9 | Erling Haaland - 2023/24

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\Obviously, Haaland is having a worse season than the last. I think it's obvious he won't have a good end of the season. But for me that shouldn't be the conversation. The conversation should be, what do we do? Let me start saying that I think Haaland is the best striker with open field in the world. But that doesn't mean he is the best striker for us. Just like Courtois is a better GK than Ederson, but Ederson is better for us.

Our starting lineup has: Gvardiol who is wonderfully gifted in possession, but is not good at crossing the ball. Walker who is awful offensively. Rodri who is amazing on everything, but his offensive skills shine with deep passes to wingers/fullbacks in full speed, great dribbling with pass into the channels, or 1-2 with to get space to shoot. Bernardo who is great for the team, but not a creative passer at all. Grealish who is great at creating overloads that allows to change it quickly and get good shooting opportunities, and who is great at passing to a player free inside the box. Foden who is great at dribbling, has superb controls and great shooting, but it's not that creative with his passing (despite having a good pass). Only an aging KDB plays to the strengths of Haaland.

We have two options: we buy two new world-class winger, 2 world-class offensive FB and a world-class replacement for KDB. On top of that, we have to change the way we play completely. This would be stupid.

Or we just sell Haaland for 160-180 m and probably Bernardo (he is aging, this has been his worst season for us, still good, but not great) for 50m. That is 220m which is enough for 2 world class players and 1 good replacement for Rodri. I would try Alvarez for one season as our starting 9, because he clearly fits more our style. Buy Paqueta as Bernardo replacement, Frenkie De Jong/Barella/Kimmich as our new 8, a young DM (French league tends to have very good and physical ones). And also get an old 9 who is great at headers and presses a lot. Your Manzdukic, Mario Gomez, Klose, Llorente... who clearly accepts to be on the bench, but it is an option when the false 9 is not working. A Morata, Fullkrug, Immobile, Lewandowski (if he accepts to be on the bench), heck even Lukk de Jong.

I have nothing against Haaland, he is just not a good fit.
 
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skillman said:
Frustratingly, as soon as he came off last night we fashioned a chance which he would've been on the end of.

But that seems to happen a lot which always leaves me wondering whether we're better in the build-up without him and thus he wouldn't get that service regardless - a bit of a double-edged sword.

Simply put, we need to find a way to stretch the pitch. If he's on, we can't just be forcing teams deep anymore because he's useless when there's no space. If we pull teams onto us then it'll create gaps - or at least space - for him to operate in.

Pep has always said that the team needed to change to accommodate Haaland but it's been pretty evident this season that's not the case and it's been a matter of him feeding off scraps to try and score goals. Certainly in recent weeks anyway.

That doesn't excuse shit like being consistently beaten in the air no matter which defender he is up against or constantly being bullied off it when the ball comes to his feet, though. Just areas to improve on. We had Aguero essentially at his peak from the moment we bought him so it's a bit of an adjustment to now have a striker who isn't the finished article other than goalscoring.
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We tried drawing RM on to us at the start . They weren't biting . They know if you sit deep we will be camped out in their half vulnerable to a counter and Haaland is boxed up and not in the game. We might breakthrough against most EPL sides but we have no Plan B when it fails..
 
nellyonthewing said:
We tried drawing RM on to us at the start . They weren't biting . They know if you sit deep we will be camped out in their half vulnerable to a counter and Haaland is boxed up and not in the game. We might breakthrough against most EPL sides but we have no Plan B when it fails..
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Thing is, a fair few of his goals last season were from the pitch being made massive - the second away at West Ham for example - so I do wonder how/if we can get back to that rather than every game being against a low block.

First Arsenal, then Real Madrid. Kinell.

At least Liverpool come to win!
 
ChicagoBlue said:
The counterattack relies on players who can break at speed and give a defence no time to organize.

Most of the time, we lack the personnel to do that, as we lack speed, but the ball into open space behind for Haaland to run into is our best option there. Even that is about a 1 in 3 proposition, at best, when he gets behind the last defender.

We simply do not possess the rabbits employed by most clubs to do that.
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I'm not suggesting a switch in philosophy here just a tweak, when a team parks the bus and on the odd occasion they do push out and you break up an attack that should, in my opinion, be the optimal time to strike no matter your personnel no matter there attributes and if that's not suited to Halaand, Foden, Jack or Kdb then i have zero knowledge of the game. Let them see some green grass, not 16 bodies crammed around the box, just every know and again when the situation arises, add it to the armory. I want more counters not corners.
 
city warrior said:
\Obviously, Haaland is having a worse season than the last. I think it's obvious he won't have a good end of the season. But for me that shouldn't be the conversation. The conversation should be, what do we do? Let me start saying that I think Haaland is the best striker with open field in the world. But that doesn't mean he is the best striker for us. Just like Courtois is a better GK than Ederson, but Ederson is better for us.

Our starting lineup has: Gvardiol who is wonderfully gifted in possession, but is not good at crossing the ball. Walker who is awful offensively. Rodri who is amazing on everything, but his offensive skills shine with deep passes to wingers/fullbacks in full speed, great dribbling with pass into the channels, or 1-2 with to get space to shoot. Bernardo who is great for the team, but not a creative passer at all. Grealish who is great at creating overloads that allows to change it quickly and get good shooting opportunities, and who is great at passing to a player free inside the box. Foden who is great at dribbling, has superb controls and great shooting, but it's not that creative with his passing (despite having a good pass). Only an aging KDB plays to the strengths of Haaland.

We have two options: we buy two new world-class winger, 2 world-class offensive FB and a world-class replacement for KDB. On top of that, we have to change the way we play completely. This would be stupid.

Or we just sell Haaland for 160-180 m and probably Bernardo (he is aging, this has been his worst season for us, still good, but not great) for 50m. That is 220m which is enough for 2 world class players and 1 good replacement for Rodri. I would try Alvarez for one season as our starting 9, because he clearly fits more our style. Buy Paqueta as Bernardo replacement, Frenkie De Jong/Barella/Kimmich as our new 8, a young DM (French league tends to have very good and physical ones). And also get an old 9 who is great at headers and presses a lot. Your Manzdukic, Mario Gomez, Klose, Llorente... who clearly accepts to be on the bench, but it is an option when the false 9 is not working. A Morata, Fullkrug, Immobile, Lewandowski (if he accepts to be on the bench), heck even Lukk de Jong.

I have nothing against Haaland, he is just not a good fit.
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If Haaland were to be replaced, I would look at bringing in Isak at Newcastle. He would suit our style of play. As long as Pep and Haaland are both happy, then I suggest Pep will look to get the best out of Haaland next season.
 
justsaying said:
Hope city cash it before it worsens, he is not fit for our system, no influence on any big game, before you start talking about goals, palmer numbers are similar.
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May as well cash in the lot then because Palmer has more than everyone at City.
 
justsaying said:
Hope city cash it before it worsens, he is not fit for our system, no influence on any big game, before you start talking about goals, palmer numbers are similar.
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Haaland had 36 goals last season and set the all time record for goals in a single premier league campaign. When the fuck has Palmer ever done anything close to that? Half his goals are from the penalty spot anyways.

If 36 goals in a season isn't 'fitting our system' then I don't know what you expect from a striker. He's a great goal scorer in a tough bit of form at the minute.
 
justsaying said:
Hope city cash it before it worsens, he is not fit for our system, no influence on any big game, before you start talking about goals, palmer numbers are similar.
Click to expand...
Palmer has 9 penalties and the best manager in the history of football who worked with him every day for years decided to play people out of position instead of play him.
 
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