Nordic Ghost Yeti (Scandi Carroll) | Haaland at City

KeanoMagicHat said:
He’s another level to Aguero, and Haaland has plenty more than poaching - he’s far stronger and quicker than the average poacher. He can destroy teams with that power. A poacher suggests he is relying on loose balls in the box. Haaland makes chances with his runs like hardly anyone I’ve seen. A defence is shitting themselves against Haaland, a poacher suggests that the defence has him under wraps and he sneaks a goal under their noses. That’s not what happens.
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No you just described a poacher to a tee, Inzaghi one of the most famous poachers of all time used to make chances with his runs also, so did RVN Owen Hernandez and Linekar before them..

He’ll probably be the best poacher of all time but that’s what he is, all the names I’ve named in my previous post can’t be classified as such because they all did a lot of things outside of scoring goals, dribbling, passing and creating chances, Haaland doesn’t which is why he is solely a poacher.
 
Righteous Steps said:
No you just described a poacher to a tee, Inzaghi one of the most famous poachers of all time used to make chances with his runs also, so did RVN Owen Hernandez and Linekar before them..

He’ll probably be the best poacher of all time but that’s what he is, all the names I’ve named in my previous post can’t be classified as such because they all did a lot of things outside of scoring goals, dribbling, passing and creating chances, Haaland doesn’t which is why he is solely a poacher.
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What did Aguero do in build up that was so much better than Haaland? He wasn’t a playmaker either, just a pure striker.

Inzaghi was weak and had no physical presence, Haaland is far quicker and can bully defenders. That’s not solely a poacher, he occupies defenders as well. Just because he isn’t a playmaker doesn’t mean he’s a limited poacher. He’s like Michael Owen’s pace with RVN’s height of the players you described there.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
What did Aguero do in build up that was so much better than Haaland? He wasn’t a playmaker either, just a pure striker.

Inzaghi was weak and had no physical presence, Haaland is far quicker and can bully defenders. That’s not solely a poacher, he occupies defenders as well. Just because he isn’t a playmaker doesn’t mean he’s a limited poacher. He’s like Michael Owen’s pace with RVN’s height of the players you described there.
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Aguero was a pure striker but he had more weapons in his armoury, I think he was a better passer than Haaland while also being able to create goals for himself, Aguero could take two players out the game with a deft touch and dribble, in fact Aguero at Atletico was averaging some of the highest rates of dribbles per game.

My first attention of him was on Futbol Mundial when he was in Argentina and scored a great goal by dribbling 4-5 players, things like this Haaland is simply not capable of, you have to make the chances for him he can’t take it upon himself to actually make a chance out of nothing more often than not so poacher is literally as applicable to him as it is to Inzaghi or RVN.

Poacher is exactly what he is, he just happens to be on his way to being one of the best poachers and strikers of all time.
 
I had to laugh listening to talk sport earlier. Some city fan phoned in and critiqued Haalands game. “He doesn’t contribute to the team at all. All he does is score lots of goals.” :lol: Why in the feck is anyone moaning about this guy scoring goals? He doesnt need to be running back to the half way line to hold up play. Just get him the ball in the box, watch him work his magic, enjoy the celebration and gulp down that shut the feck up juice. I’d love Haaland to be “not contributing” for us. watching Haaland score goals is like watching someone play Fifa with a game genie plugged in!
 
Norman Brownbutter said:
I had to laugh listening to talk sport earlier. Some city fan phoned in and critiqued Haalands game. “He doesn’t contribute to the team at all. All he does is score lots of goals.” :lol: Why in the feck is anyone moaning about this guy scoring goals? He doesnt need to be running back to the half way line to hold up play. Just get him the ball in the box, watch him work his magic, enjoy the celebration and gulp down that shut the feck up juice. I’d love Haaland to be “not contributing” for us. watching Haaland score goals is like watching someone play Fifa with a game genie plugged in!
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Not much use if his goals don't win you anything though.
 
Not buying that he needs to change his game. His job is to score goals and he's scoring plenty, that's why they bought him. Maybe Pep needs to adapt a little? Or maybe there's no issue in the first place.
 
lsd said:
Not much use if his goals don't win you anything though.
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I guess that means it's up to the others to do their jobs then? Or is that too obvious? It's his job to score goals, hes doing his job. Not much he can do about others not scoring or not stopping oppo teams from scoring. To put the blame on him while hes doing his bit is just madness.
 
