underwhelming and poor without it directly correlating on your overall thoughts on him as a player you know?

He was poor yesterday
 

mitchmouse

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hilarious that people here are having go or maybe even writing him off. He's worth all our forwards put together and (to quote Kevin Bacon) times a zillion and dipped in chocolate
 

justsomebloke

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We have another Werner on our hands! Another striker that was developed in Germany turns out to be a fraud! Who's surprised?

Like I said before, he'll struggle to score 10 league goals.
Yeah, one game without a goal and he's a fraud.
 

Josh 76

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Sterling is a better diver so he knows how to win a free kick or penalty or three himself.

But yes, the £100m price tag and non performance by Jack basically meant City couldn't offload him and because they're such a well run club (TM of Abu Dhabi) :rolleyes: they had to show that they were keeping the books balanced.

Selling Jesus is cutting your face off to spite your nose though. If he got the same minutes as Haaland is definitely going to get and in the same central striker position then Jesus would approx. score the same number of goals while giving a great press from the front.
Pep probably needed to freshen up the squad. He knows what’s needed more than anyone of us.
 

Rayman96

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I don't think he'll rack up passes or touches the way Jesus used to because he'll play as an out and out number 9 rather than as a false 9. But he could be effective in other ways. He made several runs yesterday that weren't picked up by KDB (I imagine that it will take a bit to get on the same wavelengths) and I can only see him scoring more as time goes on.

He'll score more than his predecessors. The question is whether City as a team will be better offensively going this route.
I noticed that especially in the first half when he made multiple runs that should have not been difficult to find him. KDB had a shocker to be honest.
 

11101

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Gets into all the right positions doesn't he. The goals will come, unfortunately.