9 | Erling Haaland - 2024/25

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Think he's about to go on a mad run with these new tactics Pep's trying. Lots more balls coming down the middle for him to chase. Had a few against Brighton and should have had a couple more than the one he got. I back him to get a hat-trick against Spurs. Shows you how utterly incredible he is that he's on 15 goals in 16 games so far this season and we're wondering "what's up" with him.
 
Jonas.shaffer said:
He's been awful for the last few weeks. Are you denying that? He's ONE OF the highest-paid players IN THE WORLD, and Blues like you hold him to a lower standard game in-game out than you do Rico Lewis, which I'm pretty sure I see you routinely dig out in the match threads.
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Jonas, I’d maybe seek out some help mate, you’re as mad as a box of frogs
 
Jonas.shaffer said:
I thought he was better than he has been, but I wish I could be the highest paid whatever in the world and have as low a standard as he seemingly does.
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What do you mean by “whatever”? If you mean athlete, then sadly Erl isn’t even in the top 10. If you mean footballers, he’s likely not in the top 5, what with Mbappe and all the semi retired geezers like Fake Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar and Benzema making way more. If you mean City players, then he’s reportedly behind KDB in wages.

You know, if your job had millions of people watching you fail, and millions more rooting for you to fail, you’d want a fat paycheck too. Call it hazard pay for the wickedness of the less able.
 
I do wonder if we bought Doku and Savinho to eventually change our style back to the Sterling/Sane era, to be quicker on the break but unfortunately because of injuries Pep has been unable to do it, just to utilize Haaland more.
 
He is having exceptional season..

Let's compare this season, to other ones...

This season he scored 12 goals in 7 games so far and all of them were first goals..

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Last season he scored in 17 games and only 9 were first goals..

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First season in 23 games and only 9 were first goals..


First and 23.png

Also look at the number of penalties, compared to this season.


This is important because, he is truly leading the attack and doing the hardest job, which is to score when it's most difficult. We all know, that when it's 2:0 and 3:0, it's easier to score as opponents are becoming more flexible and have less motivation to defend, while when it's 0:0, it's the opposite.

So right now he is having the same statistics like he had in his first season, but in terms of importance of those goals, this season is way better.

Unfortunately the team isn't on the same level like we used to be in 22/23 and 23/24
 

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I actually think he’s improved last few games, he’s obviously been working on his hold up play and that’s def improved
Missed a few sitters lately but that comes with his desperation to score.
I’ve been watching his body language recently and what you can definitely see is him pissed off with our side to side bullshit
Holding his arms out when he’s lucky to be unmarked.our players seem reluctant or not confident enough to risk that ball through the middle to him and that’s where we miss Kev.
He can still hold his head high with his goal tally though.
So no complaints from me with big earl
Foden in the other hand.
 
Chak19 said:
Is it that difficult of a skill ?
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Against a side with a high line and keeper playing as a sweeper the ball has to be perfectly weighted for it to work with most strikers, which isn't easy.

But Erling isn't most strikers. His pace and power means he can get to a ball with a bit too much venom on it and Kovacic's pass wasn't perfect but Haaland battered off the defender and scored from it.

We need to play it more.
 
Haaland with goal and assist against Slovenia away today. He did some really good link up aswell. Todays Norway star was nevertheless winger Antonio Nusa with two Messiesque goals.
 
madloaf said:
I believe he scored from a "through ball". What is this through ball they speak of? I vaguely remember them...
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To be fair, we scored a pretty similar goal last weekend.

But I agree, we don't use it enough. He usually positions himself between the two defenders - as any good striker should - so if we can play the ball to him while he's backing into the one behind him, we're onto a winner. He's too strong, big and aggressive to be knocked off it.

I'm amazed Gundogan hasn't done it more often since being back. He was the one during 22/23 who played it the most (after KDB) - the Palace hat-trick goal at home being the standout.
 
skillman said:
To be fair, we scored a pretty similar goal last weekend.

