Nordic Goal Yeti | Haaland at City

Magz

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Imagine where we'd be with this lad. Damn shame we couldn't get him.
Yes, it's a shame only Ole wanted him when he played for Salzburg. As crazy as it may sound i think he'd fit in better at United - and that's not a dig at City's play style.
 

SungSam7

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Anyone questioning why Pep would take off Haaland needs to go look at the career of Derrick Rose for the Chicago Bulls! Why play a player when a game is already won?
 

ExoduS

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It is stupid how easily this guy is breaking all the records. I'm gonna join coping club and agree - he is not as great as how many goals he is scoring. But what can you do... Plays for Pep, who is amazing coach and he is willing to be coached !
 

Klopper76

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Is football getting easier for attackers? I remember watching football in the early 2000’s and thinking that 20 goals was an excellent season for a striker. That only seems to be decent nowadays with players like Kane, Haaland, Salah etc hitting mid to high 20’s easily. I know some players hit big tally’s in the 90’s (Fowler, Shearer, Cole) but it seems more of a regular occurrence nowadays. Maybe it’s just me imagining it?

Not taking anything away from Haaland by the way. He’s incredible.
 

kaku06

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I kinda feel Haaland would have had Ronaldo's success if he replaced R9 in all his teams
What a ridiculous statement and clearly undermining the genius of R9 and what he did single handedly. You clearly are in such awe of Haaland i won’t be surprised if you call him better than Pele the next time he scores a hattrick.
 

kaku06

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Is football getting easier for attackers? I remember watching football in the early 2000’s and thinking that 20 goals was an excellent season for a striker. That only seems to be decent nowadays with players like Kane, Haaland, Salah etc hitting mid to high 20’s easily. I know some players hit big tally’s in the 90’s (Fowler, Shearer, Cole) but it seems more of a regular occurrence nowadays. Maybe it’s just me imagining it?

Not taking anything away from Haaland by the way. He’s incredible.
You are right. Before, being good at CB was a craft, today you won’t find much difference between a shite CB and a good CB. You see the fullbacks today in every team, all about how good you are attacking wise, to hell with being a good defender. Trent is a prime example of this. Then you see only a handful of world class DM’s. Defending overall has gone to pot. It’s all about system now and everyone working together to make it successful offensively and defensively.
 

ti vu

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Crazy to think that R9 only scored 14 CL goals in his career. Haaland is already on 33
Not that crazy when considering that R9 moved to 3 European clubs that not have CL for about 5 years (CL old version reserved for the champions). Next he's injured a lot. Dark art, tough challenge was much more tolerable in those years too. Dark arts went unnoticed.

Haaland is a record setter himself, so he's scoring more in CL than the R7, Messi, RvN at the same age. But not something to undermine someone else.
 
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ti vu

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Is football getting easier for attackers? I remember watching football in the early 2000’s and thinking that 20 goals was an excellent season for a striker. That only seems to be decent nowadays with players like Kane, Haaland, Salah etc hitting mid to high 20’s easily. I know some players hit big tally’s in the 90’s (Fowler, Shearer, Cole) but it seems more of a regular occurrence nowadays. Maybe it’s just me imagining it?

Not taking anything away from Haaland by the way. He’s incredible.
It is. Just an example.


Nowadays with stud up challenge condemnation and especially afterVAR being implemented, defenders had less tools to work with.

Football used to be tougher. If you do fancy footwork, expect to get kicked. Attacking the space, and you likely end up getting seriously hurt. When watching older games, you may notice that defenders are much more aggressive, and ready trigger to put in an "accident challenge". Just a dark art of bodychecking. Soreing up attackers. Players also forced/tried to play through injuries a lot. Barely anyone were really 100% healthy. Shorter career/peak for attackers/players at the receiving end.


The derby matches everywhere used to be games, where two teams kick the shit out of each other, and ref would be much tolerable, or both teams would have been halved with nowadays red card worthy foul.
 
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MexicanCowboy

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I kinda feel Haaland would have had Ronaldo's success if he replaced R9 in all his teams
Ronaldo Nazario was a really different kind of player. He was not only a finisher but also a wonderful dribbler.
 

U-238A

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Is football getting easier for attackers? I remember watching football in the early 2000’s and thinking that 20 goals was an excellent season for a striker. That only seems to be decent nowadays with players like Kane, Haaland, Salah etc hitting mid to high 20’s easily. I know some players hit big tally’s in the 90’s (Fowler, Shearer, Cole) but it seems more of a regular occurrence nowadays. Maybe it’s just me imagining it?

