Nordic Ghost Yeti (Scandi Carroll) | Haaland at City

People are obsessed with comparisons but it’s very telling the type of names being used in here.. either way he’s a fantastic talent and I’m excited to see where he goes from here.

It’s very noticeable how often he’s scanning around him, he’s constantly assessing and reacting with his movement and so far he’s getting it right. When you add in his height, strength, speed, and seemingly ruthless finishing it’s a pretty daunting prospect for defenders.
 
He’s scored his first 8 goals in the premier league with just 100 touches of the football in total. That’s a goal around every 12 touches which is ridiculous. The guy is a better modern day Fillipo Inzaghi. Doesn’t do anything else except score goals.
 
Anderson_7_ said:
This thread is nauseating to read. So many of our fans gleefully counting goals of a player who openly hates our club.

All this hype and hysteria around Haaland is what happens when you let stats rule your way of thinking. Haaland is an average, one-dimensional player and most of his goals are either simple tap-ins or 1-1 with the keeper. I think everyone who has actually watched him play should come to this same conclusion. He's not a game changer or anything special. He's not even the best youngster in that City team (Alvarez is) and yet you have people comparing him to prime Ronaldo and Messi. He shouldn't even be compared to Mbappe, let alone legends. Please get serious!
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I think that you should watch another sport.
 
Chief123 said:
He’s scored his first 8 goals in the premier league with just 100 touches of the football in total. That’s a goal around every 12 touches which is ridiculous. The guy is a better modern day Fillipo Inzaghi. Doesn’t do anything else except score goals.
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Meh. He’s on a team that routinely dominates possession and creates loads of chances. He is a good finisher, he will score a lot of goals playing for City.
Would I go to a game just to see him play?
No.
I would (and did) for Best, Law, Charlton, Robson, Cantona, Keane, Scholes, Zidane, Rooney, Ronaldo etc etc.
Haaland is no magician. His dad was a twat and I suspect he is too.
 
Chief123 said:
Doesn’t do anything else except score goals.
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With the ball. The space he generates for his team mates by tying up defenders and pushing the line back because of how dangerous he is is hugely valuable.
 
Red Pumpkin said:
By talent on the ball I'd say Neymar > Messi
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This is an abomination of an opinion. I'm not even going to waste my time explaining why. Football is not for you. Try handball, maybe that's easier for you
 
Red Pumpkin said:
That's what I wrote. Messi is the epitome efficiency wise. An absolutely unique combo of low gravity, immaculate ball control, body feints and high velocity.
But overall Neymar is the much better technician because what Neymar does is all about technique and creativity.

Dunno if this makes sense. It's like Neymar being a better basketball player all around technically but Messi had perfected one aspect of technique - the 3-point shot - to never reached before or again heights.
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That's an insane opinion, though. Neymar himself would never even begin to argue that he is better technically then Messi. Creativity is another matter. That's flash and as other have pointed out, being flashier doesn't mean better.

Messi at his peak was a better scorer, better playmaker, better dribbler than Neymar. He didn't get to where he is on the pantheon of greats because he perfected "one technique".
 
Red Pumpkin said:
By talent on the ball I'd say Neymar > Messi > Mbappe > Haaland. The brazilian is unbelievable. Neymars creativity, trickery, technique, dribbling is superior to Messi in the traditional sense but Messis perfection when it comes to close touch where the ball is glued, body feints and shift of pace is unmatched and more devastating.

Anyhow it's not that Mbappe and Ronaldo can't/couldn't dribble very good but rather it makes much more sense for them to go straight for the pace option. The only reason anyone would dribble is because they can't just beat the opponent with pace. Ronaldo always had dribbling in his arsenal but in his younger years he often went straight for the "run right through" option unless the opponents sat so deep he would need to dribble. And then later when older he needed a bit more of dribbling and feinting when he lost some pace.

Mbappes dribbling is a bit raw as you say but I'd think if he lost his super power pace he would very soon become one of the absolute better dribblers on the planet. It's a bit unfair but he is just so talented. Same with Messi whose free kicks sucked but with talent and some dedication he became #1, such is Mbappes talent that if he lost pace and slowed down his dribbling a bit he could become one of the absolute best dribblers.

