Are City a better all round team without Haaland?

[Bobby the blue]

Maybe I’m going mad but didn’t Bernardo mostly play ahead of Sane on the right when Kev was out injured in the 18/19 season? Pretty sure that’s what made Sane throw his toys out.

This revision of De Bruyne’s style of play might also be the worst thing I’ve ever seen on bluemoon. This is a thread where we’ve got people wanting Kev and Haaland out of the side - our only world class players and who would get into a world XI.

Couldn’t disagree more with some of the opinions on here and I reckon anyone who works in football would look at you like a complete idiot for thinking De Bruyne (or Haaland) makes our team worse.

100% agree. I think some posters think they are smarter than they actually are and come up with these views in the hope of making themselves look cool and all hipster.
It’s rubbish. Haaland and de Bruyne are absolutely world class and special players.
De Bruyne is not on the way down just yet. Do people forget games like wolves last year.

Both will have a big say on how we finish this season.

 

[HelloCity]

100% agree. I think some posters think they are smarter than they actually are and come up with these views in the hope of making themselves look cool and all hipster.
It’s rubbish. Haaland and de Bruyne are absolutely world class and special players.
De Bruyne is not on the way down just yet. Do people forget games like wolves last year.

Both will have a big say on how we finish this season.

It’s one of those character flaws where people want to sound like they know more than they actually do. Reckon they know more than Pep and the rest of football?

There also isn’t a single midfielder this season performing better than De Bruyne and De Bruyne isn’t even close to top form.

When Haaland was injured when we played Leicester and Fulham and barely looked like scoring in either game.

De Bruyne in that Fulham game, with City down to 10 men, actually produced one of his best ever performances and Haaland came on and instantly made us look a threat.

With De Bruyne, what people often don’t realise is that trying your hardest and being off form is 100% better than players who are off form and completely vanish from the game.

Unfortunately people have very short term memories. Since a cup game against a mish mash Chelsea team, also out of form, was our last game and we won, we’re now a better side without our two world class players than we are without.

 

[its a Barm]

Only on bluemoon do we get the craziest suggestions about why kdb or haaland shouldn't play.
Unbelievable Jeff

 

[urban genie]

neither yes nor no

 

[Kazzydeyna]

This has been the media narrative since the summer.
Don’t fall for it.
Ask yourself, would I be gutted if , god forbid, Haaland broke his leg tomorrow ruling him out for the season, or would I think “brilliant. We’ll be better now until may”

There’s your answer

 

[Crooked_rain]

Nope

people are asking this question because we haven’t played great in the past few weeks, but mostly down to individual performances of players who don’t look sharp.

Nobody was asking it when we were banging 6 goals part United and blew them away. We were very fluid that day, and have been in other games.

We’ve scored a lot more goals than last season after the same games, so there’s the proof we are a better attacking threat than last season.

Defensively we haven’t been quite as good, but we never seem to have a settled defence, plus a lot of players haven’t seemed to be at the top of their game, Haaland is one of the few that has.

So I think this narrative is a load of bollocks and it won’t be a question by May.

 

[youngbob]

Maybe I’m going mad but didn’t Bernardo mostly play ahead of Sane on the right when Kev was out injured in the 18/19 season? Pretty sure that’s what made Sane throw his toys out.

Think it was more that Bernardo played in midfield next to Silva, in front of (either) Fernandinho or Gundogan. Sane didn't play much in the second half of the season because Sterling was ahead of him in the team. Whenever Mahrez played (which was more as the season continued), Sterling was moved over into Sane's place on the left. I remember Pep starting Sane away at Burnley, giving him a chance on the left against a team in the bottom half, and he was absolute rubbish. Got hooked after an hour for Jesus and never started another game for us (except for the Community Shield when he got injured).

 

[Crooked_rain]

Managers and teams have worked Haaland out a bit,

He’s played 4 games since the World Cup, scored 4 goals

Averaging a goal a game, basically in line with his whole career so far

So I’m not exactly sure what they have worked out, but it’s certainly not stopping him

 

[wolviedinho]

The team are more fluid without Haaland. Like we used to be with a false 9.

Managers and teams have worked Haaland out a bit, bar those moments of pure striker instinct that he will always have. 2 centre halfs doubling up on Haaland. And when Kev get’s the ball on the right to cross over to Haaland, teams are doubling up on Kev to stop those crosses that have led to so many goals for Haaland at the start of the season.

Pep needs to tweak his Haaland tactics a bit, just to mix up his movement and the teams movement around him.

But Haaland will always be one of the first names on the team sheet.

Teams have not worked out how to stop Haaland. City as a functioning team are undercooked this season for many reasons all of which have been discussed to death.

Players/manager are not robots. 3rd year in a row trying to win the league was always going to be a big ask. The list of problems grows daily. Maybe we are just mentally/physically finding it hard to reach those very high levels this time around? This it, no other theory is needed.

Haaland is a wonderful player who unfortunately has come into a team this season that is not playing to its maximum capability.

 

[shevtheblue]

We have played 2 seasons with a false 9, Alvarez is closer to being a false 9, but we have never had a striker like Haaland in any of Pep's City teams. It will take time to make adjustments to that, of course the players understand how to play without him. Fact of the matter is, Pep will make adjustments until he finds a way to get the best out of Haaland - and that should strike the fear of God into every other team considering his goals per game right now!

I think that's why we have seen him moving KDB closer to the front 3 and sometimes in the front 3, although i'm not convinced that's the answer. For me, to get the best out of Haaland you need true width. We have width but it's mostly in the positional sense and we don't use it to whip crosses in or get in behind regularly. That's something we had with Sane and Sterling, whether we need to go back to something like that or Pep can genius his way into another style, yet to be seen.