9 | Erling Haaland - 2025/26

To get the most out of haaland, pep had to change the way we play to suit him. He hasn’t in the slightest, so haaland is mostly a square peg in a round hole, something that amplified once kdb was out of the picture with age/injury.

He will still score good amounts because he’s haaland, but the fans who blame him and not pep for his under performance are just nuts to me.

Pep is failing haaland, not the other way around. It’s so obvious.
 
K-Bo said:
To get the most out of haaland, pep had to change the way we play to suit him. He hasn’t in the slightest, so haaland is mostly a square peg in a round hole, something that amplified once kdb was out of the picture with age/injury.

He will still score good amounts because he’s haaland, but the fans who blame him and not pep for his under performance are just nuts to me.

Pep is failing haaland, not the other way around. It’s so obvious.
Click to expand...
I blame them both to be fair, don't think we play to Haalands strengths but Haaland has to adapt more to us. There is a balance. He also needs to score the chances he gets as they are quite minimal if we continue to not create as much gong forwards.

It begs the question though, and I know last night was against Moldova, but he seems to consistently score for Norway, with much lesser players around him, so we can surely tweak and adapt to see the best out of him.
 
thegoatsthegoat said:
I blame them both to be fair, don't think we play to Haalands strengths but Haaland has to adapt more to us. There is a balance. He also needs to score the chances he gets as they are quite minimal if we continue to not create as much gong forwards.

It begs the question though, and I know last night was against Moldova, but he seems to consistently score for Norway, with much lesser players around him, so we can surely tweak and adapt to see the best out of him.
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Different quality of opposition. Thelo Aasgaard scored 4 last night, and he only came on in the 64th minute.

As far as I can see, Haaland also has just two goals against teams in the top 20 FIFA rankings. Mostly because he doesn't get to play the big sides that often, but it does suggest we shouldn't draw any major conclusions.
 
bluenova said:
Different quality of opposition. Thelo Aasgaard scored 4 last night, and he only came on in the 64th minute.

As far as I can see, Haaland also has just two goals against teams in the top 20 FIFA rankings. Mostly because he doesn't get to play the big sides that often, but it does suggest we shouldn't draw any major conclusions.
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Haaland gave Aasgaard the penalty so he could get his hatrick so you could say he may have had 6. Scoring 5/6 goals against anybody is an achievement which shouldn't be played down.

Gyokeres 70m & Isak 120m (20 mins tbf) couldn't manage 1 between them against the mighty Kosovo.
 
bluenova said:
Different quality of opposition. Thelo Aasgaard scored 4 last night, and he only came on in the 64th minute.

As far as I can see, Haaland also has just two goals against teams in the top 20 FIFA rankings. Mostly because he doesn't get to play the big sides that often, but it does suggest we shouldn't draw any major conclusions.
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It is but they don't play Moldova every week. Also remembering that Norway are not that good either. So if they can make chances for him then surely we can.
 
K-Bo said:
To get the most out of haaland, pep had to change the way we play to suit him. He hasn’t in the slightest, so haaland is mostly a square peg in a round hole, something that amplified once kdb was out of the picture with age/injury.

He will still score good amounts because he’s haaland, but the fans who blame him and not pep for his under performance are just nuts to me.

Pep is failing haaland, not the other way around. It’s so obvious.
Click to expand...
How do you suggest we change our style to suit him? He thrives off through balls from half way but that’s rarely on for us. Yes, we could play faster but he gets chances in virtually every game. Do you suggest more crosses? Hopefully Alt Nouri stats getting to the byline instead of inverted but Haaland seriously needs to improve his heading.
 
Magz said:
It has literally never happened before.
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The part you have omitted partly explains the one you have quoted.

Serbia have never lost by 5 goals at home, the last time before Sunday Turkey lost in an official home game by 6 goals was 60 years ago.

Strange results last few days.
 
thegoatsthegoat said:
It is but they don't play Moldova every week. Also remembering that Norway are not that good either. So if they can make chances for him then surely we can.
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True - but they do play relatively poor quality teams most of the time. If you're not qualifying for tournaments, the quality of opposition is mostly significantly below Premier League standard.

I'm not being critical of Haaland, just suggesting that we play at a different level to Norway, so he's bound to get different chances, and we'd be unlikely to be able to play the same way at City. Imagine sticking him in a League One side, alongside League One players, and against League one opposition. I doubt we'd learn much, no matter how many goals he scored :)
 
K-Bo said:
To get the most out of haaland, pep had to change the way we play to suit him. He hasn’t in the slightest, so haaland is mostly a square peg in a round hole, something that amplified once kdb was out of the picture with age/injury.

He will still score good amounts because he’s haaland, but the fans who blame him and not pep for his under performance are just nuts to me.

