Erling Haaland | Dortmund player





Absolute state of these clowns. Journalists should try asking meaningful questions for a change rather than the same generic ones time after time and then getting upset when you don't get generic answers in return.
 
"How dare he answer dumb one-liner questions with one-liners!!!!"

The German guy from the PSG post match is actually a pretty good and critical interviewer when he wants to be, but he stuck to the default of mindlessly throwing empty phrases at each other.

Imho it's lazy journalism to ask minimalistic questions like "what's your secret?" and then expect the player to expand them into 30 second monologues for an asnwer. Some players may like to do so, but when you have someone like Haaland, who prefers to give brief answers to that sort of question it's your job to follow up with something that makes him think about a nuanced response.
 
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The high lines and every Bundesliga manager being obsessed with football manager aesthetic tactics is adorning his stats a little, but make no mistake — the guy will succeed wherever he goes. He’s an absolute battering ram. That level of pace and mobility on a player that big is NOT a dime a dozen. Seems like he’s got a point to prove in every game too. Angry bastard.
 
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Absolute state of these clowns. Journalists should try asking meaningful questions for a change rather than the same generic ones time after time and then getting upset when you don't get generic answers in return.


"why doesn't he take the bait and say something controversial"

I'm sure it's a game to him and he probably enjoys seeing these journos get their knickers in a twist.
 
The high lines and every Bundesliga manager being obsessed with football manager aesthetic tactics is adorning his stats a little, but make no mistake — the guy will succeed wherever he goes. He’s an absolute battering ram. That level of pace and mobility on a player that big is genuinely dime a dozen. Seems like he’s got a point to prove in every game too. Angry bastard.

1. I don’t think any elite managers are making decisions based on Football Manager.
2. Dime a Dozen means common. Not rare.

I agree with your assessment of his talent though. He looks as determined as he does talented.
 
1. I don’t think any elite managers are making decisions based on Football Manager.
2. Dime a Dozen means common. Not rare.

I agree with your assessment of his talent though. He looks as determined as he does talented.
Terminology amended.
 
Sports journalists (or rather the Geoff Shreeves of this world who do post-match interviews) have a way too high opinion of themselves. Go Erling!

As a footballer, I'd just refuse to answer any questions a la "How are you feeling?" until they start asking better ones. Or reply with "Felt good until I heard that question."
 
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The lad is trying to market himself as some sort of eccentric, Zlatan-like character. It's a bit immature/manufactured, (or he is just naturally a bit of an arse) but people want characters in the game I guess.
 
The high lines and every Bundesliga manager being obsessed with football manager aesthetic tactics is adorning his stats a little, but make no mistake — the guy will succeed wherever he goes. He’s an absolute battering ram. That level of pace and mobility on a player that big is NOT a dime a dozen. Seems like he’s got a point to prove in every game too. Angry bastard.

Mostly because he was a small kid until 3-4 years ago so had to rely on other attributes.



He wouldn't be doing this at 13 if he was taller than everyone else simply because tall players aren't 'supposed' to play like that. Makes you wonder if there will be a shift in mentality in children's football. Having coached a bit myself at that level my impression is that a lot of coaches only use tall players to gain a height advantage for set pieces and when they want to hoof it up the field. If they focused on nurturing them technically as well chances are we will get more players like Haaland in the future. Height, strength, pace and mobility is a lethal combination.
 




Absolute state of these clowns. Journalists should try asking meaningful questions for a change rather than the same generic ones time after time and then getting upset when you don't get generic answers in return.

He's definitely this eras Ibrahimovic in alot of ways. Confidence, walks the talk, goal scorer, has no regard for the quality of the opponent and another thing is I definitely see him as the type to go to different top clubs to dominate their respective leagues
 
Haaland is obviously a gifted striker, but these comparisons are kind of pointless. In Austria he was playing for a team on CL (groupstage) level against vastly inferior opponents, in Germany he's at a club that sets up their striker like few others. For example yesterday he scored his tenth goal after 541 minutes, which is a pretty insane ratio, but the next sentence of these info tweets tells you that Alcacer did it in 281 minutes. Before him it was Batshuayi who looked two classes above his level and before the Batsman it was Aubameyang who scored around 30 goals a season.