"if CR7 has been with ManCity and Haaland has been with Manutd this season, Man Utd would be ahead of ManCity right now in the league"

it sounds crazy considering how dysfunctional our team has been, but it may be a true statement.
 
His football is really ugly. It's not aesthetically pleasing, at all. Yes, he scores, amazing positioning and anticipation, and he makes the most of his physical assets, yet, I still don't think he's a great "footballer" (struggling to articulate it).

Still incredibly efficient and likely first name on the team sheet for many
 
When we signed a poacher in Ruud Van Nistelrooy (I’d argue his all round game was better than Haaland’s) his inclusion definitely hindered the team as a whole. It wasn’t until Saha’s movement and team play that we got back to playing fluidly. RVN only won one premier league title in an era when we had a great squad!
 
JeffFromHK said:
"if CR7 has been with ManCity and Haaland has been with Manutd this season, Man Utd would be ahead of ManCity right now in the league"

it sounds crazy considering how dysfunctional our team has been, but it may be a true statement.
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I think it says more about how Cristiano would've negatively impacted City.
 
Norman Brownbutter said:
I had to laugh listening to talk sport earlier. Some city fan phoned in and critiqued Haalands game. “He doesn’t contribute to the team at all. All he does is score lots of goals.” :lol: Why in the feck is anyone moaning about this guy scoring goals? He doesnt need to be running back to the half way line to hold up play. Just get him the ball in the box, watch him work his magic, enjoy the celebration and gulp down that shut the feck up juice. I’d love Haaland to be “not contributing” for us. watching Haaland score goals is like watching someone play Fifa with a game genie plugged in!
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Pretty sure no one that calls into talksport actually support the team they claim they do, everyone is on a WUM.
 
adexkola said:
The Caf last season: the lack of a striker is holding City back
The Caf this season: having an elite striker is holding City back
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Yeah, they are scoring enough goals, it's just Pep who is fecking them around this year by the looks of it. They can't seem to win the games this season in which they don't demolish the opposition.

Do you agree?
 
Thiagoal said:
When we signed a poacher in Ruud Van Nistelrooy (I’d argue his all round game was better than Haaland’s) his inclusion definitely hindered the team as a whole. It wasn’t until Saha’s movement and team play that we got back to playing fluidly. RVN only won one premier league title in an era when we had a great squad!
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People overplay this though, wasn’t Van Nistelrooy’s fault that Barthez lost the plot and an old Laurent Blanc was a massive step down from Jaap Stam. Wasn’t his fault that Ferdinand was banned for 8 months for missing a drugs test and that Vidic only arrived as he was leaving. Wasn’t his fault that United came up against Invincbles Arsenal and Mourinho’s Chelsea getting up to 95 points a season.

Van Nistelrooy scored a goal a game in the run-in to the 2002/03 PL title against a very strong Arsenal side.

It was the right move to sell Van Nistelrooy in 2007… he’d lost his pace a bit and was causing problems in the dressing room, but 5 years earlier in 2002 Van Nistelrooy offered way more than he took away (which is the stage Haaland is at now - and Haaland is better than RvN).
 
There's a lot of cognitive dissonance in this thread of late and posts almost pre-written or incapable of acknowledging what is actually going on on the pitch.

'Contributes nothing outside of goals' or 'pure poacher' - he's threaded two lovely through balls to others and been a connecting player in a few build ups. He's evidently capable of combination football when he has the opportunity to play off others. That this is completely overlooked or ignored suggests people have made up their mind with regard to what he is in their own minds, or they're really not watching the games attentively.

Looks to me like his whole game is developing as he familiarises himself with his teammates; he's more fluid and his work outside of those genial, instinctive runs is improving.

City have issues, but they're not to do with Haaland, I would say. Bit ridiculous to zero in on him when their defence has taken a tumble and the cohesiveness out of the back itself has declined - it's hardly like they're going long... they're just flubbing more than they did.

