Case for Erling Haaland to be the PFA Player of the season.

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Merlin's Magic

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The end of a long club football season is upon us. The discussions have already started about who should be the PFA player and young player of the season. Nico is the favourite to win the young crown but the main award is a bit more open. Talks of Bruno Fernandes and Declan Rice as the frontrunners is rising. There has been fleeting voices about Rayan Cherki but he has not started enough to be in contention this season. So, I was thinking about who has been the most influential for the side which has already won one cup and is in very strong position to win the other two domestic titles. Who has the individual stats to back that claim. And, the answer is an obvious but not hyped enough one - Erling Haaland.

Now, lets look at the frontrunners first. Fernandes had been good for United and has the stats to back his claim (8G, 18A). But his better form has come after half the season has passed. He along with his team was dogsh**t before January. Even after their "mini revival", they are still 3rd, a huge 12 points behind City. They got kicked out of both the cups at the first hurdle too. One thing is clear though, he has been the only player who has been above average for them and that's why he stand out (plus the obvious Utd bias).
Rice is a weird case though, he doesn't have the stats to back his claim but he has been consistent over the season. His team is still very much in contention for the PL title and he has been their best player over the season. But, he has been very average in the bigger games this season. A player playing the position that Rice plays, has to dominate the bigger games to win the individual awards as they don't have the G/A stats to back their claim (case in point Rodders).

Back to Erling. He is the top scorer in PL with 24 goals and has assisted 7 too. There are still 5 games left and he has the chance to reach 30 goals and 10 assists in a PL season. That's an extremely rare milestone that has only been done twice in a 38 match season by Suarez & Salah. They both won the Player of season in the respective seasons. He has crucially delivered in the biggest games of the season. That has been the stick to beat him with since he came to City. He has scored home & away against Arsenal & Liverpool, the 4 toughest fixtures in the season (3 being the winning goals, the 4th cancelled by a last minute leveller). He also scored a hattrick vs Liverpool in the FA Cup. His goals have directly been the winning goals 10 times this league season. That's the sort of impact you expect from a player of the season, a talisman, a genuine world class player. A player with that sort of stats will be a shoo-in for the player of the season in a different league. I don't get my head around the fact that his name is not being called out more often by media and pundits when they discuss about the potential candidates. He will be the deserving winner for me this season.
 
Nevizade said:
A victim of his own standards. Any other striker with 24 goals and 7 assists to their name would be right up there.
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Nail on the head. He should be in the conversation.

The candidates for me are:

Haaland - see the stats
Semenyo - as above, moving from Bournemouth probably costs him despite his output remaining high
O'Reilly - incredible season
Bernardo - unbelievable wherever he plays and whatever he does
Ratboy Fernandes - could break the assists record
Gabriel - big goals and solid defensively unless Haaland schools him
Xhaka - has led Sunderland to an impressive season
Thiago - 21 goals for Brentford

Cherki is probably just down the list simply because he wasn't in the side as much at the start of the season. He'll break the assists record next year.
 
Haaland: 24 goals / 7 assists (Premier League).

That's the standout attacking output from any PL player. I can't think of a defensive player who has had a good enough game to challenge this.
 
Blueknows said:
Bias ? dont forgot Sergio won the golden boot one season and didnt even make the PFA team of the year
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Sergio missed out several times.

The PL team was picked as a 4-4-2 formation for many years. Harry Kane was nailed on for one of the forward slots and then there was a revolving door of others (some deserving, some less so) who joined him for several seasons. It wasn’t until they changed it to 4-3-3 that Sergio was selected.
 
People talking about fernandez and assist record. For me its not about the numbers but the quality of assists. KDB assists alot of them was remarkable to near on impossible. Fernandez has probably a number of corners, I deffo remember a 5 yard pass to someone who smashed it in from 30 yards. Even the PE teacher said a few seasons ago its not an important stat. Not that long ago the little shit played dead after a challenge then jumped up moaning to the ref whilst the opposition strolled passed him and went up the other end and scored, that is still in his game. The last game he played, I watched him either pass it off the pitch or to an opponent several times in 10 mins, but then he takes a corner and somebody scores and he is gods gift.

I reckon if we win the league then it will be silva.
If arsenal win it it will be rice.
 
Milesvk said:
People talking about fernandez and assist record. For me its not about the numbers but the quality of assists. KDB assists alot of them was remarkable to near on impossible. Fernandez has probably a number of corners, I deffo remember a 5 yard pass to someone who smashed it in from 30 yards. Even the PE teacher said a few seasons ago its not an important stat. Not that long ago the little shit played dead after a challenge then jumped up moaning to the ref whilst the opposition strolled passed him and went up the other end and scored, that is still in his game. The last game he played, I watched him either pass it off the pitch or to an opponent several times in 10 mins, but then he takes a corner and somebody scores and he is gods gift.

I reckon if we win the league then it will be silva.
If arsenal win it it will be rice.
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Agree
 
If Haaland doesn’t win it then it just shows how good he actually is. Because the majority of outsiders say he’s had a poor season despite scoring winners in massive games and having 24 goals 7 assists with 5 games still to play! Any other player did that they’d be favourites for ballon dor let alone PFA player of the year
 
Milesvk said:
People talking about fernandez and assist record. For me its not about the numbers but the quality of assists. KDB assists alot of them was remarkable to near on impossible. Fernandez has probably a number of corners, I deffo remember a 5 yard pass to someone who smashed it in from 30 yards. Even the PE teacher said a few seasons ago its not an important stat. Not that long ago the little shit played dead after a challenge then jumped up moaning to the ref whilst the opposition strolled passed him and went up the other end and scored, that is still in his game. The last game he played, I watched him either pass it off the pitch or to an opponent several times in 10 mins, but then he takes a corner and somebody scores and he is gods gift.

I reckon if we win the league then it will be silva.
If arsenal win it it will be rice.
Click to expand...
Little off topic, but funnily enough i was watching a De Bruyne top assists for city on youtube last night and fuck me some of the passes he made were ridiculous. No wonder Haaland score so many goals his first season
 
Milesvk said:
People talking about fernandez and assist record. For me its not about the numbers but the quality of assists. KDB assists alot of them was remarkable to near on impossible. Fernandez has probably a number of corners, I deffo remember a 5 yard pass to someone who smashed it in from 30 yards. Even the PE teacher said a few seasons ago its not an important stat. Not that long ago the little shit played dead after a challenge then jumped up moaning to the ref whilst the opposition strolled passed him and went up the other end and scored, that is still in his game. The last game he played, I watched him either pass it off the pitch or to an opponent several times in 10 mins, but then he takes a corner and somebody scores and he is gods gift.

I reckon if we win the league then it will be silva.
If arsenal win it it will be rice.
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Haaland scoring 40 tap ins is still him scoring 40 goals. Someone passing across the box for the tap in 20 times is still 20 assists. There's no argument that Fernandes is better than De Bruyne, even if he gets more assists, but it's not the case that he just puts a bang average cross into the box for someone to score. His delivery is largely excellent, he's just not got the all round game De Bruyne has.

The last game he played was against Chelsea and that was a good assist.

There's no chance he should be winning PFA player of the season though.
 
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