Erling Haaland

[Gumzy97]

What planet are you two on? Since Pep's been at City, Real have as good a trophy haul as us. With Mbappé and Haaland they'd be favourites to win everything every season.

You cannot argue that he's giving up sporting interests if he goes to Madrid.

Don't think they would be favourites, there's alot of holes in that squad, Barca demolished them, so did Chelsea because of their RB being slow and mistake prone, their midfield is old and slow any midfield with high work ethic dismantles madrid, Benzema is the only leader really

they have not replaced Ramos. Their CB pairing right now has a few mistakes in them as you can see from the Barca game.

You can have Mbappe and Haaland but as we seen with PSG with Neymar, Mbappe and Messi if you can't get the ball to them from midfield what's the point.

Madrid need a rebuild and from reports if they sign both Haaland and Mbappe that's all they are signing.

Logical Madrid fans online have been saying that Haaland is just a brand signing and not what Madrid need right now to challenge for the champions league, they are a RB, CB, 3 young midfielders away from challenging

 

[M18CTID]

It makes me laugh seeing people talk about Real Madrid and implying that they have the same pulling power as Getafe. Whatever issues they may be currently facing, they're still a huge name globally and a very attractive destination for any footballer.

 

[domalino]

Start with Benzema, Vinicius and Mbappe? Does that sound like a functional attack and team?

They used to play Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain, Ozil and Di Maria together.

 

[OccupiedPalestineBlues]

Have faith in Pep adapting to Haaland being in the team. I imagine our tactics next year won't look anything like this year's. I'm wondering if we're going to go back to having 2 fast wingers to help us counter quicker, similar to when we had Sterling and Sane. This would also compliment Haalands pace and power.

I think the issue of general concern is that it doesn’t matter how many ‘fast’ wingers we might buy to help us counter attack if the opposition just sits deep for 90 minutes completely happy to take 1 point.
You’ve probably noticed that the majority of the teams we play defend deep and we only ever score counter attack goals against them after we’ve already unpicked them and scored to force them to play out.
We unpick them by using skilful players who can work intricately in small spaces - if we put a big lad up front then we’re lacking one of the players we need to unpick their defence in the first place.
And if having the ‘big lad up front’ reduces our ability to work our magic to score against a packed defence then we don’t get the opportunity to utilise that big lad in a counter attacking scenario because they‘ll stay sat deep and they ain’t coming out.

Having said that, I also subscribe to the notion that if we do buy him then it’ll be because Pep has a plan that will make it work . . . Me not being on Pep’s level of footballing genius means that I can’t see it is all.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Start with Benzema, Vinicius and Mbappe? Does that sound like a functional attack and team?

They sound more like a disease

 

[Mcfc-Carlos]

I think the issue of general concern is that it doesn’t matter how many ‘fast’ wingers we might buy to help us counter attack if the opposition just sits deep for 90 minutes completely happy to take 1 point.
You’ve probably noticed that the majority of the teams we play defend deep and we only ever score counter attack goals against them after we’ve already unpicked them and scored to force them to play out.
We unpick them by using skilful players who can work intricately in small spaces - if we put a big lad up front then we’re lacking one of the players we need to unpick their defence in the first place.
And if having the ‘big lad up front’ reduces our ability to work our magic to score against a packed defence then we don’t get the opportunity to utilise that big lad in a counter attacking scenario because they‘ll stay sat deep and they ain’t coming out.

Having said that, I also subscribe to the notion that if we do buy him then it’ll be because Pep has a plan that will make it work . . . Me not being on Pep’s level of footballing genius means that I can’t see it is all.

i get what your saying and I think having the “big man” may mean we have less control of games. However if a team is playing a low block and playing narrow, which they all do now then having someone to hang a ball up to changes the way they defend. They have to stop the cross, pulling a defender wide and forcing him to commit then if Haaland doesn’t win the header but challenges it presents a 2nd ball around the box for our nimble players to buzz around.

Also we have struggled with teams who have pressed us high and effectively this year like place and Southampton. I remember in one of the pep books he played against kloppdortmund and told his team to play long balls into lewi and muller for the first ten mins, it will force dortmund to drop off and stop pressing so high. We currently don’t have that option.

Then when you add Haalands pace it gives us something new again, we don’t currently have a forward who can go in behind or worry defenders in that way. If a forward is running in behind the defence has to drop creating more space for KDB, Grealish or foden.

plus imagine Haaland pulling over to the left for ten mins and Foden just popping up back in the false 9, it would cause utter confusion


For me losing a one lock picker for some who could make the lock a lot easier to break is worth it.

Yes Haaland has flaws in his game but iv never trusted a manager like I trust pep to find away to use his best features and turn him into an absolute monster.

 

[BillyShears]

It makes me laugh seeing people talk about Real Madrid and implying that they have the same pulling power as Getafe. Whatever issues they may be currently facing, they're still a huge name globally and a very attractive destination for any footballer.

Agreed. I think you can never underestimate Barca/Madrid's ability to attract players. That's not to play down City's ability to attract players too. It is a testament to how far we've come in the last ten years that we are now on a par with them IMO in terms of attracting talent.

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

Agreed. I think you can never underestimate Barca/Madrid's ability to attract players. That's not to play down City's ability to attract players too. It is a testament to how far we've come in the last ten years that we are now on a par with them IMO in terms of attracting talent.

Yankees and those pinstripes will always draw.

 

[TonyM]

I'd offer him 500k per week and not a penny mo... 600k that's it, I'd be a fool to offer any... 700k and he can pick the team....800k and the city of Abi Dhabi??? Hmmm?? Yes??? Oh. Never wanted him anyway.

 

[MarsLlama]

We unpick them by using skilful players who can work intricately in small spaces - if we put a big lad up front then we’re lacking one of the players we need to unpick their defence in the first place.

I honestly think four should be enough. If four isn't enough, we have to start asking if they're good enough. It's not like Lewandowski or Agüero were ever that good at the build-up side but it never mattered because they had four players making chances for them at all times.