Are City a better all round team without Haaland?

[richards30]

People said Dias wasn’t at his best but I think we miss him a lot!

Yep! Ruben suffered to pep constantly changing the back line imo.

 

[Thornliebank]

It's the slow build up and the need for 30 passes just outside the opposition penalty box usually from one side of the pitch to the other and back again , and sometimes even all the way back to our own goalkeeper.

 

[Brewster's millions]

Buy a winger with pace who can get to the line and deliver a ball into the box from an angle which is hard to defend. Like we did for 2/3 seasons when we were at our peak.

Try to get the ball to Haaland quickly, rather than lots of lateral and backward passing.

Give Haaland more confidence in him receiving a ball if he makes a run.

Not sure it’s more complicated than that.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Buy a winger with pace who can get to the line and deliver a ball into the box from an angle which is hard to defend. Like we did for 2/3 seasons when we were at our peak.

This part would be of great benefit to both Haaland and us in general as an option.

 

[Brewster's millions]

This part would be of great benefit to both Haaland and us in general as an option.

I understand that all teams need to evolve, but I still find it strange that we’ve moved away from this tactic in such a wholesale fashion given how successful it was in helping us to break teams down.

With the possible exception of Foden, none of our wing players can get to the line and put a cross in now. Even when we had Sterling, Guardiola persisted in playing him on the left over the past couple of years, so it seems he simply doesn’t want wingers to do this now.

 

[Goater=Legend]

Need to get over this false nine mentality we still seem to have. Get it forward and quick, i dont understand why we keep pissing around with it letting the opposition get back into position.

We've gone for a striker that loves to play off the shoulder and is a monster in the box, stop playing it safe.

 

[Dirty Harry]

I understand that all teams need to evolve, but I still find it strange that we’ve moved away from this tactic in such a wholesale fashion given how successful it was in helping us to break teams down.

With the possible exception of Foden, none of our wing players can get to the line and put a cross in now. Even when we had Sterling, Guardiola persisted in playing him on the left over the past couple of years, so it seems he simply doesn’t want wingers to do this now.

He probably has his reasons mate, giving up possession most likely, although I personally think it’s folly to take away such a potent option if that is the case, they don’t particularly need to go past the fullback and to the line either (Rick Holden did it at Oldham for years), just the ball played to them in the right area for them to have or create a bit of space, Haaland will be there 9 times out of 10 I’m sure.

 

[Craig]

He probably has his reasons mate, giving up possession most likely, although I personally think it’s folly to take away such a potent option if that is the case, they don’t particularly need to go past the fullback and to the line either (Rick Holden did it at Oldham for years), just the ball played to them in the right area for them to have or create a bit of space, Haaland will be there 9 times out of 10 I’m sure.

When we played that way though we always dominated possession anyway

 

[langy]

All the problems were present in the last few months of last season aswell. We fucking fell over the line in the League. Its not Haaland, without his goals we would be somewhere close to Chelsea in the League because we've been fucking shite.

This slow tempo, mental formations and constant needless rotation are killing the team stone dead.

We aren't creating enough chances at the moment
Apart from the fa cup against Chelsea we arnt as fluid

 

[Dirty Harry]

When we played that way though we always dominated possession anyway

I think the end result though is that it’s a quicker ball into the box most times so potentially a quicker turn over, I don’t have a problem with that as at least the fullbacks are more likely to be in a position to deal with counter attacks, but I think Pep very likely sees it differently .