9 | Erling Haaland - 2023/24

[come-on-barney]

IMHO the lad is a world class striker as he proved last season when we played to his strengths. The fact that we have lost a lot of creativity from the side is not the lads fault. Plus we lost Kevin for most of the season. Although not scoring goals he puts fear into the opponents defence and occupies two players at times, allowing more space. You can see why Pep might have preferred Kane, not because he’s a better striker, but just that he may fit the system better. However, you can’t blame Haaland, when we have lost a lot of creativity in the side this season. I think we will have a strong transfer window, and Haaland will be back to his best next season. Although think he might pop up with one or two critical goals over the next few weeks.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

Needs support and a bit of love not everyone piling into him. He's having a run of poor form but he will figure it out, he's a smart guy and it's a unique challenge. Every team we play plays deep and compact now, even the top ones, because they see that if you do anything else he will kill you

I fear it's starting to get to the point that people will start expressing frustration towards him during games though. As others have said on here some City fans have a nasty streak and want to have a whipping boy. I never thought it would be the goal scoring record holder mind you.

City fans have always had a contrary streak. Best expressed by the worst we became the better the more passionate the support became. But now it seems some people are losing perspective as well as following daft trends for their own sake.
I thought the whole team showed courage, spirit and tenacity last night in an elite competition against an elite team in an elite stadium where they expect rather than hope to win the CL. A lot of mistakes were made ( I remember Bernardo losing the ball at least 3 or 4 times) and Haaland made his fair share. But he like everyone else played his part.
People say he doesn’t press enough - for fucks sake he is not built for the press in the way that Alvarez or Foden is. I agree he’s missed some sitters this season but the man has scored over 80 goals in less than 2 seasons and people (I think a gobshite minority) use the entitlement to have a view to carp.
We have 3 games in a week coming up that will decide whether we continue on the road to a unique double treble - yes a double treble, my team can make huge progress next week.
That’s why I am saying, and I think most sensible fans are - no fucking negativity, I don’t care if Haaland doesn’t play like Messi, I don’t care if anyone makes a mistake - we all need to get behind the team and manager because football history tells us these times will never come again. We should cherish them and last night when we were 2-1 down to 2 deflections and staring at being swamped by a rapid and hugely talented Madrid forward line - I was so proud that the lads dug in, survived and came out with a good result

 

[Kazzydeyna]

The same “fans” piling into this lad will be the exact same fans slagging the club off if he ever gets sold.
Especially when he is banging in the goals for a European, or god forbid, English, rival.
I don’t remember Bob Taylor or Gareth Taylor getting anywhere near this amount of stick. Ever. And they WERE shite. So shite it was almost cool to support them.

Worst fans in football. We don’t deserve this team.

 

[Paul1970]

I’ve never seen him have a bad game.
I’ve seen him have games where he doesn’t get a lot of service. And games where he’s up against the biggest club in the world in their own backyard and then contribute to a superb team performance.

Should we sell him and go balls deep for Rashford?

You make sone valid points but to say you’ve never seen him have a bad game is crazy .

 

[hilts]

he needs some fucking service and outside of KDB rarely ever gets a proper pass which is strange as creative players like Grealish, Bernardo, Foden with some crosses-through balls and some lobbed balls into the box from Kova, Rodri should not be that difficult but rarely happens.

There will be reasons for that, those players won't be purposely not feeding him. There is a lack of space for the guy. However in terms of competing with his marker last night he was bobbins. Rudiger dominated him. He needs to improve in those situations as it will give him space.

 

[skillman]

Pre occupying defenders while the others take advantage. Look how close Rudiger got to blocking Foden’s goal last night - if he didn’t have Haaland to look after too, he’d have been there a second earlier and made the tackle.

Personally fine with how he was last night, it was an obvious tactic to essentially have him there as a distraction rather than a focal point.

 

[Blue Maverick]

My dad made a point last night as Rudiger was so up his arse play it to the side about 5 yards so he could run onto it rather than try and hold it up, which Haaland is piss poor at, at least that way he has a fighting chance of getting past Rudiger. He created space for others last night especially in the second half, but the lad got zero service and it was a game where he was getting very little. Last year at home if it wasn’t for Courtois he would’ve had a first half hat trick. I expect KDB to start next week instead of Kovacic so he should get better service. Next season we need to change our system to suit him better, if we only rely on Kev to supply him then he will suffer as KDB comes to the end.

 

[blue by birth]

The same “fans” piling into this lad will be the exact same fans slagging the club off if he ever gets sold.
Especially when he is banging in the goals for a European, or god forbid, English, rival.
I don’t remember Bob Taylor or Gareth Taylor getting anywhere near this amount of stick. Ever. And they WERE shite. So shite it was almost cool to support them.

Worst fans in football. We don’t deserve this team.

The thing is you don't hear match going fans slagging Erling off.
He needs something to feed off..a few long balls to get onto the end of.
The lads a natural goalscorer and he will score plenty of important goals for us.
Just because a few internet fans slag Erling off doesn't make us the worst fans in football and we certainly do deserve this team... especially the long standing supporters who were there in our worst times.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Obviously struggling for form. But also getting limited service.
The team last night was never going to create masses of chances. Feeding off scraps.

But I think our players are wondering what the point of providing the ball to him is.

He's getting bullied by even average centre-backs, he's technically very limited even when he's in form so can't hold the ball up, his right foot is just for standing on and he loses the initiative in good positions when he tries to shift it onto his left foot, he's not that great in the air, he'll never score a goal like the one Yaya scored against Villa in 2013/14. He wouldn't even have scored any of the goals we scored last night.

He's either been worked out or got too comfortable. So what service would make a difference?

 

[GaudinoMotors]

The problem is FC24.
He does it all on there.