Nordic Ghost Yeti (Scandi Carroll) | Haaland at City

City points at this point in the last 5 seasons (After matchday 20)
2022/23 45 points
2021/22 50points
2020/21 44points
2019/20 41points
2018/19 47points

So in the last 5 seasons they have been better twice, worse twice.

The teams who have had more than 45points by GW 20 in the last 5 seasons are Liverpool 2019/20 55points, Liverpool 2018/19 54points Arsenal 2022/23 50 points

Could it be that Man City are having an average City season. Not underperforming nor overperforming and without an outstanding Arsenal that has lost just 1 game all season City will be sitting pretty on top of the league despite their defensive woes this season. Missing their 2 best CBs Laporte and Dias and having to play Akanji and Ake
 
It might not be the main factor, but it's definitely a factor. Getting Casemiro for example has surely done more for our defence than not playing Ronaldo anymore, but I think the latter helps a lot as well.

I think that counts double in a Guardiola system where the main mode of defence is keeping the ball.
The thing is that you cannot focus on these elements in isolation. Casemiro alone didn't improve us, Varana playing, the inclusion of Lisandro Martinez, Dalot improving seriously.
Same principle with Haaland at City but in reverse
 
I wonder how many Norway matches @V.O. has watched, seeing as he’s so confident in proclaiming what our level is to people who have followed Norway and been routinely disappointed for more than two decades.
 
I wonder how many Norway matches @V.O. has watched, seeing as he’s so confident in proclaiming what our level is to people who have followed Norway and been routinely disappointed for more than two decades.

I wonder how much Wales you've watched in the five decades before Bale to know that they're not even worse.
 
I’m not making hard claims, you are.

A hard claim like what?

A train of you have jumped on the Norway thing as though I've said he needs to win the World Cup to be any good. I've said that I don't think Haaland has massively improved any of his teams yet and gave an example of a player who very clearly did, on a comparably weak national side.

He's got lots of time left to do so, of course, either at club or national level, or both.
 
A hard claim like what?

A train of you have jumped on the Norway thing as though I've said he needs to win the World Cup to be any good. I've said that I don't think Haaland has massively improved any of his teams yet and gave an example of a player who very clearly did, on a comparably weak national side.

He's got lots of time left to do so, of course, either at club or national level, or both.

You’re saying he should have propelled us to the WC in his first attempt if he was all that. Pointing to Bale having a good impact for Wales and Norway failing to make the WC is a facile analysis. As is pointing to Dortmund not besting Bayern (Dortmund are currently 5th in the Bundesliga) for that matter… Not saying you’ve been banging on about that, for the record.

Norway vs Serbia in the playoff was a SHARP drop-off from how well we played throughout almost all of Nations League. We have a track record when it comes to these things. Give us a matchball and we’ll fumble it every fecking time, and adding a couple of ballers doesn’t seem to fix this.

Ødegaard is looking a strong candidate for player of the season in the EPL, but he’s hot and cold for Norway and has at times been almost invisible. Shit isn’t as simple as some people seem to think.
 
I've said that I don't think Haaland has massively improved any of his teams yet

How is Haaland supposed to improve:

a) a side that comfortably win the Austrian Bundesliga every single year but are never realistically going to have the firepower to get past the Champions League R16
b) a Bundesliga side that is not Bayern Munich and therefore has no realistic prospect of winning the Bundesliga
c) Norway, where spends a few weeks a year with players who are otherwise playing completely different styles and are almost all well below his quality

It's very harsh to judge him on whether or not he's improved a side.
 
Nah, close though. 23 games, 21 goals. Helped by playing against utter shite like Gibraltar, Armenia, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Romania etc
Northern Ireland and Romania were actually ranked higher than Norway when he played them, so to be very precise:

Haaland against "much weaker" teams (more than 20 placed below Norway on the Fifa ranking at the time of the games. Gibraltar, Luxemburg, Armenia, Latvia and Malta): 7 goals and 1 assist in 443 minutes: 1,42 goals/90 and 1,63 G+A/90
Haaland against teams around their level (+/- 15 spots on the Fifa ranking at the time of the games, Greece, Austria, Slovakia, N.Ireland, Romania, Slovenia, Montenegro and Turkey): 8 goals and 1 assist in 960 minutes: 0,75 G/90 and 0,84 G+A/90
Haaland against stronger teams (15+ spots higher on the Fifa ranking or higher at the time of the games. Netherlands, Sweden and Serbia): 6 goals and 1 assist in 539 minutes: 1,00 G/90 and 1,17 G+A/90
Total for Norway: 1,02 G/90 and 1,17 G+A/90

The last 18 months he's scored 14 goals and assisted 2 in 883 minutes: 1,41 G/90 and 1,62 G+A/90 (He also gave a away a pen to King who hadn't scored in ages in a game)
(including 6 goals and 1 assists in 399 minutes against Sweden, Serbia and Netherlands, where he scored or assisted every goal Norway scored in those games)

I'd say it hasn't mattered much who he's played against the last couple of years, in the CL it's the same.

His national team record is just as ridiculus as his clubrecord.
Ole scored 23 goals in 67 games for a much better Norway (played 2 WCs and a EURO, the only ones Norway has qualified for post WW2)
Carew scored 24 in 91 for the same team.
T.A. Flo scored 23 in 76 for the same team.
King was the main man before Haaland and has 20 in 62 games.

Like all strikers in international teams they play much weaker teams every now and then.