First some numbers:

Haaland this season in Dortmund (19 years old):

10 goals, 3 assists in 9 apps and 602 minutes played in the league
2 goals in 2 apps and 180 minutes played in the CL
1 goal in 1 app and 44 minutes played in the DFB-pokal cup

Total: 13 goals and 16 contributions in 824 minutes for Dortmund. A goal every 63 minutes, and a contribution every 51 minutes.

Paco last season (his best) for Dortmund (25 years old):

18 goals, 0 assists in 26 apps and 1204 minutes played in the league
1 goal in 5 apps and 356 minutes played in the CL
1 assist in 1 app and 104 minutes played in the DFB-pokal cup

Total: 19 goals and 21 contributions in 1664 minutes. A goal every 87 minutes, and a contribution every 79 minutes.
Insane good numbers, but far from Haalands and he was 25 that season.

Batshuayi the 17/18 season for Dortmund (24 years old):

7 goals, 1 assist in 10 apps and 838 minutes played in the league
2 goals in 4 apps and 331 minutes played in EL

Total: 9 goals and 10 contributions in 1169 minutes. A goal every 130 minutes, and a contribution every 117 minutes.
Good, but light years behind the above.

Aubameyang in the 16/17 season (his best out of 4,5 seasons for Dortmund, where 2,5 seasons were fantastic) (27 years old and at his peak I would say):

31 goals, 2 assists in 32 apps and 2783 minutes played in the league
7 goals, 1 assist in 9 apps and 708 minutes played in the CL
2 goals, 2 assists in 4 apps and 390 minutes played in the DFB-pokal cup
no contributions in 78 minutes played in the DFL-supercup

Total: 40 goals and 45 contributions 3959 minutes. A goal every 99 minutes, and a contribution every 88 minutes.
Top class, but very far from the 19 year old Haalands numbers.

Lewandowski in the 12/13 season which was his best for Dortmund (24 years old)

24 goals, 7 assists in 31 apps and 2594 minutes played in the league
10 goals, 2 assists in 13 apps and 1090 minutes played in the CL
1 goal, 4 assists in 4 apps and 339 minutes played in the DFB-pokal cup
1 goal in 1 app and 120 minutes played in the DFL-supercup

Total: 36 goals and 50 contributions in 4143 minutes. A goal every 115 minute, and a contribution every 83 minutes.
Also top class, but far from what the Norwegian 19 year old in producing.

There is no shame in acknowledging that he is an absurdly talented goalscorer. The goals per minute and contributions per minute he has delivered this season is the best ever produced by a teenager in a topflight and CL, and if he keeps up producing at this rate he will become the all time greatest goalscorer.
The comparisons are not pointless, because the stats needs to be brought up to fully understand at what ratio he has delivered goals and assists this season. His RBS numbers is even better, but he is showing that he can deliver on the next level now. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the other strikers I compared him with are in their mid or late 20s and in their best season playing for Dortmund.

Personally I think he didn't have his best game on saturday and seemed rusty on the ball. His passing and first touch was a bit off and his movement has been sharper. He still scored 1 and assisted 1, and showed a few glimpses of what he can do. Especially the situation where he received the ball lurking on the back post and finished just out side the near post on a half-volley impressed me. The time it took from him receiving the ball to him finishing was so short, and didn't allow the defenders to block the attempt or put in a tackle.

Hopefully we will see an even sharpen version of him in the weeks and years to come.
 
For a little context their left back scored 2 yesterday as well and already has 7 goals in only 21 games this season with their RB also having 3 goals, Dortmund have scored more goals than Liverpool and City while playing 2/3 less games this season. He does look brilliant though and ALWAYS looks a threat but doing all these goal comparison things is just stupid.

They play with a back 3. Guerreiro played in midfield 4 along with Delaney, Dahoud and Hakimi. He's been playing as midfielder all season. Same with Hakimi.

