Haaland at City | Signs new 9.5 year contract

Hammondo said:
I am not sure how you utilise him better tbh. Tight defending stops him and any dribbling into the box. So unless they get better players at playing in tight spaces, or better at distance shooting then I'm not sure what they should do.

They lack pace to play like RM for example.
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Radical, but maybe they need to play "worse"? Worse in the eyes of Pep that is, and change up their style if they can. Go more counter-attacking instead of posession based.

They dominate the ball, most passes in the league and have the highest posession percentage. They have the highest field tilt so dominate territory. They have the highest buildup percentage which is the proportion of passes made by a team outside the opponent's third, a lot going on around the halfway line.

A big part of it is teams deciding they're going to sit deep on them of course, low block etc restrict the space, give up the ball. Another large portion of it is also because it's what they want. They like that control, all Pep teams do. Right now we're seeing that there's no space to exlpoit and there's that lack of genius to get through it all.

Try to play faster and sacrifice some posession? Invite opponents on to them a bit more and and attempt to hit them on the break more often? They might not bite, and then you end up with stale 0-0s. In theory it invites more pressure on to their own defence too which isn't doing well now either but got to try something. Can't see Pep ever going for that though can you? It's alien to him.

On their defence they lose the ball less often deep in their own half than any other team. They've conceded fewer shots than any other team too. The problem is that when they do concede a chance it's usually of a high quality. The highest percentage of shots faced that end up on target is against them, and the highest xG per shot is also against them. They're so vulnerable on the counter when they lose it in the middle third because everyone is so high up.

If they just got it forward quicker maybe it solves both issues to an extent? Their own defence would be sitting deeper/they'd have more players back the times they lose it, and their forwards including Haaland would have more space.

I don't know, I'm no tactician and it probably shows. :lol: Try to do what oppoents are currently doing to them a bit more often. Don't have to go full on Ole-ball but there's degrees to everything. What do modern coaches call certain situations, false transitions or false counters? Work on ways of constructing them? Right nowwhat they're doing itsn't working at all.
 
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KeanoMagicHat said:
He is not like Lukaku or Inzaghi. Anyway neither him or Mbappé are having a good few months which means people are writing obituaries for their career and all sorts of hot takes on their abilities when in all likelihood it’s just a blip over a 10-15 year period of excellence.
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I said the Lukaku comparison is weird, but why not Inzaghi? That’s hardly a bad thing, Inzaghi was a great poacher and scored a lot of goals. I think in today’s game he’d score more. Maybe Haaland will end up having a way better career, but the type of player he is is not dissimilar to Inzaghi from what I’ve seen.
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
I said the Lukaku comparison is weird, but why not Inzaghi? That’s hardly a bad thing, Inzaghi was a great poacher and scored a lot of goals. I think in today’s game he’d score more. Maybe Haaland will end up having a way better career, but the type of player he is is not dissimilar to Inzaghi from what I’ve seen.
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Haaland relies on his physicality - raw speed and strength - way more than Inzaghi ever did.

They are both goal scorers quite limited in other areas, sure, but how they score the majority of their goals is completely unalike.
 
Chipper said:
Radical, but maybe they need to play "worse"? Worse in the eyes of Pep that is, and change up their style if they can. Go more counter-attacking instead of posession based.

They dominate the ball, most passes in the league and have the highest posession percentage. They have the highest field tilt so dominate territory. They have the highest buildup percentage which is the proportion of passes made by a team outside the opponent's third, a lot going on around the halfway line.

A big part of it is teams deciding they're going to sit deep on them of course, low block etc restrict the space, give up the ball. Another large portion of it is also because it's what they want. They like that control, all Pep teams do. Right now we're seeing that there's no space to exlpoit and there's that lack of genius to get through it all.

Try to play faster and sacrifice some posession? Invite opponents on to them a bit more and and attempt to hit them on the break more often? They might not bite, and then you end up with stale 0-0s. In theory it invites more pressure on to their own defence too which isn't doing well now either but got to try something. Can't see Pep ever going for that though can you? It's alien to him.

On their defence they lose the ball less often deep in their own half than any other team. They've conceded fewer shots than any other team too. The problem is that when they do concede a chance it's usually of a high quality. The highest percentage of shots faced that end up on target is against them, and the highest xG per shot is also against them. They're so vulnerable on the counter when they lose it in the middle third because everyone is so high up.

If they just got it forward quicker maybe it solves both issues to an extent? Their own defence would be sitting deeper/they'd have more players back the times they lose it, and their forwards including Haaland would have more space.

I don't know, I'm no tactician and it probably shows. :lol: Try to do what oppoents are currently doing to them a bit more often. Don't have to go full on Ole-ball but there's degrees to everything. What do modern coaches call certain situations, false transitions or false counters? Work on ways of constructing them? Right nowwhat they're doing itsn't working at all.
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I don't think they have enough speed to do this. They certainly don't have the midfielders to cover that much ground.
 
JB08 said:
Haaland relies on his physicality - raw speed and strength - way more than Inzaghi ever did.

They are both goal scorers quite limited in other areas, sure, but how they score the majority of their goals is completely unalike.
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Oh ok yes that’s totally fair. I’m thinking broad categories of strikers but yeah they go about it very differently.
 
