Newcastle (H) | PL | Post-Match Thread

Dribble said:
A couple of points from the game... Having watched the match back, is it just me, or is anyone else anxious up until the point Haaland scores?

I'm absolutely sick & fuckin tired of hearing about Haaland's "2 game scoring drought" & City's constant failure to slide a through-ball into him, & the player being pissed off with his lack of service.

Even if we win without the Viking scoring, the media term it as a crisis with stories emerging about him looking for the exit door in the summer. If the constant "City failed to find Haaland again" stories are doing my head in, imagine the effect on the squad? :-/

Since the loss at home to Brentford, it's been highly noticeable that clubs are playing narrow against us, packing their central defence & defensive midfield, only leaving space out wide, with very little or no direct routes to goal.

KDB, Gundog, Bernardo & Rodri are supreme passers of the ball. If they're struggling to find through balls to Haaland, isn't this more a case of the opposition have found ways to cut off Haaland's central supply, rather than a wholesale loss of form by our entire midfield?

I think we should be giving the opposition more credit for finding a solution to the Haaland problem. As for Haaland, he's now playing in the toughest, most high profile league in the world, where any one of seven teams could realistically win the title.

If Haaland wants to be rated as the world's best striker, he's in the right place to claim that title if he can succeed in the EPL.

There's three ways this "Finding Haaland" issue will work. Either City adapt to Haaland. Haaland adapts to City. Or we meet halfway & adapt our style to better suit Haaland & Erling adapts his game to be more Harry Kane-like to better suit City.

Solving this Haaland puzzle will also go some way to resolving our midfield's perceived lack of form. We've seen it take Grealish 18 months for him to "Get City".

In respect to scoring, Haaland's hit the ground running, however in terms of playing, he's yet another in a long list of players who it'll take a season or two for him to also "Get City" & Guardiola's way.

In a recent match, Haaland kept moving to the right, which wreaked havoc for the opposition defenders who didn't know whether to track him or leave him.

This created the central space for our midfield to operate & perhaps Haaland being more mobile across the front & dropping deep is our best way forward.

Haaland will hopefully accept that assists from him are as important as his goals to City, even though it may effect his scoring stats.
Click to expand...
Simple solution to me is move Kev out wide and Phil in the 10 role, the crosses he can provide out wide will create loads for Haaland. Inverted wingers don’t have the same deliveries and not as threatening to me.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
I don't rate him and simply discussing his attributes on here.

It was an excellent win against a good team, but if we want to get back to our known levels, then we can't afford passengers, and I have also included Kev in that appraisal.

Kev has plenty of credit in the bank, but Akanji is a huge weak link and better attacks than Newcastle yesterday would have made us pay, certainly in Champions League, as Pep always stresses those margins.
Click to expand...
Makes me laugh that you aren’t allowed to critique a performance on here without getting pelters, lol. There’s nothing wrong with offering an opinion on how we see a game, pointless just being a happy clapper with blue tints on just because we won.
 
Dribble said:
A couple of points from the game... Having watched the match back, is it just me, or is anyone else anxious up until the point Haaland scores?

I'm absolutely sick & fuckin tired of hearing about Haaland's "2 game scoring drought" & City's constant failure to slide a through-ball into him, & the player being pissed off with his lack of service.

Even if we win without the Viking scoring, the media term it as a crisis with stories emerging about him looking for the exit door in the summer. If the constant "City failed to find Haaland again" stories are doing my head in, imagine the effect on the squad? :-/

Since the loss at home to Brentford, it's been highly noticeable that clubs are playing narrow against us, packing their central defence & defensive midfield, only leaving space out wide, with very little or no direct routes to goal.

KDB, Gundog, Bernardo & Rodri are supreme passers of the ball. If they're struggling to find through balls to Haaland, isn't this more a case of the opposition have found ways to cut off Haaland's central supply, rather than a wholesale loss of form by our entire midfield?

I think we should be giving the opposition more credit for finding a solution to the Haaland problem. As for Haaland, he's now playing in the toughest, most high profile league in the world, where any one of seven teams could realistically win the title.

If Haaland wants to be rated as the world's best striker, he's in the right place to claim that title if he can succeed in the EPL.

There's three ways this "Finding Haaland" issue will work. Either City adapt to Haaland. Haaland adapts to City. Or we meet halfway & adapt our style to better suit Haaland & Erling adapts his game to be more Harry Kane-like to better suit City.

Solving this Haaland puzzle will also go some way to resolving our midfield's perceived lack of form. We've seen it take Grealish 18 months for him to "Get City".

In respect to scoring, Haaland's hit the ground running, however in terms of playing, he's yet another in a long list of players who it'll take a season or two for him to also "Get City" & Guardiola's way.

In a recent match, Haaland kept moving to the right, which wreaked havoc for the opposition defenders who didn't know whether to track him or leave him.

