supercity88
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 9 Aug 2009
- Messages
- 16,972
To be fair, Nunes finds Haaland a lot with crosses - maybe more assists for him than anybody else but could be wrong there? - and RAN is a freak of dribbling nature.
I agree with RAN’s final pass, though, but think that was come with time.
It doesn’t help that Haaland’s movement in the box recently is - let’s say - stagnant at best. RAN is one for the low-driven cross and Haaland doesn’t attack the front post or middle of the area to make use of that type of delivery.
This is the biggest issue we have with the setup at the moment. We used to have midfielders underlapping the wingers to create those passing triangles and when the ball came into the box we'd have more than one option to get on the end of it. That's been the theme throughout Pep's time with us. How many times was Sterling at the back post to tap one in if Aguero didn't get there? Sterling's cross against Villa - Gundo at the back post. De Bruyne ball across goal - Gundo at the back post. Then we had the season Foden won player of the year by getting into the box consistently to be on the end of things.
It can't just be Haaland to aim at. What was refreshing last night, compared to the game in Madrid and at West Ham was the number of runners beyond the ball and people not being afraid to take a shot on if there was no simple pass.
The downside is we are so vulnerable when we lose the ball in those situations and Pep's really struggling to stop that from being the case. It's from our sloppiness with the ball that teams are creating all of their chances. He's tried to make it safer in possession but we're then toothless in attack.