A case might be made for the midfield servicing Haaland, but in the games I've watched, as individuals, they're making far more mistakes than we've become accustomed to and that's not Haaland's fault.
 
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Thiagoal said:
When we signed a poacher in Ruud Van Nistelrooy (I’d argue his all round game was better than Haaland’s) his inclusion definitely hindered the team as a whole. It wasn’t until Saha’s movement and team play that we got back to playing fluidly. RVN only won one premier league title in an era when we had a great squad!
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Very interesting comparison that, Ruud didn't have the pace and power that Haaland does but like you say his hold up play was definitely better (still plenty of time for Haaland to develop that though). I want to say Ruud was the better finisher but then you remember some of the goals Haaland has scored
 
The signing is looking akin to when Pep signed Zlatan for Barcelona. He was top scorer in his first season but it didn’t improve the team. Pep had the perfect striker for his system in Jesus. I don’t think signing Haaland is a mistake, how can he be with his goal scoring record. But if they end up without the league or Champions League this season, it’s evident he hasn’t improved the team.
 
Josep Dowling said:
The signing is looking akin to when Pep signed Zlatan for Barcelona. He was top scorer in his first season but it didn’t improve the team. Pep had the perfect striker for his system in Jesus. I don’t think signing Haaland is a mistake, how can he be with his goal scoring record. But if they end up without the league or Champions League this season, it’s evident he hasn’t improved the team.
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Hmm? Both Messi and Pedro outscored Zlatan, Messi by more than double.
 
Thiagoal said:
When we signed a poacher in Ruud Van Nistelrooy (I’d argue his all round game was better than Haaland’s) his inclusion definitely hindered the team as a whole. It wasn’t until Saha’s movement and team play that we got back to playing fluidly. RVN only won one premier league title in an era when we had a great squad!
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Yeah that’s an interesting comparison. As a Blackburn fan, from a subjective point of view I’ve never been so terrified of a opposition player as I was of RVN. When he got the ball in or around the box, I was fully expecting to see him celebrating a goal very shortly afterwards. But as you said it was clearly that Utd improved after he left, both in terms of results and also in terms of style of play (I thought they were an absolute joy to watch in 2006/2007), as you said playing more fluidly, looking less predictable and become (even) more difficult to defend against.

IIRC the pre-cursor to that was during the middle portion of 2004/2005 season, when they played their best football and had their best run of form when he was out injured.

Haaland is just ridiculously good and his goal scoring is off the charts, but it’s no surprise that his inclusion in their system detracts from other strengths and doesn’t make them quite as difficult to play against. They scored 99 league goals last season anyway right? Clearly though if he helps them win their much coveted CL title, scoring decisive goals along the way, then the signing will be clear success.
 
He just does not suit them. Kinda like RVN with us.He will score a lot but their overall style is worse.
Still like him.He is reason why City will not do trepeat.
 
Fortitude said:
City have issues, but they're not to do with Haaland, I would say. Bit ridiculous to zero in on him when their defence has taken a tumble and the cohesiveness out of the back itself has declined - it's hardly like they're going long... they're just flubbing more than they did.
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They do, at least in part. Some people wrote the teams need to adjust but Pep already adjusted his gameplan to suit Haaland. It forces some of their player to be more committed going forward and it exposes far more. Pep's plan when they crossed a lot a the 2nd post in the past seasons was genius because they either created a very good chance or the ball went out of bounds, meaning they'd have the time to reset their defense. They barely do that anymore. It changed the positions of their full backs and the role of key players like Bernardo Silva, who's struggling to find his place (so is Cancelo). On top of that him being up front means they have one less body to defend on transition. It leaves them more exposed.

It's not all because of Haaland because players can have dips in performances but it surely is, at least in part, due to the changes made to accomadate him.
 
Too many football fans try to make themselves sound smarter than they actually are. City are still excellent in terms of creating chances in attack, but are strangely really struggling in their own third this season - oh I know, let’s blame the robot who scored 27 goals in all competitions before January!
 
Mr.Hik said:
He just does not suit them. Kinda like RVN with us.He will score a lot but their overall style is worse.
Still like him.He is reason why City will not do trepeat.
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That's actually a good comparison.