This created the central space for our midfield to operate & perhaps Haaland being more mobile across the front & dropping deep is our best way forward.

Haaland will hopefully accept that assists from him are as important as his goals to City, even though it may effect his scoring stats.
Click to expand...
Ah, all makes sense now mate, you definitely watched a different game than the rest of us if you were anxious until Haaland scored……
 
Gone for a Burton said:
They could have scored 2,we could’ve scored 5.

We were the better side for 80 minutes without being at our best.

We beat an awkward,niggly,time wasting side who have the best defence in the league. Arsenal didn’t beat them !!
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Agree, we were well the better side. They had at least 3 great chances to score off the top of my head. We done a nice bit of time wasting at the end ourselves. Onwards and upwards.
 
Strange fanbase, full of tryhards, singing about empty seats, when they were a few random ones dotted about, like every other stadium since year dot. Daft fuckers seem to have forgotten it was only a couple of years ago Mike Ashley gave away 10000 season tickets cos there was was empty seat central
 
stonerblue said:
Seems theres a growing band of posters with a downer on Akanji who, for me, has been excellent from day one.
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I have hope for him. I think he had to adjust to our game like everyone we’ve brought in, in their first season.
Ake used to get stick in here too in his first season.
The only difference I see though, is that with Ake, right from the start I could see that his defensive instincts were second to none. He thought like a true defender. Shadowed, shepherded, tackled and attacked the ball in the air with a defender’s instincts.

I’m not seeing that same level in Akanji. He gets too close sometimes and let’s the ball bounce rather than attacking it, far too often.

But he is definitely improving as games go on. He is learning.

His passing is poor but so was Ake’s last season. He would be reluctant to play the ball forward. Look at him now. He has just got Pep’s game. It has clicked with him and he looks a superb player on the left, which would not have been his natural position.

I would love Stones or Laporte back but we shouldn’t give up on Akanji just yet. It may well click with him soon.
 
Dribble said:
A couple of points from the game... Having watched the match back, is it just me, or is anyone else anxious up until the point Haaland scores?

I'm absolutely sick & fuckin tired of hearing about Haaland's "2 game scoring drought" & City's constant failure to slide a through-ball into him, & the player being pissed off with his lack of service.

Even if we win without the Viking scoring, the media term it as a crisis with stories emerging about him looking for the exit door in the summer. If the constant "City failed to find Haaland again" stories are doing my head in, imagine the effect on the squad? :-/

Since the loss at home to Brentford, it's been highly noticeable that clubs are playing narrow against us, packing their central defence & defensive midfield, only leaving space out wide, with very little or no direct routes to goal.

KDB, Gundog, Bernardo & Rodri are supreme passers of the ball. If they're struggling to find through balls to Haaland, isn't this more a case of the opposition have found ways to cut off Haaland's central supply, rather than a wholesale loss of form by our entire midfield?

I think we should be giving the opposition more credit for finding a solution to the Haaland problem. As for Haaland, he's now playing in the toughest, most high profile league in the world, where any one of seven teams could realistically win the title.

If Haaland wants to be rated as the world's best striker, he's in the right place to claim that title if he can succeed in the EPL.

There's three ways this "Finding Haaland" issue will work. Either City adapt to Haaland. Haaland adapts to City. Or we meet halfway & adapt our style to better suit Haaland & Erling adapts his game to be more Harry Kane-like to better suit City.

Solving this Haaland puzzle will also go some way to resolving our midfield's perceived lack of form. We've seen it take Grealish 18 months for him to "Get City".

In respect to scoring, Haaland's hit the ground running, however in terms of playing, he's yet another in a long list of players who it'll take a season or two for him to also "Get City" & Guardiola's way.

In a recent match, Haaland kept moving to the right, which wreaked havoc for the opposition defenders who didn't know whether to track him or leave him.

This created the central space for our midfield to operate & perhaps Haaland being more mobile across the front & dropping deep is our best way forward.

Haaland will hopefully accept that assists from him are as important as his goals to City, even though it may effect his scoring stats.
Click to expand...
He definitely needs to improve his overall game but we need to play to his strengths too.

I think with Phil back and coming into form and playing Alvarez more too will help him find more space.

He is still getting used to the league and opposition as well though.

I noticed the difference in the two games against arsenal this season, in the second game he was more aggressive and direct with his running and caused them problems, he had a really good overall game.

Another thing is that we haven't got the right balance in the team at the moment, we haven't got the right players as we're crying out for more natural width down the flanks so we can overlap and put in crosses.
This should be addressed in the summer and then we'll give the opposition different looks and players to worry about and they won't know how to deal with us.

He'll definitely improve next season and as a result so will we and the hacks know that. That's why they want him out of the league as soon as possible
 
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