Nordic Ghost Yeti (Scandi Carroll) | Haaland at City

Slevs

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Not sure if half of the replies in this thread are serious. The guy is a pure finisher. He doesn't need to be involved in the build up, he'll score a lot of goals for them and they'll win titles. 1 game where he doesn't score (Alisson good save and VVD goal saving header) doesn't change anything.
 

Remember the geese

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They don't need to be, they won, what, 4-5 out of the last 6 PLs? They're just different with Haaland. They weren't exactly pulling trees last season either if I remember until they turned it up? Or maybe it's the season before that I'm confusing with.

I don't think Haaland is a flat-track bully though, he scored against big teams in the past, but I do think defenders and managers will learn better ways to neutralize him and he's not capable of scoring a goal on his own when the team is out of ideas and the opponent box is full of defenders. That's why, for as brilliant of a goal scorer as he is, I kind of roll my eyes at people who claim he's the best player in the world or even better than Benzema as a CF, or Mbappe as the best young player. He might get there, but I have a hard time seeing him develop the tools to be a game-breaking player that can affect the game on his own. I also don't really think he needs to. He will set himself up to be in teams that will focus on creating the chances for him and he'll put them away at a world-class level the likes we haven't seen. That's good enough for me.
Yes they don't need to be better than previous years, but I feel as if they have regressed slightly. They just don't look as dominant or as controlled to me. Though that is obviously the trade off by taking away an extra midfielder for Haaland.

As for Haaland, his goal record speaks for itself. Due to his numbers alone, people often like to make out he is something he isn't. He doesn't have the same level of technique or creativity that many of the best strikers over the last 20-30 years have shown.
 

Wilt

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Just gotta laugh at the flip flopping in here. For weeks he is the best striker in the history of the game and after one quiet match he now has no skill or ability and is just a tap in merchant
Agreed, it’s fecking hilarious :lol:

Waiting for some eejit to say “the only thing he can do is score lots of goals”
 

Lay

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I love how the cafe has adopted the “you’re only as good as your last game” mentality. Haaland is shite now. A week earlier he was going to break every record going.

Tough times, Haaland, another goalless game and you may as well pack your bags to the SPL
 

FrankFoot

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Yes they don't need to be better than previous years, but I feel as if they have regressed slightly. They just don't look as dominant or as controlled to me. Though that is obviously the trade off by taking away an extra midfielder for Haaland.

As for Haaland, his goal record speaks for itself. Due to his numbers alone, people often like to make out he is something he isn't. He doesn't have the same level of technique or creativity that many of the best strikers over the last 20-30 years have shown.
He doesn't need to dribble, his goals will speak for him.

Dribbling isn't the only way to be considered great, just like being handsome isn't the only way to attract women.
 

Bebestation

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I love how the cafe has adopted the “you’re only as good as your last game” mentality. Haaland is shite now. A week earlier he was going to break every record going.

Tough times, Haaland, another goalless game and you may as well pack your bags to the SPL
Well this is said about our own players. The season numbers don’t matter - how they played the last game is all that does.
 

Skills

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He should've scored that header from KDBs cross. Apart from that Liverpool kept him quiet by just shutting off the service to him
 

Remember the geese

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He doesn't need to dribble, his goals will speak for him.

Dribbling isn't the only way to be considered great, just like being handsome isn't the only way to attract women.
It isn't just about dribbling. He doesn't have the vision, all round technique and creativity that many of the top strikers have had.
 

Lyng

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He should've scored that header from KDBs cross. Apart from that Liverpool kept him quiet by just shutting off the service to him
Pretty much this. Apart from that cross KDB was almost non existant in that game. Turns out, even Haaland, wont score without service.
 

Red the Bear

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Goes invisible for one game and all hell breaks loose.

Cut the hyperbole, folk have set unrealistic expectations , not scoring for a single game isn't the sign of failing, not even prime Messi and Ronaldo affected every game they played in.
 
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Oranges038

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Useless. As I said earlier in the thread city will win nothing major with him in the team. He is holding them back.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

On a serious note. One thing I did notice yesterday, there were several times City players had a better passing option but just looked to target Haaland instead. One in particular where Bernardo had made a great overlapping run and was ignored for a clip into the box instead. In tight matches like this doing that is going to hinder their chances of scoring and winning these games.

Hopefully this creeps into their game more and more and we see it again and they get knocked out of the CL because of it.
 