Regarding Haaland I do wonder if it's due to Zlatan and C. Ronaldo we haven't seen his dribbling potential. I believe he isn't creative enough for starters but most of all he has realized earlier than them two what a CF with his attributes should do - bully the opposition and score goals. It's similar to when Tyson Fury finally understood he is 270 pounds. In other words he should put less focus on technique and more on just bulldozing his opposition.
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I stopped reading after the first line. To put any of those as greater than Messi with the ball is absurd.
 
Red Pumpkin said:
By talent on the ball I'd say Neymar > Messi > Mbappe > Haaland. The brazilian is unbelievable. Neymars creativity, trickery, technique, dribbling is superior to Messi in the traditional sense but Messis perfection when it comes to close touch where the ball is glued, body feints and shift of pace is unmatched and more devastating.

Anyhow it's not that Mbappe and Ronaldo can't/couldn't dribble very good but rather it makes much more sense for them to go straight for the pace option. The only reason anyone would dribble is because they can't just beat the opponent with pace. Ronaldo always had dribbling in his arsenal but in his younger years he often went straight for the "run right through" option unless the opponents sat so deep he would need to dribble. And then later when older he needed a bit more of dribbling and feinting when he lost some pace.

Mbappes dribbling is a bit raw as you say but I'd think if he lost his super power pace he would very soon become one of the absolute better dribblers on the planet. It's a bit unfair but he is just so talented. Same with Messi whose free kicks sucked but with talent and some dedication he became #1, such is Mbappes talent that if he lost pace and slowed down his dribbling a bit he could become one of the absolute best dribblers.

Regarding Haaland I do wonder if it's due to Zlatan and C. Ronaldo we haven't seen his dribbling potential. I believe he isn't creative enough for starters but most of all he has realized earlier than them two what a CF with his attributes should do - bully the opposition and score goals. It's similar to when Tyson Fury finally understood he is 270 pounds. In other words he should put less focus on technique and more on just bulldozing his opposition.
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I think it is very hard to compare at the level Neymar and Messi are at. Neymar has a more spectacular technique while Messi's more streamlined but I wouldn't know who is ahead of the other. I also strongly disagree that you only dribble with close control and body feints when you can't just run past the defender. For the latter you need space and space is a rare good in today's game. Neymar and Messi are able to dribble in very dense areas more so than Mbappe and those are usually the most dangerous spaces, like between the lines or in the box. And they're so much ahead of him in terms of close control that it is very hard to imagine Mbappe can rival tgem in this regard. This kind of technique is developed in your youth. There's a reason Neymar and Messi never looked as sloppy on the ball as Mbappe did and occasionally still does.

Moreover, I think you kind of ignore the awareness aspect of dribbling. Messi is incredibly good at anticipating where space and lanes will open, he keeps incredible track of his surroundings while in action, he always has a solution of his sleeve, etc. That's what distinguishes effective dribblers from guys like Ben Arfa who regularly topped the 'successful dribbles' stats but never did so in a productive manner.
 
Reij said:
It's incredible to me who people compare Halland with.

In the words of Platini telling Zidane about Maradona..

P: "Zizou, you were better than me, but.. you weren't better than Maradona."
"Why not?" ask Zizou.
P: "What you could do with a ball, Maradona could do it with an orange peel!"
Z: "An orange?"
P: "No, no, an orange peel!"

Even if you give Halland a lifetime, he could never do with a ball what Ronaldo and Messi, Maradona could do, because talent is innate, either you have it or you don't.

That's why people never considered CR7 in the goats debate above Messi.

That's why Federer is considered goat and not Djokovic or Nadal.

Talented people are very versatile, because of their wide range of abilities and bring a sort of beauty in their craft and people are drawn very easy to them.

Ronaldo was considered the next Pele and Messi the next Maradona when they were 18-19 years old, why is that?

Why wasn't CR7 considered in the goat debate until his mid 20's when he became a goals scoring machine and even more after he won all those UCL's?

Why is Ronaldinho and Ronaldo in the goats debate based on 2-4 seasons?

Even if Halland scores a thousand goals and wins 10 Ballon d'Or he'll be "just" another lesser version of CR7(Halland has lesser abilities that CR7 had) or an upgraded version of Zlatan, but people will still look for the next Maradona, the next Ronaldo or the next Messi.
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Completely agree. And we'll put with the beauty of sport aspect.
 
