No-one passing to Haaland.

[benno74]

It's so frustrating!
We perfected the playing with no striker, and that way of playing, having inverted wingers, moving one of the full backs into the middle, absolutely suited the system like that.

Now we've got the world's best striker, a phenom of a player, having inverted wingers is now a hindrance.
Having a full back become an extra midfielder seems unnecessary, unless they have cancelo level creative abilities (at least when he was on form).

It seems obvious to me, we need;
Wingers to beat their man, get to the byline and whip a cross in, to be attacked.
Over lapping full backs to do the same, when the wingers are being doubled up on.
Midfielders or even centre halves to utilise the haaland runs, and at least make the attempt to put him through.

To be honest, I don't think currently we have the players to play the best system to really unlock haaland.
Ake, has been great, he's solid, but his control and passing are below the level of cancelo, laporte, stones, dias which then leads to added pressure on us at the back, and a lack of extra creativity we've had before.

Likewise with young Rico, he's a superb talent, but I don't think he's ready yet to be given this type of prolonged run, and invariably a little bit of naivety at times, a lack of physicality will cause us more problems. To think pep shielded foden and played him so sparingly, and to me foden is the superior player at the same age, so not sure why pep now is convinced that Rico is Lahm Mark II, which hopefully one day he gets close to.

Our current best 2 wingers grealish and mahrez, are locked in inverted wingers. I think they'd come out in a rash if they swapped wings.


For the rest of the season, I'm not sure what the answer is to be honest, really does feel like a transition where we figure out how the system needs to be tweaked, but at the moment I'm not seeing much progress towards a solution.
But I do have faith we will find it eventually!

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

He is as good as the service that provide him.

We are cetainly not playing to his strengths which is frustrating for him. He's making runs and the ball doesn't get to him.

 

[vin]

Fuckin criminal how we can’t find him more. He’ll be getting frustrated - make no doubt about it.

 

[willipp]

there was a moment in the first half pretty early where I think it was Bernardo had the ball about 10 yards into their half and he had a chance to try and slide Haaland in with what was a fairly difficult pass but totally on. He just turned sideways and pass it to Mahrez I think who then passed back to walker who then passed back to a CB.

There is something seriously not right with us and players almost do anything but try and pass to him. If I was a bit drunk and cynical I might start thinking certain players don’t like the highlights he’s getting and almost don’t want him scoring.

 

[micky_blue]

It's every game now. He makes runs after runs after runs. No one ever passes to him or even attempts to. Its pissing me off. Can't imagine how he's feeling.

He's 7ft tall ffs. Chip it to him more often. It's driving me insane watching all the wasted opportunities.

Is anyone else getting as frustrated with this as I am?

The only player who seems capable of passing to him is De Bruyne, and he was benched for whatever reason

 

[blue44]

there was a moment in the first half pretty early where I think it was Bernardo had the ball about 10 yards into their half and he had a chance to try and slide Haaland in with what was a fairly difficult pass but totally on. He just turned sideways and pass it to Mahrez I think who then passed back to walker who then passed back to a CB.

There is something seriously not right with us and players almost do anything but try and pass to him. If I was a bit drunk and cynical I might start thinking certain players don’t like the highlights he’s getting and almost don’t want him scoring.

you are right,im pissed too,but it was early on,its quite clear it is not the players but the "tactics " or team advice not to play these balls for some bizzare reason..

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

Our goal difference is fucking tragic, ironically so.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

The only player who seems capable of passing to him is De Bruyne, and he was benched for whatever reason

I really don’t understand it. KDB tried to find Haaland almost every pass and the others bar Gundogan never do

 

[Legal Alien]

It is so simple… pep has instructed the players to retain possession at all cost.. high risk passes are frowned upon… until pep changes this,obsession of dominating possession we will be hamstrung… the problem we have is the squad isn’t setup to do anything else as we have very little wide pace except Walker

I don't understand why Pep signed off on buying him then if we're not going to use him, unless it was just to use him as a future investment?

I know that he needs time to get used to the league and Peps way of playing, but in the meantime can we just try giving him the ball a few times a game!

There were a couple of occasions early on in the game where he could've been put through but wasn't. I know defences are focused on stopping him and he tried to get involved in the first half, but he might as well not been on the pitch in the second.

It's so frustrating watching another game go by where he's not a factor and i could understand if he felt the same.

 

[willipp]

you are right,im pissed too,but it was early on,its quite clear it is not the players but the "tactics " or team advice not to play these balls for some bizzare reason..

Yeah I really don’t know what’s wrong as it’s not like he isn’t making runs or trying to get in, players just clearly ignore him.