The Firestarter

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Just gotta laugh at the flip flopping in here. For weeks he is the best striker in the history of the game and after one quiet match he now has no skill or ability and is just a tap in merchant
That's usually the caf however I'd assume its not the same people . More like some of them have been waiting under the woodwork and now it's their time before he resumes normal service.
 

Morty_

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Goes invisibility for one game and all hell breaks loose.

Cut the hyperbole, folk have set unrealistic expectations , not scoring for a single game isn't the sign of failing, not even prime Messi and Ronaldo affected every game they played in.
Messi had an influence on just about every game, even if he did not score, and to a lesser extent, Ronaldo(Cristiano?) also did things besides scoring up until a certain point.

But i agree that people are expecting things from him that he just isn't capable of though, Haaland is a fantastic number 9, but he is a number 9, not a playmaker, and thats fine.
 
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Red the Bear

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Also it bears mentioning that be was also quite impotent in the charity game, maybe vvd has his number .
 

kaku06

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And, If he does what he is doing for another two seasons, I will finally have seen a better number 9 than Ronaldo Nazario.
How he would be better than Ronaldo? Because he scored more goals? Should go without saying but he isn’t even fit to lace Ronaldo’s boots. Terrible post. He isn’t even better than Thierry Henry let alone Ronaldo no matter how many tap ins he scores or how much stat padding he does.

Some people have an awful awful take on football and I have finally seen one.
 

Gehrman

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How he would be better than Ronaldo? Because he scored more goals? Should go without saying but he isn’t even fit to lace Ronaldo’s boots. Terrible post. He isn’t even better than Thierry Henry let alone Ronaldo no matter how many tap ins he scores or how much stat padding he does.

Some people have an awful awful take on football and I have finally seen one.
Haaland is an incredible penalty box striker, but R9 could create his own goals. That's one of the main differences really.
 

Cnaiür urs Skiötha

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Some weird comments here. Yes he might not score the goal Salah scored yesterday, or maybe even the one Ronaldo scored against Everton. But this was never what his signing is all about.
He brings a threat whenever he is in the box and in case City have a problem to break teams down there is always this new option. And while he is not a striker like Aguero or Benzema with excellent technic looking great to watch he will score goals others won’t.
I believe City will win the league and I won’t be surprised if he is the key to finally dominate the CL as well.
 

RuudTom83

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Judging players every 90 minutes will always get wildly different opinions.

I think he will get a large percentage of City’s goals. But I’m not sure City as a team will score more than they did last season.
 

Red the Bear

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Messi had an influence on just about every game, even if he did not score, and to a lesser extent, Ronaldo(Cristiano?) also did things besides scoring up until a certain point.

But i agree that people are expecting things from him that he just isn't capable of though, Haaland is a fantastic number 9, but he is a number 9, not a playmaker, and thats fine.
Well first off we're talking about perhaps the greatest player of all time so and unrealistic measure to begin with and even then those 2 had games where their game was off here and there and there's no shame in it really, especially when the opposition successfully nullified them.

Halland doesn't hsve the technique those 2 had and probably neither their intelligence but even then he could go down as one of the greatest no9 ever so he has that going for him, lets see.
 

Righteous Steps

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Not really. He just didn't get any service. When he did, he could've scored.

Neither of your CBs did anything to influence that - all the good work was done further up by the midfield
He doesn’t really have good games against Liverpool because the CBS Konate VVD Gomez are all as physically dominant as he is, he’s whole dominance relies on being physically better than 99% of cbs, when he finds his match he needs to find other ways to still affect the game, I think in time
he may learn how to but right not what’s hes one weakness.
 

Skills

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He doesn’t really have good games against Liverpool because the CBS Konate VVD Gomez are all as physically dominant as he is, he’s whole dominance relies on being physically better than 99% of cbs, when he finds his match he needs to find other ways to still affect the game, I think in time
he may learn how to but right not what’s hes one weakness.
That wasn't the issue yesterday though no? He just didn't get anything at all from his midfielders. If he was still getting service but the Liverpool CBs were just shutting him down, then I'd agree.
 

matsdf

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The problem yesterday was Foden. Him playing on the left was very strange.
 

Righteous Steps

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That wasn't the issue yesterday though no? He just didn't get anything at all from his midfielders. If he was still getting service but the Liverpool CBs were just shutting him down, then I'd agree.
How much service does he need? You don’t really expect much service in these games either way, Salah didn’t really get any service also...