This was very clear during the match too, if you saw it.
 
For a little context their left back scored 2 yesterday as well and already has 7 goals in only 21 games this season with their RB also having 3 goals, Dortmund have scored more goals than Liverpool and City while playing 2/3 less games this season. He does look brilliant though and ALWAYS looks a threat but doing all these goal comparison things is just stupid.
Hakimi and Guerriero play as wing backs and are usually way up the field allowing Sancho/Hazard to drift inside/ make runs behind. The inside movement creates a lot of room for them to exploit hence why they get a lot of chances.
 
@troylocker

Like I have already said, I never tried to talk down Haaland's talent, I only put his numbers into the context of the teams and competitions he has played in. Which your post is also ignoring tbh. Dortmund have been in stupidly good form since they switched to their 343, they score 3.3 goals on average, even in the 5 games before Haaland joined them they scored 15 goals in 5 games, despite not playing with an actual striker, going down to 10 early in Berlin and running out of breath at the end of year in Hoffenheim.
Haaland is obviously doing great at the moment, even if you don't take his age into consideration and he will be a world class striker if he can keep on improving, but the team he's playing in is no comparison to the 12/13 league campaign that Lewandowski featured in, where Dortmund laboured their way to 2nd place, 25 points behind Bayern or Paco's first season, where the team took a lot more defensive approach and folded in the 2nd half of the season or the trainwreck of a half series which Batshuayi found himself in or the post Hummels, Gündogan and Mkhitaryan depression which was Tuchel's second season. You're also taking a really low sample size when it comes to his time in Germany, e.g. 7 of his 10 league goals came from his first 3 matches, where teams were perhaps a bit naive about his qualities. In the 6 matches since he's scored "just" 3 goals.
 
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Absolute state of these clowns. Journalists should try asking meaningful questions for a change rather than the same generic ones time after time and then getting upset when you don't get generic answers in return.

When an interviewer asks "are you happy with your goal" what do they expect?
The feck kind of a question is that?
Or what do the fans mean to you?
 
@troylocker

Like I have already said, I never tried to talk down Haaland's talent, I only put his numbers into the context of the teams and competitions he has played in. Which your post is also ignoring tbh. Dortmund have been in stupidly good form since they switched to their 343, they score 3.3 goals on average, even in the 5 games before Haaland joined them they scored 15 goals in 5 games, despite not playing with an actual striker, going down to 10 early in Berlin and running out of breath at the end of year in Hoffenheim.
Haaland is obviously doing great at the moment, even if you don't take his age into consideration and he will be a world class striker if he can keep on improving, but the team he's playing in is no comparison to the 12/13 league campaign that Lewandowski featured in, where Dortmund laboured their way to 2nd place, 25 points behind Bayern or Paco's first season, where the team took a lot more defensive approach and folded in the 2nd half of the season or the trainwreck of a half series which Batshuayi found himself in or the post Hummels, Gündogan and Mkhitaryan depression which was Tuchel's second season. You're also taking a really low sample size when it comes to his time in Germany, e.g. 7 of his 10 league goals came from his first 3 matches, where teams were perhaps a bit naive about his qualities. In the 6 matches since he's scored "just" 3 goals.
I agree with your points here, and context is important. It will be very interesting to see what the next couple of seasons will bring.
 
Once read about interview questions from the perspective of the interviewers. The thing is the so called deeper questions don't exist when talking about sports, scorelines and personal milestones. Maybe some of these could be framed better but we're talking about football at the end of the day. Even when the best tacticians and pundits give insight it's still basic to most. It's not a field that lends itself heavily to theory. Any question can be made to sound foolish when dealing with a hostile interviewee
 
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He's definitely this eras Ibrahimovic in alot of ways. Confidence, walks the talk, goal scorer, has no regard for the quality of the opponent and another thing is I definitely see him as the type to go to different top clubs to dominate their respective leagues
Definite shades of Zlatan. Not quite as extravagant in his style at the moment though.
 