Really curious if he will win the golden boot or not. He looked a shoe in for it but now looks lost.
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
I said the Lukaku comparison is weird, but why not Inzaghi? That’s hardly a bad thing, Inzaghi was a great poacher and scored a lot of goals. I think in today’s game he’d score more. Maybe Haaland will end up having a way better career, but the type of player he is is not dissimilar to Inzaghi from what I’ve seen.
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Because Inzaghi was one of the weakest and slimmest strikers around, strong wind would blow him over, whereas Haaland can barge through strong centre backs, one of the biggest, fastest strikers in the league. Some similarities in their intelligent movement but their physicals are completely different and how they used them. I’d say Haaland more like Van Nistelrooy if talking about a player from that era, RVN used to get similar criticisms for just being a poacher at times.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
Because Inzaghi was one of the weakest and slimmest strikers around, strong wind would blow him over, whereas Haaland can barge through strong centre backs, one of the biggest, fastest strikers in the league. Some similarities in their intelligent movement but their physicals are completely different and how they used them. I’d say Haaland more like Van Nistelrooy if talking about a player from that era, RVN used to get similar criticisms for just being a poacher at times.
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Ruud had much more to his game than Haaland, he wasn’t anonymous if he didn’t score and he could link up well with his teammates.
City are basically playing with 10 men if he doesn’t score.
 
Rockets Redglare said:
Ruud had much more to his game than Haaland, he wasn’t anonymous if he didn’t score and he could link up well with his teammates.
City are basically playing with 10 men if he doesn’t score.
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Ah the narrative was that Saha helped the team a lot more when he came in and he was relying on goals to make an impact, it was always used against him in debates against Henry at the time. I agree he was better at hold up play than Haaland, not as good at other things which is the issue with any of these comparisons. None of these players are the same, all have different traits.
 
Inzaghi had more in common with Nunez than Haaland. More willing to show for the ball than Haaland and always making runs to make something happen, albeit runs very focused on goals.

Not as fast or strong as Nunez, but he could stick it in the net.
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
I said the Lukaku comparison is weird, but why not Inzaghi? That’s hardly a bad thing, Inzaghi was a great poacher and scored a lot of goals. I think in today’s game he’d score more. Maybe Haaland will end up having a way better career, but the type of player he is is not dissimilar to Inzaghi from what I’ve seen.
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VAR would also be there to rule out plenty of his goals for offside!
 
Maluco said:
His lack of work rate and running for the side is really disappointing. No pressure, not marking or moving with his team and not even really challenging for anything.

He is a big, strong, athletic lad, he should be doing more.
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That it's mainly his "biggest" issue right now and why the whole the team do not provide him alone doesn't cut it. More in the case of City (Pep Team) that does a Cult about that aspect
 
Saw this and thought of him. I don't know if it's any different from previous season's with City, and obviously they're team that has always liked to pass it around, going sideways often. Would think they'd always be near the bottom when it comes to that anyway, but maybe it's become more exaggerated. Wouldn't be knowing.

One of his strengths is when he's played through into space from deeper positions, we all know that. Right now it's a lot of standing around in the box while being double marked.
 
I love it how he's gone from being an absolute terror to completely non existent. Long may it continue.
 
Chipper said:
Saw this and thought of him. I don't know if it's any different from previous season's with City, and obviously they're team that has always liked to pass it around, going sideways often. Would think they'd always be near the bottom when it comes to that anyway, but maybe it's become more exaggerated. Wouldn't be knowing.

One of his strengths is when he's played through into space from deeper positions, we all know that. Right now it's a lot of standing around in the box while being double marked.
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As I said, his movement off the ball has been crap.
 
3 goals in 13 league games. Surely the most barren spell of his career?
 
Got him some help, City just signed Omar Marmoush apparently.

He's been crying out for that all season, looked totally knackered since he had to play every minute of every game following the sale of Alvarez. No surpise at all they've brought someone in.
 
Chipper said:
Got him some help, City just signed Omar Marmoush apparently.

He's been crying out for that all season, looked totally knackered since he had to play every minute of every game following the sale of Alvarez. No surpise at all they've brought someone in.
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For the love of god why are we not all over this guy if he’s in the market? He’s been my favourite player outside of United this season and would difinitely improve the team yet City will sign him to play second fiddle to Haaland
 
Hmzone said:
For the love of god why are we not all over this guy if he’s in the market? He’s been my favourite player outside of United this season and would difinitely improve the team yet City will sign him to play second fiddle to Haaland
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When are we ever ahead of the curve regarding anything these days?
 
4 goals in last 6 games. And he is probably in hes worst form ever.

Its just sad comparing what we have up top.
 
He’s going to absolutely hate Savinho. Saw the whole game and he’s used to most city players doing everything in their power to spam his goal stats and Savinho just don’t give a feck. Shooting from hard angles when Haalands free. Not passing during counters but running towards goal instead. Could be a funny fallout soon enough.
 
I’d be very interested to see if he’d stay with City if they were relegated to the championship. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he did grow up a City fan. A big test of loyalty.
 
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