Are City a better all round team without Haaland?

[Brewster's millions]

Many of our players are safe and lack leadership,they are content to stay in a comfort zone and go through the motions,we lack personality on the pitch IMO.

We need to recruit some more aggression and directness,find players who will take agame by the scruff and inspire those around them.

This is down to management.

A lot of players are going through the motions at the moment, and the problem only gets worse when things are going against us and we’re lacking confidence, with our play becoming slower and safer.

We will have at least two new midfielders next season and this is a good opportunity to buy a different type of player with more physicality and aggression. However I think there needs to be a more fundamental change to our tactics and attitude if we’re going to get the best out of Haaland. We’ve had him for six months now and we still don’t want to play an early ball to him, or even early crosses, and I can only assume that’s because Guardiola wants it to be like this.

If people haven’t seen them already, they should watch the highlights from the Napoli - Juventus game the other day. Napoli humped them 5-1, and some poor defending from Juventus certainly contributed to the goals. But Napoli get the ball in early to Oshimen and put teams on the back foot, and then they have quality players attacking the ball from deep. It’s a more technical and precise style of play than the lazy, safe passes we’re making at the moment.

 

[Mr HJ]

100% no - we need to revert to players having the confidence to play an earlier ball for him. It starts at the back where without Stones we take four of five touches before beginning any move forward. Bernie, Phil and Riyad yesterday often refused to play a ball in for Erling and by the time they were looking for him all the space had gone.We are playing as if we don't have a striker at the moment. We can't just have Kev as the only one who attempts early through balls - Jack showed he can do that so for me he needs a run in the side.

 

[blue_hawk]

to get the best out of Haaland we need the winger closer to him. to get the wingers closer to him we need overlapping fullbacks. to have overlapping fullbacks we need better midfielders

Spot on. This is how we played early on in the season with the front three of Foden-Haaland-Grealish. If you look back at the highlights of the 6-3 derby, the wingers were very narrow, with KDB/Bernardo taking turns with the fullbacks in overlapping.

 

[FantasyIreland]

A lot of players are going through the motions at the moment, and the problem only gets worse when things are going against us and we’re lacking confidence, with our play becoming slower and safer.

We will have at least two new midfielders next season and this is a good opportunity to buy a different type of player with more physicality and aggression. However I think there needs to be a more fundamental change to our tactics and attitude if we’re going to get the best out of Haaland. We’ve had him for six months now and we still don’t want to play an early ball to him, or even early crosses, and I can only assume that’s because Guardiola wants it to be like this.

If people haven’t seen them already, they should watch the highlights from the Napoli - Juventus game the other day. Napoli humped them 5-1, and some poor defending from Juventus certainly contributed to the goals. But Napoli get the ball in early to Oshimen and put teams on the back foot, and then they have quality players attacking the ball from deep. It’s a more technical and precise style of play than the lazy, safe passes we’re making at the moment.

I dont even enjoy watching us anymore,our football has become so predictable and boring.

Long gone are the days when we used to sing 'we'll score when we want'

We need big change,and that starts at the top.

 

[Tolmie scores]

But he has still scored 27 goals so the team must have been doing something right before this run of games. The great majority of them not coming from counters.

Against weaker teams who couldn't stop KDB and importantly, early doors. Teams first focussed on marking Haaland ..impossible task. Better to focus on cutting off tge service, which is whybwe are seeing a dramatic slow down

 

[TFC]

We need big change,and that starts at the top.

Instincts tell me we might be seeing it sooner than we think. It's not what I want, but we've seen this movie before with Pep. If he thinks he's not getting what he wants out of the squad - its sabbatical time.

 

[bellsouth]

It would help if our wingers actually tried to beat a man instead of playing it backwards. I know it’s the way they’ve been instructed but yesterday there were many times when Foden, Mahrez and Grealish later had one on ones with the full backs. You’ve got to have a go sometimes, get past them at that time and pull back for Erling. Normally they are double up out wide but yesterday Utd realised they could leave one on them as they were still going to pass backwards regardless. Be a tiny bit more adventurous, please, at least occasionally!

 

[FantasyIreland]

Instincts tell me we might be seeing it sooner than we think. It's not what I want, but we've seen this movie before with Pep. If he thinks he's not getting what he wants out of the squad - its sabbatical time.

Nobody wants it because he has been the best manager we could ever have hoped for,surpassing all expectation.

However.....something is off,the players are feeling it,the fans are sensing it.....its crept into performances over the past few months and we are now becoming unrecognisable from the team that was obliterating opponents with skill,power,and craft while entertaining us to the rafters at the same time.

We need new ideas and a new approach,if Pep cant find it then we need to find a candidate that can.While its very early days and i/we may be worrying unnecessarily.......but the Rags got it all wrong,failed to act properly,and it devastated their standing......we cannot allow similar to happen here.

 

[nellyonthewing]

It would help if our wingers actually tried to beat a man instead of playing it backwards. I know it’s the way they’ve been instructed but yesterday there were many times when Foden, Mahrez and Grealish later had one on ones with the full backs. You’ve got to have a go sometimes, get past them at that time and pull back for Erling. Normally they are double up out wide but yesterday Utd realised they could leave one on them as they were still going to pass backwards regardless. Be a tiny bit more adventurous, please, at least occasionally!

I think Foden is showing how pissed off he is being stuck out wide with a full back up his chuff and an instruction to keep possession..

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

With the players we have we are EASILY capable of having this sort of build up for Haaland. KDB, Grealish, Foden, Cancelo to name a few are all capable of this type of aggressive run with Haaland belting forward. It scares the shit out of teams and really puts them off commiting too many players forward, in effect its a form of defense as well as attack. We need this type of goal in our armourment but we won't have it with the slow side to side build up play we consistently use, don't get me wrong, it's not one or the other, it's about having both options