Englands (ranked #5 in the world) last WC Q-group looked like this: San Marino (#211 rock bottom in the world), Andorra (#151), Albania (#66), Hungary (#36) and Poland (#26).
They putt 15 past San Marino, 9 past Andorra, 7 past Albania and 5 past Hungary and 3 past Poland......thats 3,9 goals per game for the attacking players to share.
Norway scored a grand total of 15 goals (1,5 goals per game) in their WC Q-group (Netherlands, Gibraltar, Turkey, Montenegro and Latvia).......
I'd claim there are strikers out there that has padded their NT stats a lot harder against weaker nations than Haaland through history.

For comparison:

Kane's record for England against nations ranked top 30 in the world is 15 goals and 4 assists in 36 games (0,42 G/game and 0,53 G+A/game)
Kane's record against the top 30-60 in the world (The Norways and Northern Irelands in the world): 15 goals and 7 assists in 30 games (0,5 G/game and 0,73 G+A/game)
Against nations ranked outside top 60 he's got 23 goals and 6 assists in 14 games. (1,64 G/game and 2,07 G+A/game)
Do you agree Kane's stats are more helped by games he's played against "utter shite" as you call it?

I could do this for every top striker out there (Messi, Ronaldo, Lewandowski etc....) and it would look pretty much similar.
 
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Anyone think he’s too timid to be a big player in a team of stars? He seems to meekly accept a lot of things; being pushed around by defenders, being ignored by his team mates, getting decisions against him from referees. The Dortmund bosses said he was eager to learn, and it makes sense that a young player who hasn’t won anything feels inferior to senior players that have won a lot. But it seems like you need to act like a star to be treated like one, otherwise someone else will take ownership of things…
 
Anyone think he’s too timid to be a big player in a team of stars? He seems to meekly accept a lot of things; being pushed around by defenders, being ignored by his team mates, getting decisions against him from referees. The Dortmund bosses said he was eager to learn, and it makes sense that a young player who hasn’t won anything feels inferior to senior players that have won a lot. But it seems like you need to act like a star to be treated like one, otherwise someone else will take ownership of things…
He should impose himself ala Drogba, he has the physique for it but not the mindset
 
Anyone think he’s too timid to be a big player in a team of stars? He seems to meekly accept a lot of things; being pushed around by defenders, being ignored by his team mates, getting decisions against him from referees. The Dortmund bosses said he was eager to learn, and it makes sense that a young player who hasn’t won anything feels inferior to senior players that have won a lot. But it seems like you need to act like a star to be treated like one, otherwise someone else will take ownership of things…
If only him and Mbappe could meet somewhere in the middle :lol:
 
Anyone think he’s too timid to be a big player in a team of stars? He seems to meekly accept a lot of things; being pushed around by defenders, being ignored by his team mates, getting decisions against him from referees. The Dortmund bosses said he was eager to learn, and it makes sense that a young player who hasn’t won anything feels inferior to senior players that have won a lot. But it seems like you need to act like a star to be treated like one, otherwise someone else will take ownership of things…
Does feel a bit like he just constantly makes his runs in behind, gets ignored, rinse and repeat. Too professional. Should clap Bernardo round the ear for spinning around in circles in the middle of the pitch instead of playing him
 
Just had a look at his stats there. Since the goal v Wolves before our 6:3 loss to them( that’s how long ago it was) he’s scored in 1 away game since and that was against Leeds who everybody scored against.
He’s obviously got a problem with away games in England now, it’s stupidly apparent. If he’s not scoring then what does he add?
 
Said he would make City more predictable in the summer. Was laughed out of here.
 
Last few weeks he's been looking more like I thought he would when he first joined them. City is anything but direct and when De Bruyne is either injured or not playing well he'll struggle.
 
What’s strange is, the commentators were going on about his runs so I watched nothing but Haaland for a few minutes. The runs were brilliant, the midfielders were just too cowardly to try it

If we had him, Bruno would have found him a few times or at least got damn close
 
Said he would make City more predictable in the summer. Was laughed out of here.

I thought the same, they literally scored 100 goals last year on the way to lighting the league up. Goals were never an issue for them. I still think their main issue is they have very little pace/explosiveness on the wings. Sterling is gone, and they sold Sane before him, while Mahrez while still very good has started to age a bit. Buying another False 9 type to replace Jesus (Nkunku?) and then buying a direct winger would have been better business than getting Haaland.

It also seems like they are so obsessed with retaining possession that unless it's KDB, the rest are afraid of trying to play the passes into Haaland when he makes runs as it might not come off and they lose the ball.
 
Just had a look at his stats there. Since the goal v Wolves before our 6:3 loss to them( that’s how long ago it was) he’s scored in 1 away game since and that was against Leeds who everybody scored against.
He’s obviously got a problem with away games in England now, it’s stupidly apparent. If he’s not scoring then what does he add?

The away games he hasn't scored in all season are Liverpool, Chelsea, United and so far Spurs. Hardly that dramatic.
 
Said he would make City more predictable in the summer. Was laughed out of here.
Said the same rules that dictated Ronaldo was a hinderance because all he did was score applied here and was laughed at as well.
*high five*
 
The away games he hasn't scored in all season are Liverpool, Chelsea, United and so far Spurs. Hardly that dramatic.
Two of them are 10/11?!
Edit Dortmund , Southampton.
Let’s see how today goes
 
Cheat code. Unfair advantage. Just award the league to City every year until he goes away. etc etc.
 
City gonna dominate for the next decade with him. Love the drama llamas.
 
The way he’s marked out of away games doesn’t bring confidence in the entire brought Haaland in to win the CL theory.
 
Some lovely shaking of the head today. He is Ronaldo and De Bruyne is Bruno when Ronaldo was in the team.
 
The away games he hasn't scored in all season are Liverpool, Chelsea, United and so far Spurs. Hardly that dramatic.
Those are the games he needs to be making the difference in. They've always dicked the shit teams. He wasn't bought for those