Prime CR7 was a far more complete player and offered a lot more to the team.
Inside the box, Haaland is one of the best goalscorers you will ever see, unfortunately for him, he is pretty mediocre in everything else.
Nordic Ghost Yeti (Scandi Carroll) | Haaland at City
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Prime CR7 was a far more complete player and offered a lot more to the team.
Inside the box, Haaland is one of the best goalscorers you will ever see, unfortunately for him, he is pretty mediocre in everything else.
I have a better proposition. Even if we somehow can get him, would you rather have Haaland and our current wingers OR let Madrid have him and we get Mbappe from them plus Gyokeres from sporting?
I never said he wasn't. I said he would struggles to score in this current City team with Bernardo, Foden way out of form. And Savinho thinking he's Mahrez but booting the ball into the stands every time he cuts in and Nunes on the other wing.
Hasn’t Nunes assisted 4 in 4 games from the wing?
He has 2 against Sparta Prague and 2 in total in the league. He's a hard worker and decent player but done nothing in the last 3 games (he did score in the Carling Cup vs Spurs)
Both his assists in the league were finished by Haaland but he's hardly creative. But in general Erling is doing ok with the service he's currently getting.
The irony of this ugly egotistic oaf telling anyone to be humble.
Agreed.
Especially when he plays for a club that thinks they are above the rules.
Word. He's so annoying to look at. Manchild.
Stay Puft Marshamallow Man in a wig
Was at the game tonight and the first time I’ve seen him in the flesh. First point, he’s bloody massive. Second point, I think he actually played pretty well overall and took his goal well. Had a big debate before the game though about Haaland vs Aguero. I said I’d have Aguero in my team every single time and the city fan said he’d have Haaland.
First time City have lost in the league when he's scored.
W 40, D 6, L 1
Thanks OptaJoe.
W 40, D 6, L 1
Thanks OptaJoe.
Are you drunk?
Expand please? Why would I be drunk. Have you watched or recent games or just annoyed I used Ronaldo as an example?
I am not a big Ronaldo fan, but the idea that you blame everyone else for Haaland's lack of... lets say usefulness, is funny.
He just wants to have fun.
He is not completely wrong. Haaland was bought because he is an extremely talented goalscorer and because City had more than enough players that could provide him service.
It's not exactly his fault that the players who are supposed to service him are borderline useless at the moment.
With that said, he really needs to improve other aspects of his game because he is really average in everything else and doesn't provide much if he isn't scoring.
Comparing with Ronaldo to the same situation doesn't make much sense because I remember a fair share of games where the team or Ronaldo wasn't playing that great but he would still bang one or two goals out of the blue because, at his peak, he could really score from anywhere or link up deep and play on crazy counters.
You should probably look at our goals list this season. He's scored half our league goals this season, outside of a cb playing lb who has a knack for worldies he's our only goal threat. Denying that means you haven't watched City or aren't paying attention.
We've been completely out played 3 games in a row creating feck all. But even back as far as Southampton or Brentford we've been struggling.
Without him we wouldn't even be top 4 this season such has been our level.
Surely the service to him is fine in this losing run? He didn't play v Spurs and it was a rotated team anyway. Don't think they cared too much.
In the last 3 he's had 3.6 of xG to gobble up which is insane for an indivdual player, scored 1. Rest of the team has had 2.2 xG, scored 2. Would have been bettter giving him less service in exchange for giving other players more if anything, and they are ridiculously focused on him.
As a team 5.8 xG across 3 games as a team is satisfactory, an average of 1.93 xG a game. Including the CL game here, but for the sake of if that was put into the 11 league games so far they'd have accumulated 21.2 xG, more than anyone else in the division. As it is they do have more anyone in the division anyway with 21.9, only slightly more.
Defence on the other hand has been useless. 7.1 xG given up in the last 3 losing games, conceded 8 goals. It's 2.36 xG against each game which is shit. For context, Ipswich have given 2.26 a game so far and are the worst in the Premier League on that metric.
Been playing like the best attacking team (marginally) while feeding him more chances than anyone else but at the same time they've been playing like the worst defensive team around.
In the last 3 he's had 3.6 of xG to gobble up which is insane for an indivdual player, scored 1. Rest of the team has had 2.2 xG, scored 2. Would have been bettter giving him less service in exchange for giving other players more if anything, and they are ridiculously focused on him.
As a team 5.8 xG across 3 games as a team is satisfactory, an average of 1.93 xG a game. Including the CL game here, but for the sake of if that was put into the 11 league games so far they'd have accumulated 21.2 xG, more than anyone else in the division. As it is they do have more anyone in the division anyway with 21.9, only slightly more.
Defence on the other hand has been useless. 7.1 xG given up in the last 3 losing games, conceded 8 goals. It's 2.36 xG against each game which is shit. For context, Ipswich have given 2.26 a game so far and are the worst in the Premier League on that metric.
Been playing like the best attacking team (marginally) while feeding him more chances than anyone else but at the same time they've been playing like the worst defensive team around.
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But him scoring half your goals is partly due to him making your play more 1 dimensional, everything is built for him because he cannot do it any other way.
Yeah, they changed to being setup to feed one player rather than being more fluid and more unpredictable. Now Haaland is their go to and when it doesn't work there doesn't seem to be a plan B. Mostly because they don't have any other strikers.
I think back to the CL final vs Chelsea, where Chelsea nullified them to the point where they ended up lumping crosses and long throws into the box for midgets like Aguero and Jesus. I'd never really seen a Pep team resort to those kind of tactics. I think Pep was scarred from that game, I don't think Haaland is a player he would have setup to accommodate before that.