It’s pointless to compare R9 and Haaland. R9 and Haaland both got blistering speed and knows how to finish. From there R9 is so much complete in the sense of technique and doing wonderful things on the pitch. He could do more in the build up and assist team mates.

Haaland not being that rounded has something else. He will always have a lot of attention around him. More than one player will be around him to mark him. That will create a lot of opportunities for other players.

All in all it’s just sad that City got him. Their position in the PL and the world helped them secure him.

I am sure Real Madrid will move heaven and earth to get him as soon as possible.
 
Reminds me more of Lukaku actually, but much better. A pacey physical poacher.
 
It seems odd when I see Haaland compared with the best in the world. I was fortunate enough to have grown up with Ronaldo and Messi since they were younger and so anytime we speak about best in the world I hold them as the barometer. Now this is unfair as those two are the greatest to ever do it, they have the stats that Haaland has but they could pick up the ball and literally run through a defence and score when they wanted to.

I suspect as time goes on, myself and people from my generation will change and understand that there’s a new standard for best in the world and the likes of Haaland and Mbappe will rightfully be up there.
 
AussieDevil said:
It seems odd when I see Haaland compared with the best in the world. I was fortunate enough to have grown up with Ronaldo and Messi since they were younger and so anytime we speak about best in the world I hold them as the barometer. Now this is unfair as those two are the greatest to ever do it,
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Ronaldo isn't even the best ronaldo I've seen let alone one of the best two players ever

But there has always been a few players in each period who stood out
Plattinis zicos maradonnas van bastens ... haaland might not be there yet but at 22 he's got every chance of being at that level and of course mbappe would be the other of a similar age
 
sun_tzu said:
Ronaldo isn't even the best ronaldo I've seen let alone one of the best two players ever

But there has always been a few players in each period who stood out
Plattinis zicos maradonnas van bastens ... haaland might not be there yet but at 22 he's got every chance of being at that level and of course mbappe would be the other of a similar age
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I’ll have to agree to disagree with you. Haaland will never ever be on the level of “maradonnas” but Van Basten is achievable albeit still a big step up.
 
AussieDevil said:
I’ll have to agree to disagree with you. Haaland will never ever be on the level of “maradonnas” but Van Basten is achievable albeit still a big step up.
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Yes maradonna is part of the holy trinity for me with messi and Pele

But my point was more that there tends to be one or two players in each decade that stand out and haaland / mbappe seem to have the potential to be in that bracket
 
VorZakone said:
Reminds me more of Lukaku actually, but much better. A pacey physical poacher.
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Your actually spot on. He is the player Lukaku could have been with his attributes.

Similar build(At times) and all etc. Both quick as well etc etc

Lukaku should be able to bully players like Halaand can but maybe for him it's even just a lack of desire and effort.
 
People are gonna kill me for saying this but dare I say Lukaku is a better dribbler/ball carrier....

While not consistently, but sometimes Lukaku goes on these runs doing these stepoevers and dribbles quite well.

And yeah, Haaland is what Lukaku could have been with his set of attributes. Both are exactly the same players with a difference in goalscoring frequency and consistency obviously.

Both extremely limited Footballers.

Also to be noted that both are crap at heading the ball despite being tall, strong blokes..
 
Red Pumpkin said:
Of course Mbappe wants to be the star. It's his time (and Haalands) because Neymar due to injuries and some indiscipline failed to take the undisputed #1 spot post Ronaldo and Messi. I don't know how 26 assists from Mbappe could be called selfish though. That's an obscene amount of assists for a center forward.

Mbappe is way better than Messi and have been better for years now, probably since the WC 2018. I acknowledge Messi as the best I've ever seen together with Ronaldo (albeit very different players) but he has been on a downward slope for a long time no matter what the corrupt Ballon d'or jury claim. Those Ballon d'ors in 2019 and 2021 are just to elevate his status so he could equal Pelés 7 retroactive golden balls. Messi wasn't the same the last years in Barcelona although he put up very good numbers.
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Messi 2018/19 was far better than any season an individual has in last 5 seasons. Playing for a dysfunctional Barcelona team, dude basically carried them to La Liga, semis of UCL and final of Copa Del Rey. Barcelona as a team failing doesn't take away from the phenomenal season Messi had as an all round attacking force.
 
