RB Leipzig (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

Dribble said:
We don't have Rodri available against Arsehole, but if we go with a similar starting 11 & tactics & it's still not working for Haaland & we need a goal, what then? Leave him on in hope?

It'll come good for Haaland soon, I'm sure of that, but at what point do we put winning matches above playing a player back into goal scoring form?

It's not like Haaland has offered us much else outside of banging in insane amounts of goals.

It's a difficult conversation that needs to be had.
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No , you play Haaland no matter what .
He brings so much more than the goals . Yesterday his effort couldn’t be faulted and what couldn’t be seen or heard in the TV was his passion in getting his teammates and fans going . He was all over the place chasing down , out wide left and right, dropping in for corners etc .
His joy when Alvarez scored was immense and don’t forget his touch to Alvarez who set Doku up .
Leave him on , there’s no awkward conversation needed .
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
I think most of us can see that Alvarez is a better all round footballer than Haaland.

What Alvarez hasn’t done so far, is score 50+ goals in a season.

Haaland is an extraordinary finisher, that is a little out of form. He’s still top scorer in the league though.

Theres no point debating whether he should be dropped or not. He will never be, or not for quite a while at least. He has so much credit in the bank.
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Credit in the bank has a much shorter lifespan on Bluemoon than in the "real world".
 
Was a great result and my first European away day. Rodri is so calm he’s incredible, Dias at the back always there when needed, Alvarez and Doku really upped the energy when coming on. Rico was immense, you can tell he’s 18 against experienced pros sometimes but it doesn’t hold him back, what a player. Foden is so talented.

I thought we dominated but sometimes just held possession. Was almost like Bernado/Grealish/Foden would have the ball but not play it straight away, often go backwards and then Haaland is playing on the back foot. I know it’s all about possession, control, pausa etc. but it’s nice to have directness sometimes as well.
 
asgoodasitgets said:
No , you play Haaland no matter what .
He brings so much more than the goals . Yesterday his effort couldn’t be faulted and what couldn’t be seen or heard in the TV was his passion in getting his teammates and fans going . He was all over the place chasing down , out wide left and right, dropping in for corners etc .
His joy when Alvarez scored was immense and don’t forget his touch to Alvarez who set Doku up .
Leave him on , there’s no awkward conversation needed .
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And there is the fact that his being on the pitch means that the opposition usually use a couple of defenders to double up on him, thus freeing up space for others.
 
Didsbury Dave said:
I don't know about anyone else but I never doubted for a second that we would win that game. It was when not if.
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agree, we where by far the better. Leizig arent very good, mid prem team at its best.

come on pep watch videos of the last 3 games and tell our defenders to stop going so far forward, how many times are we wide open for a team to score from their first attack on a counter attack.

went in after end of first half thinking "domination, one nil up, this is class"

Then the second half, gifted them a goal to run on to and then we couldnt score, how the hell are we 1-1 in this game.

So on came the game changers or pace !! You could feel the worry on the wing back when doku got the ball, all of a sudden we arent going side ways. Then up pops "goes by the name of alvarez" to show the rest of the team this is how you take a shot at goal ( because we had seen some poor shooting )

And icing on the cake, doku scores almost a copy of Leizig goal with a counter and perfect finish. Was worried for a minute, then realised it wasnt sterling it was doku going forward !
 
Dribble said:
I wasn't calling for Haaland to be dropped.

It clearly wasn't working for him last night, so I was calling for him to be subbed when this became obvious to all. I was surprised to see a very good Foden withdrawn & Haaland left on. Why was this?

I get the feeling there's a fear that subbing Haaland without him scoring will cause too many awkward questions to be asked, hence he stays on whether it's the best for the team or not.

It's like last season. Commentators kept counting down the minutes in every match until Haaland scored. Regardless of the score beforehand, the anxiety was there until he did, & then everyone could breathe with relief. That is ridiculous pressure like I've never seen or heard of before.

Forgetting about last season, if this was Liam Delap playing last night, Pep would've hooked him earlier for Alvarez & left Foden on.

I suppose these are the superstar man management moments we keep hearing about. 12 touches & 2 goals we can swallow, but according to Sofascore, he's had 21 touches across 180 minutes of football in the 23/24 CL season so far, with 0 goals.