Poor man’s Chris Wood.
12 attempted passes last night. That’s impressive. He’s been pottering about on sub 10 in the last few games.
You might be right, but they have sacrificed a lot for it.
He’s got to be trolling here surely.
He’s no Gyokeres that’s for sure
If everything is built to feed him and the players that are supposed to don't feed him. That's a Pep problem and the underperforming creators though.
We've been dogshit from day 1 of the season and its finally caught up with us because Erling has stopped overperforming. I don't even think he's great player, in fact he has a couple of freakishly good attributes and not a huge amount else.
But his cog in the machine is the only one that's functioning. Usually at City we lose maybe 3-4 games a season on XG for the past 3 years.
This year we've lost on xg to Brighton, B'mouth, Fulham, Newcastle and Chelsea already in the PL. We've been hammered by Sporting (who admittedly are very good). But this is a City side who neither defend or create and Erling has been papering over those cracks earlier in the season.
No that's Erlings problem , he makes his team's way more 1 dimensional, and then opponents just need to stop that 1 dimension.
It's difficult to create for 1 player, it's tactically easy to counter.
No its not, its Pep's. Erling doesn't decide the tactics, we weren't nearly as one dimensional last season hence Foden getting 39 goal contributions in total, winning player of the season and scoring 19 in the PL alone.
I'm not sure you even watch any City given how wrong a take that is.
And even though he's been the leagues top scorer and scored a crazy amount of goals for you, City still hasn't scored as many with him as the season before you got him.
You didn't even have a striker, your top scorer was kdb. Teams have adapted and Rodri is injured.
Massive weekend for us, pulling level with this lad!
Haaland: 12 goals
United: 12 goals
Haaland: 12 goals
United: 12 goals
How have teams adapted and why has it suddenly happened now?
It just takes time. Teams adapted to us when Ole was our manager and we played with pogba pretty much exactly as quickly.
Which again is a Pep tactical change not an Erling one. We scored (94 + 96)190 goals in his two full seasons in the league . The two seasons before we scored (99 and 83) 182 so we can skew numbers and argue over a mammoth 5 goals in one particular season (in the league, we scored more overall the season we won the CL) if you like but overall numbers still come out in favour of the team with Erling.
Also won a Champions League with him vs none without.
We had a season where we scored 102 goals and finished 18 points behind a Liverpool team that scored only 85 which show how useless a metric over all team goals are in a season.
Would you rather a 10-0 win and 2 x 1-0 defeats over, 3 x 2-0 wins?
A handful of goals in one particular season doesn't matter. To put it in perspective, the 5 extra goals you speak of, came from a 7-0 win over Leeds and a couple of hammerings of Norwich (9-0 over 2 games). hardly a huge difference on the season as a whole.
In his first season where we scored a mammoth 5 less league goals with Erling, we stuck 6 past United, 4-1 vs Arsenal, 4-1 vs Liverpool, 4-2 vs Spurs but didn't rack up the same goal difference against mid table teams, which is funny considering say Erling has made us worse in big games and doesn't perform. We also won our CL home games, last 16, 7-0 in the first leg vs Leipzig, 3-0 in the first leg vs Bayern and 4-0 in the home leg vs Real.
Ok fair enough, the goal argument will go nowhere and I'm arguing over tiny amounts of goals.
Yes you won the CL but he got criticism for not turning up to the big games, I think it's a big stretch to say he was the difference when I realistically I would have said you should have won it the year before, and last season where he had similar criticisms.
I just don't understand how you can argue he hasn't made you more 1 dimensional, by his nature he's a target man, that's it.
I said Pep has made us more 1 dimensional not Erling. And he has been doing so for awhile even before Erling (still a great manager mind) but this season we've become far more static, far less willing to give him anything to run on to and far less dynamic. he continuously makes runs in behind that our midfield won't play nearly as often as they should. When they do he generally will finish it (see the goal at the weekend). The issue is we mostly shy away from that pass, keep the ball, let the opposition reset and then either put in a cross to know one or Savinho cuts in on his right foot, thinks he's Mahrez and puts the ball in the stand.
Maybe its the lack of KDB and Fodens bad form seeing us not play those balls, but we've absolutely become more pedestrian behind him and refuse to put the ball in his area's of strength yet still we refuse to play around him and basically plod up to the edge of the box and try and give him the ball to feet to shoot. He gets crowded out or we miss the pass and the opposition break on us, relentlessly.
Last season and the season before we would mix it up. Foden would shoot more often, but also look to immediately put Erling in behind if it was on. This season the tactics have changed drastically and for the worse, to the point Erling is or only real goal threat. If anything we're playing less to his strengths and to pretty much nobody in the squads strengths when it comes to chance creation.
Karma confirmed
It really not though. He's a striker who would thrive in a team playing more direct, taking their transitions and expoiting space behind the backline. Insisting on making at least 20 passes and filling the box with defenders before they inevitably shoot from outside the box or cross it into a crowded box is not exactly a style built to fit him. Quite the opposite actually.
Haaland has fired away 26% of City's shots (56/213) so far this season. 45% of his shots are headers with "two defenders" on his back in a crowded box, which is hardly playing it into his strongest skill.
I'm glad City is struggling, but you have to wonder what the h*** they are thinking, setting up their play like that. Super vulnerable in the back and not punishing their oppo's on the break despite having the best weapon in the business for attacking teams behind their lines. I just can't understand why they don't mix it up more.
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OK but how have teams adapted to handle City better?
What tactical adjustment have you noticed from their opposition this season that wasn't there previously?