Not taking anything away from Haaland by the way. He’s incredible.
As with most sports, the game changes to suit attacking players, and mostly for entertainment purposes. Basketball added the 3 point and shot-clock to make games more exciting. The NRL in Australia changed its rules to speed up the play and as a result, scoring average total points per game has increased over the years. I imagine at the grass roots levels, coaches would focus more on attacking and how to score goals, as opposed to how to stop kids from scoring. I'd hate to be a kid playing in a team that focuses on defending. It makes sense. 3-3's are "classics" and no one remembers 0-0's.

It's rare at the elite level though. Only a couple teams have scored over 100 goals a season in the last few decades - And all of them had prolific scorers. So it might just be those attacking players themselves that are just exceptional. Haaland's done it his entire career in 3 different leagues and is only 22. Utterly terrifying.
 
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Pintu

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Is football getting easier for attackers? I remember watching football in the early 2000’s and thinking that 20 goals was an excellent season for a striker. That only seems to be decent nowadays with players like Kane, Haaland, Salah etc hitting mid to high 20’s easily. I know some players hit big tally’s in the 90’s (Fowler, Shearer, Cole) but it seems more of a regular occurrence nowadays. Maybe it’s just me imagining it?

Not taking anything away from Haaland by the way. He’s incredible.
The gap between the strongest teams and the average ones has increased massively over the years.... And of course the referring now favors the attackers... With current standards, both Ronaldo and Van Basten would have played deep into their 30s and destroyed many more records.
 

John Blund

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Did Haaland use HGH or anabolic steroids? His facial features look like he roided out. Not even sure if that stuff is banned anymore? He seems to have had quite the prodigious growth spurt to get up to 6’5” when his dad was only 6’1”.
I can pretty much guarantee he did not. His elder brother, not a professional footballer, has the same height and the same facial structure. I guess his father also has this squarish face.
 

kouroux

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Anyone questioning why Pep would take off Haaland needs to go look at the career of Derrick Rose for the Chicago Bulls! Why play a player when a game is already won?
Yeah well there are plenty of other players who have stat padded without any fitness problems. I can understand not wanting to risk it of course
 

Suv666

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What a freak
Will break each and every goal record when he's done. Love the copium in this thread though :lol::lol:

Lads he'll be one of the best ever in football lets not kid ourselves.
 

Red00012

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What a freak
Will break each and every goal record when he's done. Love the copium in this thread though :lol::lol:

Lads he'll be one of the best ever in football lets not kid ourselves.
What about the poster who said take away his penalties and his doubles and his hat tricks and his record isn’t great ??? :wenger:
 

Telsim

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City have Haaland, we have Weghorst. Ibrahimovic was right about what he said.

Haaland is the best player in the world at present. And he will only get better. Just insane. Plenty of copium in this thread, though.
 

Vapor trail

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City have Haaland, we have Weghorst. Ibrahimovic was right about what he said.
Shows the significance of Glazers ownership. All those dividends over the years could have attributed to a signing in the window. Weghorst is that bad that even the ridiculous deal Athletic wanted for Felix would have been worth it.
 

LARulz

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I kinda feel Haaland would have had Ronaldo's success if he replaced R9 in all his teams
Did you actually watch R9 play? He was a much better footballer and there is a reason why at that time (not just nostalgia now) he is considered one of the greatest ever

Halaand is an absolute machine and one I would kill to have at United. He knows what's he's good at and just does it. I know he scores fairly regularly but if he could create more goals himself it would be devastating. Right now I think people rightfully fear Halaand but must think if they shut off some supply (hard to do) then he won't do much

When he also scores even more regularly like a goal a game than scoring a few in batches, it will be horrible. City would walk into any game already 1-0 up
 

Lyng

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Absolute monster of a striker. If only the club had listened to Ole back then.
 

Garnacho's Shoelaces

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What a freak
Will break each and every goal record when he's done. Love the copium in this thread though :lol::lol:

Lads he'll be one of the best ever in football lets not kid ourselves.
Ability wise, yes. Records wise, yes.

Will he be recognised as "one of the best ever in football" while playing for the most irrelevant team in elite football? Never.

He'll need to move on to a club not associated with sportswashing, financial doping and corruption to have any of the achievements recognised. Same reason KdB or Aguero will never be spoken about as one of the best. Effectively throwing away their legacies in football for a quick pound note now.
 