The cbs marshalled him well and he would drop deep into the 10 position then be crowded out by Fabinho Thiago Firmino or whoever could help defend against him, in those situations you see he’s not able to spin his defenders or do much dribbling, this would be the difference between him and a Benzema for example who faced the same situations in the Final against Liverpool but had a more assured touch to cope with the pressure.

Haaland physically found his match and he had no way to deal with it, he still had the one headed chance and a couple half chances though.
 

Skills

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How much service does he need? You don’t really expect much service in these games either way, Salah didn’t really get any service also...

The cbs marshalled him well and he would drop deep into the 10 position then be crowded out by Fabinho Thiago Firmino or whoever could help defend against him, in those situations you see he’s not able to spin his defenders or do much dribbling, this would be the difference between him and a Benzema for example who faced the same situations in the Final against Liverpool but had a more assured touch to cope with the pressure.

Haaland physically found his match and he had no way to deal with it, he still had the one headed chance and a couple half chances though.
Yeah but, he would've had the same problem regardless of who the Liverpool CBs were yesterday? My point is the Liverpool CBs didn't have much to do with him having a quiet game - the work was done ahead of them by the midfield.
 

Liver_bird

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We changed the way we play and sat in more of a block - less spaces to cover. Which is sensible because ball winning has been a huge issue this season and teams have destroyed us in transition.

He was good but we played more of a spurs style game and shit defenders can look good in a system like that. It’s no surprise he struggled against two with a point to prove.
 

Skills

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We changed the way we play and sat in more of a block - less spaces to cover. Which is sensible because ball winning has been a huge issue this season and teams have destroyed us in transition.

He was good but we played more of a spurs style game and shit defenders can look good in a system like that. It’s no surprise he struggled against two with a point to prove.
Yeah exactly. In fact, Guardiola helped you guys out by cramping the middle of the park even more by sticking 4 midfielders in there of his own.
 

ScholesyTheWise

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How the hell is he shite now?
is Cancelo also shite all of a sudden?

feck me.

He's a bloody brilliant striker (more of a finisher than anything else which has its place in modern football, believe it or not) who can be kept quiet,
to people's surprise it seems.

The fact that some people were thinking he is going to score braces and hattricks almost every week and wipe the floor with the PL records for goals...
the latter especially is not that implausible (at least beating the record, not necessarily smashing it), but still, scoring the 45-55 goals a season i've seen mentioned here is really hard work and luck also.
 
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11101

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He doesn’t really have good games against Liverpool because the CBS Konate VVD Gomez are all as physically dominant as he is, he’s whole dominance relies on being physically better than 99% of cbs, when he finds his match he needs to find other ways to still affect the game, I think in time
he may learn how to but right not what’s hes one weakness.
He's got the movement to get out of that weakness. Yesterday his problem was service, he's not a striker who can drop back and create his own chances. Cut the midfield supply line out and he has a very quiet game.
 

Righteous Steps

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He's got the movement to get out of that weakness. Yesterday his problem was service, he's not a striker who can drop back and create his own chances. Cut the midfield supply line out and he has a very quiet game.
Yeah he’s like a faster stronger Van Nilsterooy.
 

TenonTen

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He doesn’t really have good games against Liverpool because the CBS Konate VVD Gomez are all as physically dominant as he is, he’s whole dominance relies on being physically better than 99% of cbs, when he finds his match he needs to find other ways to still affect the game, I think in time
he may learn how to but right not what’s hes one weakness.
Spot on.

He's got the movement to get out of that weakness. Yesterday his problem was service, he's not a striker who can drop back and create his own chances. Cut the midfield supply line out and he has a very quiet game.
I think apart from his movement it's his ability to physically get to the position ahead of the CBs in order to score. Many times, defenders know what's coming but just can't reach in time before Erling does. It's not even some extremely high IQ positioning just actually getting in on goal on time.

I firmly believe that once he loses his pace he'll be half the player. It's that deadly combination of strength and pace which makes it look like men against boys at times. Very few players have that combination. Prime VVD had the same combination which is why people barely got the better of him and he was so dominant.
 

Champ

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He was still City's most dangerous player yesterday, should have scored with his header and had some nearly moments during the game.

A combination of last ditch defending and luck stopped Haaland from scoring again.