But I agree, we don't use it enough. He usually positions himself between the two defenders - as any good striker should - so if we can play the ball to him while he's backing into the one behind him, we're onto a winner. He's too strong, big and aggressive to be knocked off it.

I'm amazed Gundogan hasn't done it more often since being back. He was the one during 22/23 who played it the most (after KDB) - the Palace hat-trick goal at home being the standout.
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I think it was his first goal in the PL when he was played through against West Ham. The ball was overhit but Haaland's pace meant he got there and won a penalty. As I said in my previous post, most strikers need that ball to be slightly ahead of them and into space so they can latch onto it, get it out of their feet and score. If you look back at highlight reels of Haaland's goals for us, you'll see plenty of times where the ball hasn't been that good but he's made something of it. He's quicker than most so he gets to a ball with too much weight on it. If it's underhit and gives the defender a chance he batters them off the ball and scores from it. Whilst it might not give us the same control passing to feet does, it's the most effective way of utilising our biggest goal threat so we have to start doing it more often.

To pass it around and manipulate space is very difficult and teams are more than happy to have two or three around Haaland and make it impossible for him to get to crosses. He still does well in those situations, but he'd much prefer to be played in more and in doing so you'd see him stretching the defence more often, keeping them on their toes for more of the game leaving them dead on their feet come the final few minutes.
 
supercity88 said:
I think it was his first goal in the PL when he was played through against West Ham. The ball was overhit but Haaland's pace meant he got there and won a penalty. As I said in my previous post, most strikers need that ball to be slightly ahead of them and into space so they can latch onto it, get it out of their feet and score. If you look back at highlight reels of Haaland's goals for us, you'll see plenty of times where the ball hasn't been that good but he's made something of it. He's quicker than most so he gets to a ball with too much weight on it. If it's underhit and gives the defender a chance he batters them off the ball and scores from it. Whilst it might not give us the same control passing to feet does, it's the most effective way of utilising our biggest goal threat so we have to start doing it more often.

To pass it around and manipulate space is very difficult and teams are more than happy to have two or three around Haaland and make it impossible for him to get to crosses. He still does well in those situations, but he'd much prefer to be played in more and in doing so you'd see him stretching the defence more often, keeping them on their toes for more of the game leaving them dead on their feet come the final few minutes.
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Absolutely agree. We have a Ferrari and use him like a Ford.

It shows just how good he is that he's put the numbers up that he has IMO. He often takes the first chance he gets in a game which is handy because he doesn't tend to get too many. Apart from the odd game that is.

He needs to do more too, though. He needs to use his physicality in certain duels because there's been times where he's been bullied out the game (Saliba/Gabriel, Rudiger and I'm sure there's more) but he's still only young and that'll come with experience.

Wouldn't change him for anybody else in world football. An absolute freak of a forward and will only get better!
 
skillman said:
Absolutely agree. We have a Ferrari and use him like a Ford.

It shows just how good he is that he's put the numbers up that he has IMO. He often takes the first chance he gets in a game which is handy because he doesn't tend to get too many. Apart from the odd game that is.

He needs to do more too, though. He needs to use his physicality in certain duels because there's been times where he's been bullied out the game (Saliba/Gabriel, Rudiger and I'm sure there's more) but he's still only young and that'll come with experience.

Wouldn't change him for anybody else in world football. An absolute freak of a forward and will only get better!
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He can definitely do more and so can the other players around him. If the opposition have decided we're going to lock him up and follow him all over the pitch, sticking like glue then he's got the ability to move into areas they're uncomfortable and out of position allowing someone else to take advantage. But too often we don't have anyone making the most of it. When we battered Arsenal in the run in a couple of years ago, it was only Rob Holding but De Bruyne took advantage of Haaland pulling him out of position and used the space that opened up.

We don't seem to have anyone who is willing to run beyond him or play closely enough with him to do the same. He's isolated and it wouldn't matter if he's taken Saliba/Rudiger or anyone else into midfield because there's no one moving into that space anyway.
 
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