9 | Erling Haaland - 2023/24

[red 2 hats]

Start giving him something to feed from, his strength is running onto the ball, he's a defenders nightmare when played through, he's still making the runs but we're constantly passing backwards and sideways, no wonder he looks pissed off.
Play to his strength and the goals will flow again.

 

[mattcity5]

Watching the Netflix show reminded me how clinical he was in the first half of last year especially. There was a slight drop-off in the 2nd half of the season that I put down to teams starting to cater for him more, but obviously he was still hugely effective.

This season he's doing okay but not as clinical nor getting us the big goals that matter.

I'm hoping this is down to him still getting back to peak fitness and form following his long injury lay-off.

Or possibly it was just unrealistic to hope he could carry on the way he started long term?

I think he's getting too wrapped up in arguments with opposition centre-backs during games now though. It feels like they're trying to distract him from his game possibly successfully at times.

 

[Crooked_rain]

Also other players picking up the slack, Haaland towards the end of the season didn’t pull us through Gundogan did, Everton, fa cup final and a few others. Foden had been doing that earlier but since KDB came back has been moved out wide when he was running games and scoring goals. At the moment for me I’d be putting Foden back in the middle and bringing KDB on later on in games to exploit the tiredness of teams, both him and Haaland seem to be struggling to get back fitness levels.

Did Haaland not pull us through vs Everton and Brentford recently? They were massive goals in games we were struggling in. Every game is a big game at this stage.

He scored 10 goals within 4 or 5 weeks of coming back from injury. 4 in his last 5 league games before the dippers and arsenal games, which were shit games for attackers on both sides to play in.

Don't buy into the media narrative. He's scored some big goals recently like the two games I mentioned. Tell me another player that scored about 10 in the space of a month in all competitions...

Not really sure why people are saying he's not as prolific, he has 29 goals in all competitions and has missed two months. Given his rate of scoring, had he not missed two months of football he would be on course to match his 52 of last season. We still have potentially 16 games in all competitions. He could end up with around 40 quite easily, despite being out two months.....


I doubt there's a player in the world that could miss two months of a season and still be sitting at the top of the Premier League scorers chart.

 

[B\connellblue]

First up pay is wholly irrelevant, secondly comparing Bony with Erling is a false comparison because although Erling occasionally looks as clumsy as Bony in build up play he always carries the goal threat which Bony so rarely did.

Absolutely i agree that fair minded posters like yourself should be able to point out his shortcomings. I was more having a pop at the type of entitled fans who have a hissy fit when he's not banging in hatricks every week or something similar.

Centre forward is the one position on the pitch where perceptions of the whole performance can be positively altered by one moment. If he slots in that easy chance at the back post today this thread is full of people wanking themselves silly about what a superstar he is. As it is he missed it but he'll keep getting there to give us a chance of winning games cos he's the best in the business.

Just out of curiosity? Why is pay irrelevant.
I would have ethought someone on £300 grand a week would be expected to be a better performer than someone earning £10,000 a week.

 

[Phil1]

Just out of curiosity? Why is pay irrelevant.
I would have ethought someone on £300 grand a week would be expected to be a better performer than someone earning £10,000 a week.

He is a better performer than someone earning 10k a week.

What’s your point? Or are you happy to jump on the he’s shit bandwagon.

Which would be no surprise whatsoever.

 

[hilts]

Fitness, I think he is way off and at the end of the season we may well discover how bad this injury was.

He wouldn't be on the pitch if he was carrying a really bad injury.

 

[Axel Freed]

Just out of curiosity? Why is pay irrelevant.
I would have ethought someone on £300 grand a week would be expected to be a better performer than someone earning £10,000 a week.

Irrelevant in the sense that the guy I was replying to was comparing Erling’s pay to the average guy on here

As a general rule people get paid what they’re worth

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Does anyone else feel that he's not making the constant runs he was at the start of last season? It was amazing watching him off the ball last season, constantly making intelligent movements, and I wonder if part of this need for him to be more involved in the build up has affected that part of his game a bit.

 

[mancityscot]

Does anyone else feel that he's not making the constant runs he was at the start of last season? It was amazing watching him off the ball last season, constantly making intelligent movements, and I wonder if part of this need for him to be more involved in the build up has affected that part of his game a bit.

He's not really running at all imo, its more of a leisurely park jog for 90+ mins.

 

[hilts]

If he isn’t 100% for shouldn’t play .

Rather go back to false 9.

We also have another striker ready to play in his preferred position