I donât know why youâd find it an absurd notion. Manchester City are scoring at basically the same rate as last season. So Haalandâs goals havenât upped the overall scoring rate, just changed the distribution. Theyâre conceding more with him in the team this season than they did last season.
Borussia Dortmund are doing better this season without him than they did last season with him.
It appears to me to be the same sort of syndrome that happened when Cristiano Ronaldo was at Juventus - he scored lots of goals but didnât improve their overall scoring rate, in fact it went down, and the overall balance of their team changed for the worse.
Haaland doesnât contribute much beyond finishing. That means youâre basically carrying a player, ie. heâs a luxury player. Guardiolaâs systems are extremely finely tuned and only work if every cog is contributing to the whole. One cog not functioning undermines the whole balance. Thatâs what happened with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
how isnât he functioning? Theyâve lost Sterling, Aguero and Jesus in recent years, whoâd have been the 3 main goalscorers. He already has more goals than both of those combined last season.
Itâs a measure of the guy that he is expected to throw the team up on his back at 22 and he is blamed for poor performances and bizarrely enough for conceding goals, that is frankly ridiculous. I think he has the mentality to push on and deal with it. Nothing seems to faze him
Ibra scored goals and won a la liga. He had a personality clash with Pep and was put out. Some undermining of a whole balance. Itâs amazing what a narrative can do, Ibra had a better scoring rate at Barca than for most of his career up to that point.
He doesnât function as part of the team because he doesnât work and doesnât contribute to team possession of the ball. Iâm sure there were stats when he was with Dortmund where he was at or near the bottom of statistics for off the ball running and touches of the ball by strikers in Europe. Heâs an individualist and a finisher. He isnât a Guardiola player.
Ibrahimovic did score plenty of goals for the first six months with Barcelona - as Haaland has done with Manchester City - which is only to be expected in an ultra-dominant team playing a string of diddies - but even during that it was becoming obvious that he was not a good fit for them. You canât explain away Ibrahimovicâs failure at Barcelona saying it was due to a personality clash alone. The personality clash came because Ibrahimovic was not a good fit for the team.
Haaland was signed to make the difference in close games, those tough games where you feel youâre running in treacle and have to win ugly. He hasnât done that very much so far. He is great when Manchester City get the drop on a team though and you can certainly trust him to knock in goals 3 and 4 of a 4-0 rout of Bournemouth or Southampton.
see, the problem with using nonsense as logic is itâs nonsense.
Heâs scored against all the other teams that are in positions 2 to 6. Winners and equalizers, hat tricks and assists.
So by your logic, when City play bad, itâs Haalands fault. When City play well and he scores, itâs not on him. Itâs everyone else doing it and he just gets tap ins. Got it.
He has hat tricks against Palace, United, Forest and Wolves. 12 goals in 4 games. 12 points
Just as a comparison, in the corresponding fixtures, Darwin Nunez has been sent off for a headbutt against Palace, Missed United through suspension due to the above. Lost 0-3 to Wolves and was injured against Forest. 1 goal in 4 games. 1 point.
Yet Haaland is castigated and Nunez is lauded. Here comes the politics. Upsetting the balance and whatnot. Absolutely full of shit
Nunez will come good I think. he is 22 and has a bit about him, but he is in a new league, and a new team with new expectations, the very same as Haaland. Which is why Haaland will actually get better.
Benfica arenât doing too bad without Nunez, your logic. Which is absolute nonsense too.
Manchester Cityâs whole idea of play is based on dominance of the ball, dominance of every facet of play.
On the whole he makes them less dominant in big games.
Consider their games against the top teams this year.
He scored as a sub against Arsenal when Arsenal had to chase the game. Manchester City likely would not have won that game had he started. It was an advantage to them that he did not start.
He scored at home against a hapless Manchester United team still finding their feet under Ten Hag, who pretty much gave up from the first whistle. This was still in the era where Ronaldo was poisoning the club from within. Then, at Old Trafford, by which time Manchester United were a much more formidable opponent, Haaland flopped.
Against the Saudis he scored once. Manchester City conceded three times and did not win the game.
Against Spurs at home he scored, but why were Manchester City 2-0 down in the first place? Haaland unbalancing the team was a contributory factor.
Then away to Spurs, Haaland did nothing and Spurs beat them.
He scored a late penalty to beat Fulham. Well done to him on scoring that penalty.
He flopped against Liverpool, who currently stand in seventh place.
heâs a true great already - heâs being judged by different standards at 22. This is phenomenal
He will smash records and win it all.
that hapless man united had won 4 games on the bounce in the lead up to that derby⊠beating Arsenal and Liverpool, conceding twice.
Haaland absolutely destroyed them that day, scoring 3 and setting up 2.
Again,the narrative absolutely blown clean out of the water. Youâre struggling here mate
It isnât perfect, he isnât perfect, by any means. He is bedding in and he has 27 league goals, lads are desperate to knock him for whatever reason, like all the greats
Heâs being judged against the ludicrous hyperbolay his fanbois have poured over him. Thatâs heâs supposedly the best player in the world and supposedly the greatest striker in English football history. Heâs also being judged objectively.
A quick scratch under the surface reveals a considerably less impressive body of work and a fairly underwhelming contribution in big games to a team which fancies itself as the dominant force in Europe.
Rashford has been in exceptional scoring form this season and provides so much more besides, both on and off the pitch. Heâs one of the two key figures helping to drag a great club out of its slumber. He is a deeply loved figure by his clubâs supporters and highly respected and liked even by supporters of bitter rivals.
Iâd consider Rashford to be comfortably ahead of Haaland in the pecking order for Footballer Of The Year in England at the moment.
Yet I very much doubt that Marcus Rashfordâs many admirers would claim him as a âtrue greatâ on the back of five monthsâ worth of form. Heâs having a brilliant season but to be considered a true great you have to do it over a much longer time frame.
Erling Braut Haaland has a long way to go yet if he is ever to be considered a true great.
Mbappe has a couple of years on Haaland but theyâre probably the ones who are taking up the mantle from ronaldo and messi. Rashford is definitely in the conversation given his current form. He has been unstoppable.
Putting the ball in the goals is probably the hardest thing to do and erling is able to do it with ridiculous ease.
Answer me this⊠who at 22 has a body of work like haaland ?
A bit like @peddlerscross saying that the 3 Patrickswell boys need to deliver a club All-Ireland to really coper-fasten their greatness. Youâd feel that Haaland and indeed Odegaard will need to lead Norway to new heights at major tournaments to really showcase their brilliance on an international stage. A great opportunity beckons for Norway over the next 5-10 years.
I dont know about that. Theyâve had way more games this year when they havent dominated like they used to. I dont think its haaland. I think their midfield is slower and they dont make as many chances as they did. Haaland makes savage runs so often and they dont find him. They also find it harder to win it back. Itâs quite like the dubs when the percentages dropped slowly until it became all recycling and very little incision. Hasnt helped that mahrez was poor earlier in the season and foden has been out of sorts of late.
KDB isnât himself either. Heâs shown it in fits and starts but been shit in a lot of games. Foden was really good at the weekend. Grealish has been really good this season and is now a permanent fixtureâŠ
This is the time of year CIty have kicked on under Pep and gone on a big run. The cadence of games seems to suit them and Pep hasnât the time between games to fiddle with whatâs working the mental case