Title Race

[Bjornebye]

3 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

Which will be well behind Haaland. 
 

Haaland will go down as one of the best goal scorers of all time, unfortunately. 
 

One of the best footballers, that’s a different question…

Course he will. He’s a beast. But fuck me he’s a weird grock. I’d rather Nunez any day of the week. 

[Barrington Womble]

31 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

 

One of the best ever? Carlton Cole would clear 20 a season in that side. De Bruyne, Rodri, Silva and Foden are far more important to them He’s a drippy emo gimp. 
 

 

It's clear if you stuck a ball in front of haaland, he's a pretty decent bet to smash it home. But it feels to me his goals per game has dropped a little since all the defenders have faced him once and all the coaches have had a plan to deal with him. Of his 18 league goals this season, 3 came in 2 games against teams who'd never faced him before (he's not played against Luton in the league yet, but scored about 100 goals in the cup against them), so it's 15 in the other games in the league. It's still a fantastic return and he's at a goal contribution every 87 mins, but he's so heavily loaded to score goals, people are bound to look at his around play if he's not scoring. And there's not a lot there.

 

The real interesting part for me is city are a team that is so desperate to control the ball and maybe someone with the stats can prove me wrong, but I feel city don't really pass to him much, because he's not great at retaining possession. Is that contributing to them being slightly off the pace this season and he offers so little off the ball, they need his goal per game contribution or they suffer as a team? 

[Bjornebye]

15 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

It's clear if you stuck a ball in front of haaland, he's a pretty decent bet to smash it home. But it feels to me his goals per game has dropped a little since all the defenders have faced him once and all the coaches have had a plan to deal with him. Of his 18 league goals this season, 3 came in 2 games against teams who'd never faced him before (he's not played against Luton in the league yet, but scored about 100 goals in the cup against them), so it's 15 in the other games in the league. It's still a fantastic return and he's at a goal contribution every 87 mins, but he's so heavily loaded to score goals, people are bound to look at his around play if he's not scoring. And there's not a lot there.

 

The real interesting part for me is city are a team that is so desperate to control the ball and maybe someone with the stats can prove me wrong, but I feel city don't really pass to him much, because he's not great at retaining possession. Is that contributing to them being slightly off the pace this season and he offers so little off the ball, they need his goal per game contribution or they suffer as a team? 

 

He can’t cope when defenders front him. Van Dijk had him in his pocket with ease. Even Ben Godfrey wound him up. 
 

Im not saying he’s not decent of course he is but like Drogba at Chelsea, the side was set up for the 9 to score and if he didn’t it would bounce back to a Lampard/Silva

 

 

[Barrington Womble]

3 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

 

He can’t cope when defenders front him. Van Dijk had him in his pocket with ease. Even Ben Godfrey wound him up. 
 

Im not saying he’s not decent of course he is but like Drogba at Chelsea, the side was set up for the 9 to score and if he didn’t it would bounce back to a Lampard/Silva

 

 

 

He's clearly a fucking brilliant goalscorer. And he's fast asleep fuck. But as you say, he does lose his head a bit at times (I would say maybe even more so than Nunez) and his all round footballing ability isn't great. His first touch with his back to goal at times is shocking

[Bjornebye]

6 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

He's clearly a fucking brilliant goalscorer. And he's fast asleep fuck. But as you say, he does lose his head a bit at times (I would say maybe even more so than Nunez) and his all round footballing ability isn't great. His first touch with his back to goal at times is shocking

Nunez Nunez Nunez 

[Ronnie Whelan]

Kane is a far superior player to him imo. His all round play is outstanding. Thank God, he didn't go to either Mancs. His links to Spurs, means he won't go to Arsenal - imo he would be near perfect for them. I would love him here but that will never happen. I couldn't give a shite about England, so it's like I've a personal interest in the guy. Mind you, he doesn't piss me off in any way. 

 

Haaland is a world class finisher, but his general play is mediocre. Not league 2 like Keane said, but maybe lower end premier league. He can't light a candle to Kane. If City had Kane, they would be pretty incredible. As good as Haaland is in terms of elements of his game, I actually don't think he enhances City.

[Scott_M]

1 minute ago, Ronnie Whelan said:

Kane is a far superior player to him imo. His all round play is outstanding. Thank God, he didn't go to either Mancs. His links to Spurs, means he won't go to Arsenal - imo he would be near perfect for them. I would love him here but that will never happen. I couldn't give a shite about England, so it's like I've a personal interest in the guy. Mind you, he doesn't piss me off in any way. 

 

Haaland is a world class finisher, but his general play is mediocre. Not league 2 like Keane said, but maybe lower end premier league. He can't light a candle to Kane. If City had Kane, they would be pretty incredible. As good as Haaland is in terms of elements of his game, I actually don't think he enhances City.

Are we now in the terms of who is the better goal scorer and who is the better footballer though? 
 

Kane obviously scores lots of goals, not as many as Haaland though. 
 

For the reasons you’ve stated above, I absolutely think Kane is a better footballer and would rather have him leading our attack than Haaland. 
 

The Nunez shout is interesting. For me, Nunez is a better footballer than Haaland. However, as he ain’t as good a goal scorer, I’d rather have Haaland. 

[3 Stacks]

48 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

It's clear if you stuck a ball in front of haaland, he's a pretty decent bet to smash it home. But it feels to me his goals per game has dropped a little since all the defenders have faced him once and all the coaches have had a plan to deal with him. Of his 18 league goals this season, 3 came in 2 games against teams who'd never faced him before (he's not played against Luton in the league yet, but scored about 100 goals in the cup against them), so it's 15 in the other games in the league. It's still a fantastic return and he's at a goal contribution every 87 mins, but he's so heavily loaded to score goals, people are bound to look at his around play if he's not scoring. And there's not a lot there.

