9 | Erling Haaland - 2023/24

[citytill1die84]

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.

Weird theory.

 

[nellyonthewing]

He looked like he really couldn’t be arsed yesterday. I think he sussed that no one was going to provide the kind of ball he needed so he just stood there doing sweet f a . Very disappointing.

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

He allowed them to wrestle him, for a big unit he is easy to bully at times, he needs to be more angry and cleverer.

Yep. Needs some of that Drogba / Costa tenacity and aggression injected into his play

 

[supercity88]

In games like Saturday he needs to drop deeper and get a few touches on the ball and bully the opposition. He's the man the opposition focus on, so in dropping deeper or even pulling into a wider position it would cause some confusion and allow space for others to exploit.

 

[AirbagsOptionalTheReturn]

His form has dropped since the Madrid game when the thug started fouling him with impunity and all teams have followed suit now. Earl needs to slightly change his game and as others have said start dropping a little deeper and maybe wide. Then the wrestling should be more obvious. He needs refs to help him as well as at the moment it’s seems like any WWE move is allowed on him but if he outmuscles someone it’s a foul!

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

His form has dropped since the Madrid game when the thug started fouling him with impunity and all teams have followed suit now. Earl needs to slightly change his game and as others have said start dropping a little deeper and maybe wide. Then the wrestling should be more obvious. He needs refs to help him as well as at the moment it’s seems like any WWE move is allowed on him but if he outmuscles someone it’s a foul!

Another example of us being refereed differently.

 

[B\connellblue]

If he was better in the air you could go route one when all else has failed. He seems to mistime a lot of his jumps. In fairness to him the service Saturday was wank.

 

[M16 citeh]

Another example of us being refereed differently.

Can you imagine if that var goal was given against us there'd be 0 coverage or outrage haha

 

[eastmanc]

He's an out and out goalscorer and he will soon start scoring again. Too many asking him to do things that he has never done in his career to date. He will be alright.

 

[supercity88]

He's an out and out goalscorer and he will soon start scoring again. Too many asking him to do things that he has never done in his career to date. He will be alright.

He's doing alright on the goal scoring front still! The levels at City are so high now, everyone has to do things they haven't done before. The whole team needs to improve and go to new heights and Haaland is no exception. He's a world class goalscorer and you don't want him in the centre circle when a cross gets put in he might have buried, but he does have to try and help the team to win in games like Saturday by getting involved more.

Real Madrid set a benchmark of sorts in the away leg last season. Grapple him and stop him moving in behind. Ref let it happen and he was nullified. Against Inter they did a similar thing, but at times he did drop in and try to link up and that caused them issues. But it's a game of chess at times. If they're so focussed on Haaland then he should move wide and give them something to worry about. They can't grapple him if he's out wide and running at them. A little run into a deeper position to draw a defender out as someone else runs in. Those things we've seen from him before - he did it against Arsenal at home really well with De Bruyne. But sometimes he'll need to do it against a back 5 on the edge of their box like Wolves.

He's allowed a bad spell though, he's still young, still developing and still largely delivering.