If only we had a player even a quarter as clinical as this guy. The "striker" we have to rely on for the next month or so hates playing in the role 
Nordic Ghost Yeti (Scandi Carroll) | Haaland at City
- Thread starter Samid
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If only we had a player even a quarter as clinical as this guy. The "striker" we have to rely on for the next month or so hates playing in the role
I'm assuming you're talking about Rashford, cause I'm pretty sure Højlund doesn't hate being a #9.
Poor man's Ruud.
Greatest striker the league has ever seen
Only five? Pathetic.
So, Eberl is set to join the Bayern board. He used to work within the RB system, maybe we can just joink him away from you guys so the PL doesn't have to deal with him.
But but but.. he’s shite because he didn’t score for a couple games. A one trick pony and overrated
On a serious note, I’m jealous
On a serious note, I’m jealous
Flat track bully who stat pads in games where the goals don't matter but went missing in big games last season and this one so far.But but but.. he’s shite because he didn’t score for a couple games. A one trick pony and overrated
On a serious note, I’m jealous
Scott McTominay has won the most points from his goals this season (12) for reference.
Scottie the Cutie>Erling the not so Cutie.
5 goals in 58 minutes ….dunno what all the fuss is about
Poor Mengi having the nightmare of his life.
I wouldn't go that far.
Still ugly.
Yeah, wouldn't sign him.
Oh word, you mean he didn't get 2 goals and 2 assists against Arsenal last season? Didn't equalise against Liverpool just this season? Doesn't clown on us every time? Didn't he demolish RBL in the return leg in the round of 16 last year? Score in both legs of the CL quarters against Bayern last year? Or were these not big games and the goals didn't matter?
Yeah, only 5 goals against United, 2 against Chelsea, 2 against Arsenal, 2 against Liverpool, 2 against Bayern, 1 against Spurs, 1 against Dortmund and 1 against Newcastle so far for City. Pathetic effort from him.
McTominay wins you plenty of points because Ten Hag is so deeply incompetent that having a scrappy little guy in the box for you is absolutely more likely to result in goals scored than whatever Eric actually plans
But but but.. he’s shite because he didn’t score for a couple games. A one trick pony and overrated
On a serious note, I’m jealous
I think the criticism levelled at him was that he’s been blowing big chances in bigger games in a side that creates as awful lot for him. And has a tendency to be dealt with by the top sides.
The same applies to De Bruyne, and City generally - hollow, soulless efficiency.
Aguero, Toure and Silva had something special about them, whereas this team is dull.
Even the selfish pure #9s of previous eras like Van Nistelrooy and Shearer had an enticing wow factor about them. This fella has scored a silly amount of goals, yet few if any are worth remembering.
You'll do well here.
What a machine, I like that City is finally using him more in the break like his goal agaisnt Brentford and a couple of them in this last match, the constant excessive move of the ball that sometimes City does it's against his best atributes. Any team must take adavantage of the beast he is with space on the run, it's perhpas his best asset with hunger and positioning, instead of being the whole time waiting for a pass surrounded by five while City is holding the ball in an excessive way.
Indeed, still shit compared to Lewandowski's 5 in 9
Context is important. His goal against Arsenal was the 4th in a 4-1 win and his assist was a simple lay off for a de Bruyne solo effort. Scoring for fun against United is nothing special these days, Leipzig aren't a top team and the opening goal in that 7-0 win was a harsh penalty which effectively ended the tie and Bayern last season were the worst Bayern side in over a decade.
Haaland fills his boots in games City will likely win anyway, but he isn't the difference maker in those big moments. They beat Liverpool 4-1 last season without him and when he was missing this season they actually went on their best run of the season and were scoring plenty. He scores more goals, but it genuinely seems like Alvarez makes them a better team. They could sell him and I doubt they'd even miss him, which you couldn't say about the likes of Rodri, KDB, or Dias.
Were either not going to have Maguire or a half fit Maguire
That's some of the most biased context I've read in a while.
Scoring and assisting against main title race rival in the business end of the season doesn't count if it's not the first goal or if it's a simple lay off.
Scoring for fun against us is nothing special: No one has ever had 5 goal contributions against us in a single match, ever, before that.
Leipzig is not a top team:
League positions since they got promoted to the BL: 2, 6, 3, 3, 2, 4, 3....
In CL 6 of the last 7 seasons, through to the KO stages 4 out of 6 times (KO'ed by Liverpool, City and PSG, still in it this season), reached the semis in 2019.