Ruud was breaking records, left right and centre in his first season but we didn't win the title. Made up for it in his second, but he deserved more league success.
 
Righteous Steps said:
Aguero was a pure striker but he had more weapons in his armoury, I think he was a better passer than Haaland while also being able to create goals for himself, Aguero could take two players out the game with a deft touch and dribble, in fact Aguero at Atletico was averaging some of the highest rates of dribbles per game.

My first attention of him was on Futbol Mundial when he was in Argentina and scored a great goal by dribbling 4-5 players, things like this Haaland is simply not capable of, you have to make the chances for him he can’t take it upon himself to actually make a chance out of nothing more often than not so poacher is literally as applicable to him as it is to Inzaghi or RVN.

Poacher is exactly what he is, he just happens to be on his way to being one of the best poachers and strikers of all time.
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Some people really need to see Aguero's highlights and goals before City because his dribbling and skills were out of this world. He was so much more than a goal poacher.
 
Someone said:
Not buying that he needs to change his game. His job is to score goals and he's scoring plenty, that's why they bought him. Maybe Pep needs to adapt a little? Or maybe there's no issue in the first place.
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You need to be more than that in the modern game.

I mean ofcourse he does his job very well (understatement) but the fact he's gone into a team that won back to back titles and are very possibly surrendering the title to Arsenal shouldn't be ignored despite all the goals he's scoring.

He never got close to toppling Bayern either, people always say to me "yeah but Bayern are better" but players like him are suppose to make a game changing difference even in unfancied teams (for example Hazard with Lillie, Suarez dragging a mid table standard Liverpool squad to within an inch of the title, even Ronaldo toppling Mou's Chelsea to an extent).
 
MalaysianRed7 said:
Too many football fans try to make themselves sound smarter than they actually are. City are still excellent in terms of creating chances in attack, but are strangely really struggling in their own third this season - oh I know, let’s blame the robot who scored 27 goals in all competitions before January!
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Or they just know that football isn't only about scoring goals with one single player but having a good team balance? PSG has the best goal scorer of 2022 (Mbappé) and the best passer who just won a world cup being elected the best player (Messi) with a good Neymar, and yet I still think that it's a team that is very unlikely to win the CL. Especially with a coach like Guardola that tries to fine tune pretty much everything, thinking that Haaland being up front didn't change the way City is balanced is very naive.

On top of that, it'll always be better to score 8 goals with 3 players than 6 with one. The goal input of City's other players curiously (no) dropped this season. They drew against fecking Brentford. They used to be a far more consistant team, now they can still score 6 goals on a good night but struggle to score 1 against pretty much any team if they don't click.

It's not Haaland's fault per say, it's (in part) because of the changes made to accomomadate his qualities.
 
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I'm not sure he will make them better against the likes of Everton who defend the box tightly and give no space.

What he might allow them to do is beat teams who can control possession as well as they do. His pace and speed means they always have that threat of a long ball over the top.

It's dangerous to pressing/high defensive line sides. Without that they don't really have a big threat in behind with Mahrez/Foden/Grealish wanting the ball more to feet.
 
mu4c_20le said:
Then what is?
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They do seem more predictable with pretty much only Foden scoring aside from him, but overall they are scoring at a higher or same rate as in previous seasons.

They are maybe more suspicious at the back, but I think it's more to do with injuries and form of other players.

However, I do agree with @Adam-Utd post above who says he doesn't make them better against teams who defend deeper and give them no space. If you leave them enough space then you are in trouble as we have seen against us.
 
Weird the people defending him when the table and City's all round performances this season with him in the team kind off speak for themselves.

City have been the dominant team in the premiership pretty much since the oil money came in and with Pep they have out played everyone else often with ease.

Now however things seem a little off with them. Seven points behind Arsenal at this stage is not good enough for the standards they have set.

It's obvious having Haaland is taking away something they had which even his goals are not masking up to this point.

Now I've no doubt that Pep knows this and will figure out what to do about it. That's why he gets paid what he did and why he rated so highly.

Upto now though until they do fix it having Haaland is costing them
 
We've had makeshift fullbacks most of the season and poor wingers with no pace at all. Haaland has 27 goals already, he literally cannot be the problem for us conceding goals.
 
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