KirkDuyt said:
Still comes down to the age old misconception that step-overs=technique.
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I don’t think that’s a common misconception. Messi is probably the most gifted technical player I’ve seen yet I’ve never once seen him do a step over, elastico or any other fancy skill other than drop a shoulder and body feints.
 
Chief123 said:
He’s scored his first 8 goals in the premier league with just 100 touches of the football in total. That’s a goal around every 12 touches which is ridiculous. The guy is a better modern day Fillipo Inzaghi. Doesn’t do anything else except score goals.
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Arsène Wenger said that the "funny" thing about Didier Drogba was that "he doesn't do a lot".. It must have been horrible for Arsenal when Droba was playing against them.. :0)
 
Red Stone said:
To anyone who thinks we even had a sniff at signing him, he's confirmed the clubs he was considering this summer on Norwegian TV. City, Bayern, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Barca, Chelsea, in that order. We weren't even mentioned, and to be honest, that's 100% understandable. At this point the only thing thing we can offer that some of those clubs can't is money, and for a player that has the talent to be the biggest star in the game no amount of money is worth it if it means sacrificing trophies, status and individual awards. Not that he's losing out financially playing for Abu Dhabi blood money...

That's the reality of the last nine years of near constant floundering and fecking up. We're no longer an option for the very top echelon of talents, or anyone that wants to play Champions League football every season guaranteed. If the next Messi or Ronaldo came along tomorrow there's zero chance of us signing him in our current state.
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We quite literally just signed the best CDM i football,on top of signing Jadon Sancho, Ronaldo and Raphael Varane in a single transfer window.

Its not even 12 months ago when this tone was completely different to the current doom and gloom. Liverpool is one of the best teams in the world (I hate that sentence so much) and they barely got a mention when it came to Haaland.
 
Chief123 said:
I don’t think that’s a common misconception. Messi is probably the most gifted technical player I’ve seen yet I’ve never once seen him do a step over, elastico or any other fancy skill other than drop a shoulder and body feints.
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Yet there are quite a few people that seem to think early C Ronaldo was an amazing dribbler because, look at all those playground skill moves.
 
Tom Cato said:
We quite literally just signed the best CDM i football,on top of signing Jadon Sancho, Ronaldo and Raphael Varane in a single transfer window.

Its not even 12 months ago when this tone was completely different to the current doom and gloom. Liverpool is one of the best teams in the world (I hate that sentence so much) and they barely got a mention when it came to Haaland.
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Currently Fabinho is better than Caeemiro. Even though Casemiro was brilliant in the CL final.


Real wouldn't let him go if he was in his absolute peak.
 
TenonTen said:
Currently Fabinho is better than Caeemiro. Even though Casemiro was brilliant in the CL final.


Real wouldn't let him go if he was in his absolute peak.
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Well Real have strengthened that part of the pitch. Regardless, its my understanding that he was allowed to choose his own path as a thankyou for services rendered, as opposed to Real actively wanting to sell him.
 
Tom Cato said:
Well Real have strengthened that part of the pitch. Regardless, its my understanding that he was allowed to choose his own path as a thankyou for services rendered, as opposed to Real actively wanting to sell him.
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True. But also true that if we considered him irreplaceable we wouldn't have sold anyways. We'd have given him a massive raise instead
 
TenonTen said:
Currently Fabinho is better than Caeemiro. Even though Casemiro was brilliant in the CL final.


Real wouldn't let him go if he was in his absolute peak.
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he told Madrid after the CL that he felt his time there was over and wanted a new challenge. Explains why Real Madrid invested so heavily in their midfield and 70mil for him at his age, given what he’s won with them, it was 100% the right thing all round to sell him. He’s younger than people think he is also.
 
TenonTen said:
Currently Fabinho is better than Caeemiro. Even though Casemiro was brilliant in the CL final.


Real wouldn't let him go if he was in his absolute peak.
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I'd have to agree with you, Fabinho is definitely much better than Caeemiro. I've never even heard of Caeemiro while Fabinho plays for Liverpool.

Casemiro is far superior to both though, glad we signed him.
 
TenonTen said:
Currently Fabinho is better than Caeemiro. Even though Casemiro was brilliant in the CL final.


Real wouldn't let him go if he was in his absolute peak.
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Not a chance this is true. My Liverpool mates have been telling me how out of form he’s been for a long time now
 
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