The issue is you skewed the "facts" to suit your agenda. Why only United league goals but include all of Haaland's?

Seems like a poor WUM to me.
Not quite sure what my agenda is. It was just a little fun fact. (Or not very fun, obviously.) Maybe it wasn't 100% factual, and for that I'm truly sorry. Smile, man:)
 
Not quite sure what my agenda is. It was just a little fun fact. (Or not very fun, obviously.) Maybe it wasn't 100% factual, and for that I'm truly sorry. Smile, man:)
You still don’t get it? You compare Haaland’s goals from across all competitions with our goals in the league. Pretty random, no? If you want to compare, then at least do it right. It’s no less impressive mind, but it’d look like this Haaland 41, United 82. Which is still a good look, but doesn’t give the needless impression of taking a big hot dump on United on a United forum.

You’re welcome.
 
@Samid interesting points and clip there. Didn’t he break long jump records too at youth level? Guy is a serious athlete.
 
So interviewers ask him
"Whats the secret to scoring 10 CL goals?"

And he answers "work hard".

Seems like a very decent response. What else should he explain?
Perhaps he could say his teammates give him good opportunities but truly there's nothing else to say.

Did they expect him to reveal some secret recipe he puts in his yogurt or something?
 
You still don’t get it? You compare Haaland’s goals from across all competitions with our goals in the league. Pretty random, no? If you want to compare, then at least do it right. It’s no less impressive mind, but it’d look like this Haaland 41, United 82. Which is still a good look, but doesn’t give the needless impression of taking a big hot dump on United on a United forum.

You’re welcome.
I get it. It was just a fun thing (or not). If people read it as a dump on Utd, well than i'm sorry. That was not at all my intentions, as i'm very happy with the team, Solskjær and where things are going. Peace everyone?
 
I will never think he's world class with that mcaulay culkin look he has
 
He appears to be the next big thing in football. A supreme athlete and fantastic footballer.

He also seems to be a bit of an idiot. Hopefully that’s just his immaturity with his age. Despite what others are saying, he doesn’t come across well in this interviews. I’m sure many other players before him have felt like messing around and not answering repetitive questions, but he is representing his club and should be a professional.

Ibra is clearly tongue in cheek, that’s why we love him. This just seems rude.
 
I would pay to watch his interviews. If He was a United player.
Better than the old boring "hermm..." <<goes on to say diplomatic things>> booorrriiinnnggg
 
Maybe I’m just showing my age, but I think the kind of arrogant contempt shown by Haaland in these interviews, is really poor form. In response people criticise the quality of the questions, asking reporters to ask more insightful questions; but this deconstructs the purpose of these post match interviews. They are for the fans. While a soft ball question like “what’s your secret [after scoring 10 cl goals]?” Might technically merit a response like “hard work”; in reality fans want to hear more than that. He has every opportunity to segue into a more insightful response illustrating his mindset. There’s nothing edgy and cool about a multi-millionaire teenager acting all aloof and anti-establishment. He just looks like a cocky wanker.

Personally, I give little fecks about post match interviews, or interviews with footballers in general - the odd notable exception aside - but when during unprecedented circumstances (in which people have died) his response to running to the “yellow wall” in the now empty stands, his response is a smug “why not?”; rather than touching on the importance of fans, the circumstances faced by most (especially the poorest), and the meaning of the gesture - it’s hard not to think he’s a bit of a twat.

But hey, this is our culture now.
 
Maybe I’m just showing my age, but I think the kind of arrogant contempt shown by Haaland in these interviews, is really poor form. In response people criticise the quality of the questions, asking reporters to ask more insightful questions; but this deconstructs the purpose of these post match interviews. They are for the fans. While a soft ball question like “what’s your secret [after scoring 10 cl goals]?” Might technically merit a response like “hard work”; in reality fans want to hear more than that. He has every opportunity to segue into a more insightful response illustrating his mindset. There’s nothing edgy and cool about a multi-millionaire teenager acting all aloof and anti-establishment. He just looks like a cocky wanker.