Stacks

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What a ridiculous statement and clearly undermining the genius of R9 and what he did single handedly. You clearly are in such awe of Haaland i won’t be surprised if you call him better than Pele the next time he scores a hattrick.
Did you actually watch R9 play? He was a much better footballer and there is a reason why at that time (not just nostalgia now) he is considered one of the greatest ever

Halaand is an absolute machine and one I would kill to have at United. He knows what's he's good at and just does it. I know he scores fairly regularly but if he could create more goals himself it would be devastating. Right now I think people rightfully fear Halaand but must think if they shut off some supply (hard to do) then he won't do much

When he also scores even more regularly like a goal a game than scoring a few in batches, it will be horrible. City would walk into any game already 1-0 up
I was around back in those days and traditional 9's had a lot of success. Vieri, Inzaghi, Salas, Zamorano, Kluivert, Batistuta, Delvechio, Bierhoff, Signori, Shevchenko.
I mean Ronaldo wasn't the most successful striker of that era even when he was fit. 2 cup with Barca, 1 cup with PSV, 1 cup with Inter, 1 league and 1 cup with Real, 1 world cup. With Haaland pace and finishing he would of been insane in that era, like Vieri on steroids
 

VorZakone

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In all competitions (domestic + international) he's on 51 goals + assists. 45 goals and 6 assists.
Source: whoscored.com.
 

Gehrman

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He gets his fair share of quality service, but he's shown before he can score unlikely goals. As someone said before, he's Vieri on steriods. 39 goals already and its only mid march. I know Messi is favourite for the Ballon D'or due to the WC, but Haaland really should be a contender for nr. 1. He's scoring a silly amount of goals in the "hardest league in the world" and all that. If he takes them far in the CL as well he should won it imo.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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He gets his fair share of quality service, but he's shown before he can score unlikely goals. As someone said before, he's Vieri on steriods. 39 goals already and its only mid march. I know Messi is favourite for the Ballon D'or due to the WC, but Haaland really should be a contender for nr. 1. He's scoring a silly amount of goals in the "hardest league in the world" and all that. If he takes them far in the CL as well he should won it imo.
He shouldn't win it at all.

Messi has it pretty much sealed because of the WC.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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City have Haaland, we have Weghorst. Ibrahimovic was right about what he said.

Haaland is the best player in the world at present. And he will only get better. Just insane. Plenty of copium in this thread, though.
He isn't, but he's obviously amazing.
 

Gehrman

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He shouldn't win it at all.

Messi has it pretty much sealed because of the WC.
I dont think the WC should be like the oscars. It shouldn't be sentimental or because of a narrative, but the best individual performer over a season.
 

Marwood

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Is football getting easier for attackers? I remember watching football in the early 2000’s and thinking that 20 goals was an excellent season for a striker. That only seems to be decent nowadays with players like Kane, Haaland, Salah etc hitting mid to high 20’s easily. I know some players hit big tally’s in the 90’s (Fowler, Shearer, Cole) but it seems more of a regular occurrence nowadays. Maybe it’s just me imagining it?

Not taking anything away from Haaland by the way. He’s incredible.
I've always felt the switch from two strikers to one increased the numbers.

When you're the one focal point it stands to reason there's going to be more chances.

As opposed to having to share the chances with your strike partner.
 

FrankDrebin

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Such a rather unique player.
I don't think any of his goals last night were, in any shape or form, aesthetically pleasing but, in equal measure, neither is he as a player.

I find him to be somewhat unintentionally comical. The way he moves around the pitch, his lanky , outlandish appearance and his general honest attitude make him a player that's really hard to dislike.

The custom Fifa analogy comment above is perfectly apt. You'd probably make him as facially distinctive too.
 

Judas

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He isn’t exciting. He’s possibly the dullest most lethal striker in history, probably due to his overall game being quite underwhelming.

To be fair, if he was playing in a side that played to his strengths he’d probably be more interesting to watch, at Dortmund his goals had more variety. It’s odd how he’s living off rebounds so often.
 

Tom Cato

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He is the best current goalscorer in the game, by far. No one else is even close to possessing the ability to put the ball into the net. Not Kane, not Salah, not even the current best overall player in the Premier League Marcus Rashford.

We can talk about who are better technically gifted players, R9 certainly is on another echelon to Haaland in terms of god given ability on the ball. Haaland is still better at putting the ball into the back of the net. Mbappe is a far, far better technical player. Haaland is still better than him at scoring goals in football. By some distance.

Haaland is probably the only current player where hoofing the ball over the defense and letting him run at it is a viable tactic to score goals at the elite level.
 

SilentWitness

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He is definitely one of the most effective players I’ve ever seen. Can basically not touch the ball all game and still have a hat trick. Doesn’t need the ball to stick to his feet when dribbling as his pace and power allows him to bulldoze through everyone. I don’t think there has been a more effective player at his level who can basically not play football but be an amazing footballer. :lol: