Erling Haaland

[Deleted member 87819]

Agreed then, we don’t need him, would be great to have him, but if not, I’m sure we’ll find someone else to bang the goals either with or without a striker

With you being South American, what do you know about the Argentinian kid we’ve signed?

He is a good player but there something irresponsible when some people talk about him, especially these Aguero comparisons based around hand gestures (lol) and good goals against very, very poor oppositions from Argentina that in Brazil would struggle in second or third division. Aguero was a more complete, experienced player when he arrived — and a different type too. Alvarez has never played against an European team or even an European national team. In fact, even against the best South American national teams he’s barely gotten game time. He will arrive in January, get very, very little game time in the second half of the season and the season after will probably still be a season for him to settle (and let’s hope he’s not injured). May be a player for post-Pep years. Based on Pep’s own quotes, I don’t think he’s even seen much of him, honestly. And for English football, he will work better in the wings. The best thing we as fans can do is have a lot of patience. For a Torres replacement/squad player, it’s good enough. But the proven centerforward is an entirely different story

 

[Deleted member 87819]

And playing in a formation that cries out for a striker at times…

He’ll never complain in public, but he’s made it as clear as he possibly could without saying it

 

[dadnlad]

golf chip FC need a big lad up front
but when play slick fast passing move and go were good as we are

 

[blueparrot]

Agreed then, we don’t need him, would be great to have him, but if not, I’m sure we’ll find someone else to bang the goals either with or without a striker

With you being South American, what do you know about the Argentinian kid we’ve signed?

Think its about the goals the team scores because with a striker the rest of the team will score less, and we will have less control of games, and more importantly scoring goals in tight games not making 2 or 3 nil wins 4 or 5. I think the club believe Haaland will add maybe few more team goals and in the right games, but I suspect the list of alternative traditional strikers that the club think will improve the team is very short.
I’d expect after Haaland and Kane we’d be looking more at somebody like Felix.

 

[Deleted member 87819]

I suspect the list of alternative traditional strikers that the club think will improve the team is very short.
I’d expect after Haaland and Kane we’d be looking more at somebody like Felix.

We wanted Lukaku and Kane the last two summers. We want a top drawer striker, there aren’t many of those. I suspect even Vlahovic wasn’t seen as “top drawer enough” for the club. Felix/Nunez aren’t coming after we got Alvarez, I think

 

[yerwot?]

He goes elsewhere, we wont fall off a cliff, or cause Pep to leave.
He signs for us, we wont fall off cliff, become a one-man band, or end up with a Rodney Marsh situation. I hope he comes here and gets even more potent. Having said that, who would be surprised if the endless crosses dried up? He could be the world's gretrest decoy, dragging defenders all over, creating space for others. The money aspect bothers me not one bit, we already get slurs for "buying success" yawn f'kin yawn, the suits will have done due diligence, and made their mind up. Bring it on...

 

[Craig]

Whilst we have Pep, as last season & this season have proven, they’d be right, we don’t need him

I’d love to see us sign him but I have enough trust & faith in the management team, not to be that arsed if we don’t sign him

The lack of plan B has been evident a number of times during that period. Whenever Aguero was actually fully fit Pep would usually start him and wanted to sign Kane. So evidently the manager wants a striker.

To not be bothered about signing the best striker in Europe at 21 a year after losing our best ever striker Is a bit bizarre for me. The kind of complacency other top clubs have suffered from on the past.

 

[hammersmithlad]

Does that mean you think we need him or would you really like him?

You already have an opinion on a hypothetical question as you obviously believe that if we had a proven goal scorer we would have won more games, unless I’ve misunderstood your last sentence?

I'm fairly sure I've heard Pep on various interviews in the past suggest he would like a proven goal machine or something along the lines since we don't have a recognised striker so we need to play this way i.e. false 9.

Our football attacking to date most likely arose from the lack of availability of Sergio during his latter years with us & Pep more from design by necessity than by choice adopted the false nine approach to acquire the goals which has been effective.

However, its obvious in certain games where there are fine margins & a player will only get one or two chances to make a difference a goal machine would aid us. Otherwise, we're expecting & I doubt Pep is either (no matter how high his expectations) for one of our midfielders to not only be creative but also become a Haaland goal machine which is unrealistic.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Were we to get Haarland I think Pep would improve and add to his game, and he could become more of a potent threat than the label 'striker' has come to have.

 

[Maly]

The lack of plan B has been evident a number of times during that period. Whenever Aguero was actually fully fit Pep would usually start him and wanted to sign Kane. So evidently the manager wants a striker.

To not be bothered about signing the best striker in Europe at 21 a year after losing our best ever striker Is a bit bizarre for me. The kind of complacency other top clubs have suffered from on the past.

I don’t disagree with anything in your first paragraph. We all want a striker, seems the majority of us want Haaland. However, I stand by my point that we don’t NEED him.

Would be great to have him but I certainly believe that without him, we’ll still win trophies, so that’s why I’m not that arsed.

As long as we have Pep, I don’t see us having a problem even if we don’t sign a striker. Nothing to do with me being complacent, more about me having ultimate faith in our board & manager to make the right decisions on signings as they have an excellent track record in achieving this

So where you see bizarre, I see common sense. Such is life bud. Still hope we sign him tho ;)