9 | Erling Haaland - 2023/24

[JDV]

It's been my theory for a while now that Haaland has it in his contract that he will start every PL and UCL game unless injured, and he cannot be subbed off unless he has already scored or gets injured.

If anyone can disprove this theory with facts, not only would I be interested but kind of relieved because my theory has Pep's hands tied in a way I don't think is great for the team. But I can't think of a single time the above theory can be disproved.

Who are we going to sub him off for?

 

[cleavers]

zero service but not involved either, anonymous

That's probably insulting anonymous.

 

[TrentGrisham]

Who are we going to sub him off for?

Move Alvarez up top or even Foden. We were pretty fucking good with him as a false 9 IIRC.

 

[wolviedinho]

Worst game today for me. Where is the hunger? It’s almost as if he has resigned himself that he won’t get good service. Needs to be a more focal hold up forward in games like today.

No service is not his fault but he could have done abit better today Imo. Hard to criticise a goal scoring phenomenon.

Not aggressive enough just like the rest of them.

 

[Keeper!]

Shocking performance and has looked very ordinary this season, needs to up his general game enormously, a great goal scorer, truly great but at this time a very , very poor footballer.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Sadly with shit performance like that he’s giving the opportunity to easily award the little one Balon dor

He shouldn’t be winning that anyway.

There are more deserving players in our team than him. Goals are what grab attention in the highlights but goals only happen in moments in games. Football is about the dictation of play from minute-to-minute and Håland barely features in any of that.

I love his goalscoring dominance and I hope he stays with us until he retires and breaks every goalscoring record in England. But if Håland won the Balon d’Or over Rodri, Stones, Bernardo, de Bruyne… it would be because people watch highlights of games and not because he’s the best player in Europe.

 

[the plasterer]

As bad as he was yesterday, and he was bloody awful, he had absolutely no service whatsoever

 

[mrn1981]

Wow. Some of the comments on here? What have we become as a fan base. One loss and it’s all Erlings fault. We need to be very careful otherwise we’ll become just as self entitled as those down the road and the dippers.

We’ll bounce back and so will Erling. Lets
Get behind the team. Onwards and upwards

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Not sure why he’s getting abuse. Had zero service today. They all played badly

As bad as he was yesterday, and he was bloody awful, he had absolutely no service whatsoever

Strikers aren’t just there to be served, they are part of the team and should be involved with the general play as well.

 

[skillman]

The thing that frustrates me most about us not getting him involved in games is that his touch and link up play is superb. We have that many players up top that he’d have runners around him if we gave him the ball rather than keeping him anonymous until he’s tapping one in.

Not complaining, though, because his stats since joining are a joke but in games like yesterday it would be a nice option to have when plan A isn’t working.

Feels like Pep has gone polar opposites with his 9s - when he came and with Aguero it was a case of him not playing unless he did more. Now Haaland is told to wait for a chance and not get involved elsewhere. A bit strange.