Erling Haaland

[OccupiedPalestineBlues]

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I don’t think he’ll fill out that much but it’s not a bad analogy in many ways :-)

 

[VOOMER]

He's the best player in his position in the world and most certainly at his age. Any team that he plays against will want to deny him any scoring chances. This will mean they'll be either desperate to stop the supply, or will drop deep to try and nullify. Now imagine us having the choice, of hard and low, or chipped crosses. If he signs he will be a huge success for us and will likely end up with more goals for us and Sergio, because he'll have more seasons with us.

 

[Dobsy]

I didn’t say that he couldn’t learn from Pep, not sure where you got that notion from?

My point was that he’s physically huge for his age and will continue to fill out - he’s not the right shape, weight or height for how we play under our current system.

If we employ him we‘ll need to alter how we play to accommodate a player with his upsides and downsides, and if he saw us play last night he’d know that at a glance because he can’t do what we were doing last night. His talents are in a different direction.
His physicality means that, in performance terms, he’ll always be closer to a Lukaku than to a Bernardo or a Mahrez.

I didn't write that you did or intend to imply that you did, it was an addition to your original angle.

I take your point that his physicality makes him different but you come across as seeing that in a negative light, as though it's a blocker that would put him off joining because he wouldn't fit in.

I'm making the point that you can just as easily see it from the opposite perspective: he could have looked at that performance and thought "look at what Pep is getting out of them, he'll help me fulfil my promise" and even, come to think of it "they're a great team but they have nobody like me, it's clear that I could add something for them."

 

[yerwot?]

the perfect player would be deadly in the box, short, low centre of gravity, super dribbler, 180 degree vision, which narrows it to a field of one. Lionel Messi.
We have players who meet most but not all the criteria, so does Pep tweak his system to take in what is available, be pragmatic in fact. seems doubtful to me, but you never know...

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Have we ever had a situation previously where one potential signing could make such an impact

We were in a similar position in the Stuart Pearce era regards having no natural goal scorer. We had lost the ageing Andy Coal in the summer of 06 and signed Samaras - the hope was similar that he would score the goals but that did not pan out, he got 6 in 42 games that first season. Our top goal scorer was Joey Barton with 7. So you could argue we needed a player more back then we just did not have the money.

 

[super_city_si]

He obviously knows where the goal is and when you watch him, his movement in the box is fantastic. He would have got on at least one or two of those 6 yard cut backs we had last night.

 

[Deleted member 87819]

Amazing to read people who think they know Pep better than he knows himself

 

[OccupiedPalestineBlues]

I didn't write that you did or intend to imply that you did, it was an addition to your original angle.

I take your point that his physicality makes him different but you come across as seeing that in a negative light, as though it's a blocker that would put him off joining because he wouldn't fit in.

I'm making the point that you can just as easily see it from the opposite perspective: he could have looked at that performance and thought "look at what Pep is getting out of them, he'll help me fulfil my promise" and even, come to think of it "they're a great team but they have nobody like me, it's clear that I could add something for them."

I think we agree insomuch as we both recognise that he’s a magnificent athlete who could bring something special but that his physicality means that he can’t play in the manner that our players do in our system so that we’d need to change our system to accommodate him.

However, the fact remains that we couldn’t have played like we did last night with Haaland in the side and if he saw the game he’d have known he wouldn’t slot in because he’s too big a unit to run his bollox off pressing the opposition then hold the ball in tiny spaces using nimble 1 and 2 touch passes when we have it.

 

[abu13]

I trust the club and when was the last time they got a signing wrong?
Sure, thete have been players who have taken time to settle but who has actually been a bad signing.

 

[Deleted member 87819]

I think we agree insomuch as we both recognise that he’s a magnificent athlete who could bring something special but that his physicality means that he can’t play in the manner that our players do in our system so that we’d need to change our system to accommodate him.

However, the fact remains that we couldn’t have played like we did last night with Haaland in the side and if he saw the game he’d have known he wouldn’t slot in because he’s too big a unit to run his bollox off pressing the opposition then hold the ball in tiny spaces using nimble 1 and 2 touch passes when we have it.

This all boils down to an ignorant view that tall players can’t press. It’s ridiculous. I have already posted multiple analysis in this thread of how excellent his pressing is.
If you listen to the times Pep has spoken about him, his “size” is something he spoke about with excitement