Personally, I give little fecks about post match interviews, or interviews with footballers in general - the odd notable exception aside - but when during unprecedented circumstances (in which people have died) his response to running to the “yellow wall” in the now empty stands, his response is a smug “why not?”; rather than touching on the importance of fans, the circumstances faced by most (especially the poorest), and the meaning of the gesture - it’s hard not to think he’s a bit of a twat.

But hey, this is our culture now.

He’s class, lighten up he doesn’t need to have elaborate fake answers, he says what he wants even if it’s little, I find him hilarious I don’t know why everyone needs to be the same.
 
Maybe I’m just showing my age, but I think the kind of arrogant contempt shown by Haaland in these interviews, is really poor form. In response people criticise the quality of the questions, asking reporters to ask more insightful questions; but this deconstructs the purpose of these post match interviews. They are for the fans. While a soft ball question like “what’s your secret [after scoring 10 cl goals]?” Might technically merit a response like “hard work”; in reality fans want to hear more than that. He has every opportunity to segue into a more insightful response illustrating his mindset. There’s nothing edgy and cool about a multi-millionaire teenager acting all aloof and anti-establishment. He just looks like a cocky wanker.

Personally, I give little fecks about post match interviews, or interviews with footballers in general - the odd notable exception aside - but when during unprecedented circumstances (in which people have died) his response to running to the “yellow wall” in the now empty stands, his response is a smug “why not?”; rather than touching on the importance of fans, the circumstances faced by most (especially the poorest), and the meaning of the gesture - it’s hard not to think he’s a bit of a twat.

But hey, this is our culture now.

Homestly, watching post match interviews and press conferences makes me angry. Most of the time the questions are superficial and quite often journalists also have agenda, trying to create some gossip they can write about. There's nothing insightful or interesting in that, basically suggestive soap opera bull shit for football fans. And that's because it's easier to write about mentality, who has fallen out with whom and all that than saying something actually substantial which requires understanding the game on a higher level. Sport journalism these days is just ridiculous most of the time.

I especially hate when a team is in a crisis and they interview the coach. As a fan, there are usually so many questions you like to hear. Like why the coach is trusting player A and won't give player B a chance although he always delivers when he's subbed on, why he chose formation A with line up B instead of whatever alternative. But all you get is stuff like 'Mister C, your team lost today, is that due to a mentality problem?' or 'reports (we wrote by the way) say that X unfollowed Y's instagram page, are there tensions in the squad? Do they still stand behind the coach?'

So I absolutely love that he's taking the piss.
 
Great player, great character.

He'll figure the interviews out, he can't keep doing them likes this forever. At 19, he has 15 years left in the spotlight, and he can't be a dick in all of them.
 
Maybe I’m just showing my age, but I think the kind of arrogant contempt shown by Haaland in these interviews, is really poor form. In response people criticise the quality of the questions, asking reporters to ask more insightful questions; but this deconstructs the purpose of these post match interviews. They are for the fans. While a soft ball question like “what’s your secret [after scoring 10 cl goals]?” Might technically merit a response like “hard work”; in reality fans want to hear more than that. He has every opportunity to segue into a more insightful response illustrating his mindset. There’s nothing edgy and cool about a multi-millionaire teenager acting all aloof and anti-establishment. He just looks like a cocky wanker.

Personally, I give little fecks about post match interviews, or interviews with footballers in general - the odd notable exception aside - but when during unprecedented circumstances (in which people have died) his response to running to the “yellow wall” in the now empty stands, his response is a smug “why not?”; rather than touching on the importance of fans, the circumstances faced by most (especially the poorest), and the meaning of the gesture - it’s hard not to think he’s a bit of a twat.

But hey, this is our culture now.

It's clear the fame & young success has got to his head a bit, I agree.
 
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Always the same boring questions from the media and they're just waiting to write some bs in the papers. In addition players are forced to take the interviews from time to time.

Haaland is doing the right thing, IMO. Says what he thinks and be done with it quickly. Nothing to see.