Erling Haaland

[eastlandsblue]

Rock up in Jan, off them the clause fee & Jesus for their top four race hopes etc. He might not be a striker for us, but in the Bundesliga i reckon he does numbers as a 9. Win win.

Why offer them one of our best performers this season, and one who doesn't moan about squad rotation. Money is enough

 

[oldius]

Mahrez is an odd one. He’s been a standout in our attack for a while now but it feels like most fans are as keen to get rid of him as they are with Sterling who’s been out of form for over 18 months. Baffles me.

I for one think we’ll miss what he brings when he goes. His passing, directness and finishing is underrated and I think he’d walk into every other starting line up in the league.

He is just one of those that some fans don't take to. Who knows why?

 

[Keeper!]

Mahrez is an odd one. He’s been a standout in our attack for a while now but it feels like most fans are as keen to get rid of him as they are with Sterling who’s been out of form for over 18 months. Baffles me.

I for one think we’ll miss what he brings when he goes. His passing, directness and finishing is underrated and I think he’d walk into every other starting line up in the league.

Mahrez no doubting his enormous talent, superb player but he's has won all there is to win and is getting to the age where he may want to wind down a little, it looks that way this season.

 

[Keeper!]

Both gone in the summer?

Sterling in January I think.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

The way the team plays is it’s strength. Players who do not, or cannot, perform in that system are excess to requirements…or simply not desired.

I’m not saying Haaland is one of those players, but it would not surprise me one bit if Pep believed he was not.

We have nullified him fairly well when we have played BD, and maybe Pep doesn’t see him as the forward cog that fits into the system? Maybe he does?!

One thing I think is clear, though, he does NOT see Sterling as an integral cog in the City machine going forward, no matter how he likes to big him up in public.

Mahrez? I think Pep thinks he’s great for European football, but not as key for the cut and thrust of the PL. Whether that’s enough to keep him here, I’m not sure, but there’s no way he gets a contract extension beyond his current deal, so maybe the waning value should be squeezed out of him this coming summer.

Feels like the winds of change are blowing through East Manchester in the next 9 months, in more ways than one!

 

[Deleted member 87819]

I’m not saying Haaland is one of those players, but it would not surprise me one bit if Pep believed he was not.

We have nullified him fairly well when we have played BD, and maybe Pep doesn’t see him as the forward cog that fits into the system? Maybe he does?!

You just have to hear from Pep and see how he spoke about Haaland after we played them. We didn’t nullify him, we nullified the team. And he still had his moments and an assist. I’m fairly convinced Pep saw in those games a guy who could be what Lewandowski was for him at Bayern.

Anyone who saw Haaland play under Marsch’s Salzburg knows exactly how he would fit in our system.

We have also nullified Harry Kane every time we played Tottenham under Pep, the guy’s been a complete non-entity, and that didn’t stop Pep for having him as a target for a period of the last window.

People sometimes go so deep under a certain fetishizing that they truly believe Pep only believes about the system and never the influence of individuality. He actually craves players who score an obscene amount of goals, and it’s a crime we are not providing him that right now. Of course, the 9 for him does have to fit a certain profile and quality, or they won’t start. I often read here nonsense like “false 9 allows the team to press more”, which is a ridiculous statement. The right 9 will lead the pressing. That’s why he got here and made Sergio change his game a bit. Lewandowski under him played every game when he was available except two. Which player in our team today can you say that about?

During that brief period when Ronaldo could have come here, I looked into what Pep had said about him over the years. He described the Portuguese as someone who scores “50 or 60 goals a season like Messi”. Sam Lee reported that he didn’t know how Ronaldo would fit in the City environment but he was convinced the team could use the amount of goals he would bring. This fits with what Balague reported a bit later, when he said Pep was convinced Ronaldo would score more than 40 goals per season for us:



Do you think this crossed his mind and was more important than “would Ronaldo press?” or any “but the system” hesitations? You can go through years of quotes by him to know how much he appreciates players like that who will score many goals. See how he talked about Lewa, Messi. Or this quote from last season, as explicit as it can be:

“We don’t have a single player who can win any game, we don’t have Cristiano, Messi, Neymar. We don’t have the kind of players who can win matches by themselves. I told the players many times, you have to play as a team. I’ll be honest. I would like to have a player who scores, in every game, four goals and to run like these guys. I would like that.”

Apart from my own personal reservations about Kane, one of the reasons why I was so against signing him last summer was because the kind of player he is (including his physicality) would actually reinforce some of the flaws we have as a team, instead of broaden our qualities. Of course Kane would have been bagged his goals (though not as many as some here envisioned— for instance, Ronaldo would have scored more), and I can see why Pep would have thought of him as a good alternative, but it would have almost too lazy for him. I actually hope Conte makes him play super well, makes him happy, helps them win a trophy like the Carabao or the Conference League, or both, and keep his price obscenely high.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Mahrez is an odd one. He’s been a standout in our attack for a while now but it feels like most fans are as keen to get rid of him as they are with Sterling who’s been out of form for over 18 months. Baffles me.

I for one think we’ll miss what he brings when he goes. His passing, directness and finishing is underrated and I think he’d walk into every other starting line up in the league.

I agree with this. I know Mahrez is inconsistent but I would say he's the best finisher at the club. I like how he's the opposite to Jesus who he competes with too. Imagine marking Jesus for 60 minutes who keeps knocking it outside and trying to go past you, then we bring on Mahrez who keeps stopping it and coming inside you. It's a good contrast for a team. Mahrez suffers a bit because he can play in one position unlike the other attackers.

I'd like to keep him.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Probably not, no, but I don’t get the feeling that’s why some fans would be comfortable seeing him go.

He is just one of those that some fans don't take to. Who knows why?

I think Mahrez isn’t universally liked as he doesn't always look like he’s trying.

Us English love to see players get stuck in and give 100%.

Its the same with Gundogan and Rodri to a degree.

Mahrez is a superb player, who has a bit of everything in his game.
He’s a bit mercurial though, which stops him being totally elite.

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

Why offer them one of our best performers this season, and one who doesn't moan about squad rotation. Money is enough

Its an overly stacked position in the squad, i just cant see them letting Haaland go mid-season with a ready made replacement lined up. Jesus fits the bill in the hypothetical chat for me. We have several very good right wingers and no World Class strikers..

 

[AlanBalls]