Which other player would be afforded not being hooked with those stats, especially as we had other viable options? \⁠_⁠(⁠⊙⁠_⁠ʖ⁠⊙⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯
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Having him on the pitch creates fear and uncertainty and causes the opposition to play in a way that “manages” him rather than them playing the way they want to. Whether he scores or not, he’s integral to what we do.

Liam Delap wouldn’t create fear in an U13s game.
 
come-on-barney said:
Haaland might be frustrated but he’s such a team player and delighted when others score. Rico was superb in midfield as was Phil. Alvarez a real game changer and superb goal. Doku’s goal was very well taken, looked like he was going to shoot with his left, opened his body and slotted in with his right. Gave the keeper no chance. Gvardiol was excellent and should have played at the weekend. My take of the night was Pep’s interview discussing Rico’s parents and genes and wishing he was was two inches taller. He looked a lot happier tonight as well and in good form.
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Pep saying about Rico's lack of height amused me. He needs a pair of Elton John like platform footy boots making to be 2" taller i think; )
 
Dribble said:
I wasn't calling for Haaland to be dropped, but to be withdrawn in favour of Alvarez, because clearly last night wasn't his night.

In terms of credit, when does that run out? It was an awkward post match conversation, but Lescott & Hargreaves were trying to avoid answering the question of Haaland being found out by PL CB's.

I don't think he's been 'found out', but the PL evolves rapidly, & what was the case last season won't necessarily be the case this. I saw how frustrated Haaland seemed. I noticed him walking around head down & I felt for him, but we've got games to win.

Haaland is a supreme goal scorer, but if we're being honest he offers little else, as he's no Harry Kane. I feel there's a fear to criticise him, especially after his unbelievable first season with us.

How do you criticise a striker who scores 2 goals from 12 touches, or a hat trick from 22 touches? As long as he's banging em in, he's doing his bit, but what happens when he hits a dry spell, but unlike Kane he can't contribute anything else?

He's going through a dry spell at the moment as all players do, but after dominating against Leipsig, it was baffling to find ourselves level & we needed something different.

All I questioned is why changes weren't made earlier when it became obvious that Grealish & Haaland were having little effect?

Both subs provided a goal & an assist each, & Julian affected the game more in 20 minutes than Haaland did in 90. All I'm saying is it's a conversation which needs to be had.
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Subs work sometimes and don’t in others. Changing players doesn‘t guarantee goals.

What you have done is have a natural reaction of “we’re not winning, we must change things. Why can’t Pep see this?”, which is common.

Pep doesn’t make substitutions like that. He saw we were controlling the game and so will have been relatively happy. The subs last night were probably more fitness related than personnel playing poorly. That’s why Foden was taken off rather than Haaland.

Haaland will never be Messi. He’s a Shaun Goater type goal scoring machine that doesn’t always look pretty, but can score 5 without being in the game much. It didn’t happen for him last night, but Pep won’t take him off whilst he’s scratching around for confidence.

That’s man management for you.
 
BlueMoonRisin’ said:
Pep saying about Rico's lack of height amused me. He needs a pair of Elton John like platform footy boots making to be 2" taller i think; )
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I thought it was quite poignant actually.
They said the same about Messi at 17 years of age.
It’s rumoured Messi was given growth hormones, to beef him up. Could be rubbish but I saw a twinkle in Pep’s eye as he said it.
He has a wicked sense of humour that can get lost when speaking a foreign language sometimes.
 
Brightwell Bros. said:
I've been more than a little taken aback how many of last year's treble winning core team have been chucked under the bus this season. I saw someone say they were waiting for Grealish to prove them wrong. Ake and Akanji have been getting pelters too. I accept we haven't started the season as strongly as we ended it, but that's to be expected and not a terrible thing in my opinion. But we are top of the league and basically out of our CL group playing better than we started last season playing. And every single one of last year's squad has so much credit in the bank I can't believe we have to say it out loud.
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Mad isn’t it? We‘ve also had to contend with a shorter break and the come down of completing football and have started the season better than last year.

We‘ve only lost one game that Haaland has played.

Maybe it's time we sold him.
 
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