Beating the worst Bayern side over the last decade doesn't count. They won the league and were on 8 straight wins with 21-2 GF and 7 clean sheets in the CL before that QF tie. Basically a walk over for them, right?
Then you're basically saying that all his 79 goals and 15 assists for City in 1,5 season (83 games) is just cream on top of the City cake. They would most likely have won the treble without him and the league would already be decided if they just played Alvarez up top in stead of him?
Alvarez as #9 in the PL for City:
7 goals and 1 assists in 16 games (1133 minutes)
This season he started 6 games as a #9 in Haalands absence (their best run this season apparently) and contributed 4 goals and 1 assist against Burnley, SHU, Luton and Everton, the last two games in that period were against CP and Newcastle where he did nothing (They had an amazing run against those tough teams for sure - only drew against CP and managed to beat all the promoted teams, Everton and the totally out of form Newcastle). I dear say that anything worse than 5W and a D against those 6 teams for City would have been dissapointing for them to use a kind word.
Haaland as a #9 in the PL for City:
53 goals and 13 assists in 56 games (4422 minutes)
This season he only has 17 goals and 5 goals in the 20 games he's started and has had the worst season of his career finishing wise (by his normal standard he out scores his xG by around 10-20% - this season he's finishing has been off and he's underperformed (first time in his career) his xG by 20%). City lost 1-0 away to Arsenal and Villa (With Alvarez also on the pitch), but other than that he's returned in every other "big game" (5 goals and 3 assists in 5 games vs. Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and Man United)
Alvarez was so important for City in their CL-winning campain last season that he got a total of 56 minutes on the pitch in the their 7 games in the KO stages (0 minutes in the final)
Haaland would have a Ballon d'or now if Messi didn't manade to pull that WC-title out of his sleeve.
Rodri and KDB are great players, very important for City, would be missed when not available and hard to replace.....just like Haaland. Alvarez and Diaz....not so much.
Kudos to the teams that manage to take him out of games, but they need to dedicate 1,5 players for 90 minutes to do it. I'll leave it to you to decide if you think that has value for the rest of the City team or not.
But equally will any of the goal contributions matter when Manchester City are expelled from the EPL?
Nah not even close but he’s possibly the best goalscorer
Haaland played a huge part in Bayern basically being knocked out in the first leg of the quarter-final when he not only scored but had a beautiful assist to Bernardo.
Against the traditional top six, he has 17 goal involvements in 11 games. And yes it matters if Haaland only scored the first goal or second in a 3-goal win for City. It matters a lot:
- even the top 6 Underdogs rarely come back and win when favorites take the lead. And if Haaland only plays a part in the 2-0 goal, well now that chance of any points is less than 5%.
We can't expect Haaland to be involved in 50% of the goals City scores when he is on the field, or score in a final just because he plays for City. 2 finals is also a small sample size. Andy Cole started both the Champions League final and the fa Cup final and had 0 goals and assists in those two wins. Is this what you think about whenever you see or hear the name Andy Cole? Probably not.
If he had scored in those finals, he might be remembered better. Needing too many chances to score has been a damning epitaph for him.
Haaland not delivering in the bigger games or cup finals is only an issue if City don't win them games. More often than not they do though.
Kanu vs. Boro and Ronaldo vs. Sheffield United were worse ones.
Not even close. If the ball came at him 50cm higher or lower it might have been a part of that discussion. Big miss of course, but when he has to choose between crouching and jumping the chance of a miss increases a lot.Was that the worst miss of all time?
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Some classic stat padding for Haaland today.
It really is. Rarely turns up when the pressure is really on for City and it's pretty rare they're under any real pressure anyway. Despite all the goals, it's usually someone else bailing them out when they really need a goal.
Torres ( Chelsea) vs us has to be up there too.
awful today
The likelihood of someone from the other 9 outfield players scoring the next city goal is always a lot higher than Haaland scoring, but he has also been the one often, Brentford and Everton in 2024 just at the top of my head, and he started 2024 injured.
The goal masked a very poor performance overall. Similar to Liverpool with Salah, it's a shame that City have so many players capable of picking up the slack when he isn't scoring.
Had a very poor season so far, despite his decent numbers. Hopefully just second season syndrome, easy to forget that he probably isn't the finished article yet
Plays as shit as he wants yet still manages to score against us.