It's obviously multifactorial. But now matter how anyone spins it, it's impossible to claim that going from a false 9 to a pure box/transition 9 who doesn't have any ability on the ball and who doesn't defend didn't create unbalance in their team.
Nordic Ghost Yeti | Haaland at City
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Is he Ibrahimovic 2 ? Doesn't belong in Pep's system?
Scores a lot but doesn't improve the team
Scores a lot but doesn't improve the team
Technically, he may be signed up to Oil Revenue Inc. But he was created when Keane’s studs clattered off his fathers thigh, and slammed full tilt into his scrotum. This caused a massive Purple Bruise, half-Haaland, Half Cork, half Piss Blue, half-red.
You can see the print pattern on Erling’s forehead to this day. Always there’s a bit of him that wants to be plastic, and a bit of him wants to nut the manager and bring the ball home.
He isn't the problem. Its the wide players who don’t deliver the ball and lack of penetrative passing from midfield when KDB isn’t playing. Haaland needs to improve his link up play but the City midfield seems to have forgotten how to play with a striker.
I think we’ll see at least one midfielder and at least one winger sign for City this summer
So annoying he's playing for them.
If he was united he'd be unstoppable. He suits us so much more than city.
I can't see him staying there for long.
If he was united he'd be unstoppable. He suits us so much more than city.
I can't see him staying there for long.
Agreed on all counts.
I mean he has scored 4 in 2 in the home fixtures against those teams. He was never going to score in all 38 games if that’s what counts as ‘making the difference’.
Has he made City a better team? There's little to suggest that he has all the while they're dropping points every third game.
What I find baffling is those who have concluded that he is the reason they are worse. Something is off with the whole club this season. Cancelo was the best full back in the league last season, half a season later he's banished to a different country. Dias and Laporte are out of favor. Bernardo and even KDB of late look like busted flush. Foden has been a nonentity bar the one 3-4 game spell. Grealish is a 100m winger who doesn't score nor assist and possibly the most anti Pep player ever (foul-drawing merchant playing for a manager who wants possession in open play over set pieces) yet there's not much scrutiny on him. Unless there is evidence that Haaland's presence has orchestrated all this behind the scenes it's a bit daft to single out him as the reason City are shite this year.
Don't get me wrong, I hope they keep being shite and that he leaves the league in 1-2 years with just his goals and no trophies. Would be beautiful after the way he was pandering to the 3 City fans in the summer saying how much he was looking forward to the derbies etc.
It's not Haaland's fault for this game. i saw him make some fantastic runs and City's performance in finding him was abysmal. Crossing and passing into the box was absolutely dire this match from Pep.
I was lambasted when I argued that he will score the goals but City will score less/rely on him for output more.
Seems I was right.
Seems I was right.
Should have been a United player. He suits our style so much more.
Hes not (thankfully) but every bad/average performance from Haaland this season will be down to having flashbacks from Shaw owning him in the derby.
He was a well known choker in the 2000s.
Absolutely useless for Inter and Barcelona in UCL whenever they needed him.
After social media he suddenly becomes elite because he scored a few worldies
Definition of a highlights player.
The norweigian lukaku
He choked a couple of time with PSG when we need him in the CL as well. Great player but rarely performed in very high stake games.
That's not true, Zlatan was regularly dominant and great overall, just not that often in the biggest games.
Zlatan 2 "Electric Boogaloo"
Agreed. Really weird behaviour
Meh, he had longevity
He needs to change his game.
People probably will look at his goal record and blame City/Pep for this but the truth is Haaland makes team worse despite of him scoring load of goals.
People probably will look at his goal record and blame City/Pep for this but the truth is Haaland makes team worse despite of him scoring load of goals.
Last edited:
He cut a very frustrated figure today, as others have said the runs he makes no one except DeBryne picks them out and he's gone off the boil.
Great finisher get the ball to him he'll score 99 times out of 100 but adds very little to their overall play.Still think he'll get 35 league goals thanks to some flat track bullying of the lesser teams.
Great finisher get the ball to him he'll score 99 times out of 100 but adds very little to their overall play.Still think he'll get 35 league goals thanks to some flat track bullying of the lesser teams.
Thread's already stuck in an infinite loop.
Which is the entire issue in the first place. They already tend to lean towards comfortable possession and keeping the ball, and now don't have anyone that really threatens defenses with pace/directness either for Haaland to combine with. So it's either him scoring tapins (which anyone could do) or he needs KDB finding him on those runs where he's stretching the backline.
Haaland is a monster of a striker, but he's a classic type of striker in that he needs service and isn't going to do much outside of that if you aren't feeding him.
Many great players in the past choked too, i don't see it as something to overreact tbh, cause the list of great player who didn't shine much in knockout games is very long tbh.
I mean R9 himself was underwhelming in european competitions, his best games are almost all with stacked Brazil and league football in Serie A and La Liga.
Players were less scrutinized 30 years ago because football wasn't fully global yet, people call Kane a choker for his bad performances in big knockout games but i think he wouldn't be caller a choker in the 90s for example.
Last edited:
Are city midfielders afraid to pass him the ball when he's on the run because it might result in losing possession or what?
Certainly seems like City are playing it a bit too cautious at times.
Certainly seems like City are playing it a bit too cautious at times.
He suits our side so much, imagine him leading the line for us and the amount of space he'd be able to run into!
Too much sideward passing at City. He’s never played through.
We would be top of the league if we had hun.
We would be top of the league if we had hun.
If we had Haaland, we'd be top of the league.
Imagine how bad Ronaldo would have been for them.
Agree not 100 % his fault but imo he's partly the reason why the whole City team is a bit off this season.
I said somewhere here couple months ago that if you look at the number of goals City scored this season and last season you'd see why. Last season their main striker Jesus scored like 10% of the total. The rest came from their midfield. This season Haaland scores like 50 % of the total number. This imo makes their goal threat more predictable and of course it's just my opinion but this might also make the other players unsettled.
Last season their midfielders got a lot of praise but this season everything has been about Haaland. The other players might be pro and don't feel anything but maybe they're just human after all. That imo probably explain why none but KDB trying to find Haaland lately.
I don’t necessarily agree with the notion that he would be amazing for us. Yeah, he would score goals but we would also face some of the issues City face. He doesn’t press and he can’t hold the ball up and link with others. Something that would even be more consequential for us as we don’t keep it nearly as good as City.
we would be easier to play through as City are.
we would be easier to play through as City are.
Good player just doesn't fit Pep's system or tactics. The runs he makes will not be found as that doesn't fit their tactics of possession, work the ball to the byline and low cross the ball into the box.
I don’t think he suits us either. ETH prefers someone who can hold the ball up top and bring others into play. Haaland is a runner who will find spaces and a fox in the box. He is much better suited to a more direct style of play. Kane would be a better fit for us.
So, have teams figured out a way to cut supply to Haaland, essentially rendering him ineffective? Haaland's record since restart is 6 goals in 10 games, 3 of those coming against Wolves. His record seems to be undergoing some sort of mean reversion.
How do you figure? Erling doesn't look like a striker that would walk into ETH's team.
Kane probably would
Sadly, when he eventually leaves for RM, City will probably make £ 80-100 million off him despite being a bad fit at City.
Watching MOTD2 last night and they were making the comparison to Kane getting the ball with a straight face. Spurs wanted to find Kane because he can do something on the ball. City didn’t try to find Haaland 35 yards out because he can do feck all with the ball that far out.
Infinity plus 80/100 ~ infinity
I'm struggling to think of another player who have joined a league winning side and enjoyed tremendous personal success, but are being talked about as a hindrance to the side. It seems like quite a unique case.