Pep is failing haaland, not the other way around. It’s so obvious.
Click to expand...
Yep haaland used to score ridiculous goals.
The goal against Dortmund for example.
Because he was confident.
It was flowing for him.
Now it's an effort to make a run because he knows he won't get the ball.
Pep has been unbelievable for us
But what haaland could achieve it's so disappointing to watch him now.
In his first season he was literally unstoppable.
In the derby he ran over the rags defence.
Scored a hat trick.
Set up a couple.
He was completely unstable.

Look at him now.
He gets out muscled on the ball.
Players out pace him.
Sorry but that's on pep.
We genuinely have a once in a life time player playing for city and we are literally not using him
 
In the time I've been going to football he's one of the very few players.
Messi
Ronaldinho
Been a couple of the others that if they had a good game they were literally a level above everyone else on the pitch.
If haaland is on it.
And receives the ball .
There is nothing any defender can do to stop him scoring a goal.
In my opinion he is a level above any other striker.
He's an average footballer.
But as a goal scorer he's like a fucking robot.
Only player I've loved more than him is el mago.
But that guy was and always will be god.
This lad could be miles and miles above any player we have ever had.
But we have to play to his strengths
 
Betterdeedthan red said:
In the time I've been going to football he's one of the very few players.
Messi
Ronaldinho
Been a couple of the others that if they had a good game they were literally a level above everyone else on the pitch.
If haaland is on it.
And receives the ball .
There is nothing any defender can do to stop him scoring a goal.
In my opinion he is a level above any other striker.
He's an average footballer.
But as a goal scorer he's like a fucking robot.
Only player I've loved more than him is el mago.
But that guy was and always will be god.
This lad could be miles and miles above any player we have ever had.
But we have to play to his strengths
Click to expand...
If he played against us every week with our high line, lack of pace and physicality in the middle, he'd get a hat trick every game.
 
I just rewatched the 11-1 Norway- Moldova "trashing" a few days ago.

Erling was on fire with 5 goals and 2 assists. When he is on it, he is very good at inviting the right pass or cross with his movement and body language. Any playmaker with awareness would spot that if not pressured hard enough (you probably have the issue of composure, space awareness and wishing not to take the risk to loose the ball as why this is difficult to execute at Premier League level). And with Moldova not being able to pressure the players on the ball hard enough, we saw 6-7 attempts at through balls from Odegaard to Haaland. 4 of them were very successful resulting in 2 goals and 1 assist. Bobb reached Haaland 3-4 times with crosses resulting in 2 goals in the follow ups (he got Norway one penalty as well, and Erling gave it away to Aasgaard so he could complete his hattrick).

Being in a position to use his movements is the key. To achieve this you probably have to combat your way to be able to pass with quality and enough movement (pass and move) to be able to spot and deliver on his movements.
 
Betterdeedthan red said:
Yep haaland used to score ridiculous goals.
The goal against Dortmund for example.
Because he was confident.
It was flowing for him.
Now it's an effort to make a run because he knows he won't get the ball.
Pep has been unbelievable for us
But what haaland could achieve it's so disappointing to watch him now.
In his first season he was literally unstoppable.
In the derby he ran over the rags defence.
Scored a hat trick.
Set up a couple.
He was completely unstable.

Look at him now.
He gets out muscled on the ball.
Players out pace him.
Sorry but that's on pep.
We genuinely have a once in a life time player playing for city and we are literally not using him
Click to expand...
He gets out muscled and out paced because of Pep? Can’t recall him being out paced to be fair. He needs through balls we know that but it’s rarely on the way we play more so because of how most teams set up against us. He’s a freakishly good goal scorer but as a player he’s not that special.
 
bluemoonandmore said:
I just rewatched the 11-1 Norway- Moldova "trashing" a few days ago.

Erling was on fire with 5 goals and 2 assists. When he is on it, he is very good at inviting the right pass or cross with his movement and body language. Any playmaker with awareness would spot that if not pressured hard enough (you probably have the issue of composure, space awareness and wishing not to take the risk to loose the ball as why this is difficult to execute at Premier League level). And with Moldova not being able to pressure the players on the ball hard enough, we saw 6-7 attempts at through balls from Odegaard to Haaland. 4 of them were very successful resulting in 2 goals and 1 assist. Bobb reached Haaland 3-4 times with crosses resulting in 2 goals in the follow ups (he got Norway one penalty as well, and Erling gave it away to Aasgaard so he could complete his hattrick).

Being in a position to use his movements is the key. To achieve this you probably have to combat your way to be able to pass with quality and enough movement (pass and move) to be able to spot and deliver on his movements.
Click to expand...
If I remember correctly, Norway scored quite a few 'on the break' a bit like the two he got against Wolves. That to me is the key. We have to find a way to get him moving fast into space in the opposition half. Putting a few more crosses to his feet or head wouldn't hurt either.
 
blueinsa said:
It’s crazy but a perfect example of some of the idiots on here of late that he gets slagged off on here at times.
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I wonder what they'd say if it was announced that he was going across town?


Lavinda Past said:
Kane and Haaland in tandem would destroy the PL.
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Depends upon which one Pep puts on the wing...
 
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