 

The real interesting part for me is city are a team that is so desperate to control the ball and maybe someone with the stats can prove me wrong, but I feel city don't really pass to him much, because he's not great at retaining possession. Is that contributing to them being slightly off the pace this season and he offers so little off the ball, they need his goal per game contribution or they suffer as a team? 

Im not sure teams are defending him much better. He is still, according to xG, probably the surest player to score a goal in a given game in the world. His finishing has just been inadequate this season. It has mirrored Nunez actually in that they are both underperforming by a decent amount in front of goal. 

 

And yeah, for touches, he is 54th in the league. For a Man City player that is very low and all 5 of our forwards have more. Alvarez is actually 3rd in touches in the whole league and it feels like he hasnt played for them in forever. 

 

 

[Ronnie Whelan]

5 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

Are we now in the terms of who is the better goal scorer and who is the better footballer though? 
 

Kane obviously scores lots of goals, not as many as Haaland though. 
 

For the reasons you’ve stated above, I absolutely think Kane is a better footballer and would rather have him leading our attack than Haaland. 
 

The Nunez shout is interesting. For me, Nunez is a better footballer than Haaland. However, as he ain’t as good a goal scorer, I’d rather have Haaland. 

Fair point. 

 

Kane is a world class finisher imo - maybe Haaland might slightly have the edge in this respect. As footballers, it's night and day. Kane could be still world class at 35. I'm not sure where Haaland is at 35, but I don't think he'll be elite level.

 

It's funny though. I love Nunez. He seems a very likeable lad and you can see he would kill his granny to win a game. Very talented...but wasteful at times. That is one thing Haaland generally isn't. As a footballer, Nunez is superior though. 

[Barrington Womble]

2 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

Im not sure teams are defending him much better. He is still, according to xG, probably the surest player to score a goal in a given game in the world. His finishing has just been inadequate this season. It has mirrored Nunez actually in that they are both underperforming by a decent amount in front of goal. 

 

And yeah, for touches, he is 54th in the league. For a Man City player that is very low and all 5 of our forwards have more. Alvarez is actually 3rd in touches in the whole league and it feels like he hasnt played for them in forever. 

 

 

I'm not really sure xG is a very good indicator of the real quality of chance. It has nothing to do with what the forward is good at and is really just a number generating thing for people to compare other forwards and even then it's crap because it's so basic. Last year it seemed to me he was never rushed with his finishing. Defenders are rushing him all the time now and he isn't getting in front of them quite so easily. And they're leaning into him, making life difficult , disrupting his balance (he seems to have poor balance to mw). Really, I can't take xG seriously as a stat. I think what I can agree on, is he is underperforming in front of goal. But I think it's a trend that started in the 2nd half of last season. But I don't think it's because he's become a bit crapper or lacks form. I think it's because defenders deal with him better. 

[sir roger]

While, like Mr Wom, I understand the limitations of xG, I was interested to see this representation of the present league with xG for and against.

 

I would have thought our main issue would have been us being profligate with chances, but it seems our opponents are far more profligate than us. Doesn't seem that way when I am watching.

 

 

[Scott_M]

47 minutes ago, sir roger said:

While, like Mr Wom, I understand the limitations of xG, I was interested to see this representation of the present league with xG for and against.

 

I would have thought our main issue would have been us being profligate with chances, but it seems our opponents are far more profligate than us. Doesn't seem that way when I am watching.

 

 

It’s that GA XG which is key. The amount of big saves Alisson and Keheller make, is outstanding. 

[Welsh]

3 hours ago, Ronnie Whelan said:

Fair point. 

 

Kane is a world class finisher imo - maybe Haaland might slightly have the edge in this respect. As footballers, it's night and day. Kane could be still world class at 35. I'm not sure where Haaland is at 35, but I don't think he'll be elite level.

 

It's funny though. I love Nunez. He seems a very likeable lad and you can see he would kill his granny to win a game. Very talented...but wasteful at times. That is one thing Haaland generally isn't. As a footballer, Nunez is superior though. 

If all Haaland has in his locker is finishing then surely that makes his career have more longevity than an all rounder, no?

 

 

[Ronnie Whelan]

22 minutes ago, Welsh said:

If all Haaland has in his locker is finishing then surely that makes his career have more longevity than an all rounder, no?

 

 

I just think Welsh he mightn't age that well. I guess you could argue he has a form of footballing intelligence to be in the right place to finish things and he does have serious power but lads that have a footballing brain can make up for loss of their physical attributes.

 

Kane definitely fits that bill imo.

[Code]

5 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

 

He can’t cope when defenders front him. Van Dijk had him in his pocket with ease. Even Ben Godfrey wound him up. 
 

Im not saying he’s not decent of course he is but like Drogba at Chelsea, the side was set up for the 9 to score and if he didn’t it would bounce back to a Lampard/Silva

 

 

Haaland would score more for us than he is doing for City.

 

His movement inside the box is out of this world, thats why he score so many goals for City, but City are not playing to his strengths at all, how often do we see him use his incredible pace for City? Not very often, because they dont play him in, the guy who did so last season has been injured almost all season thats the main reason his numbers have gone down in my view. 

[Bjornebye]

4 minutes ago, Code said:

Haaland would score more for us than he is doing for City.

 

His movement inside the box is out of this world, thats why he score so many goals for City, but City are not playing to his strengths at all, how often do we see him use his incredible pace for City? Not very often, because they dont play him in, the guy who did so last season has been injured almost all season thats the main reason his numbers have gone down in my view. 

If he was Swedish would you say the same? 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

6 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

A CAT!

A CAT!

A CAT! A CAT! A CAT!

[AngryOfTuebrook]

8 minutes ago, Code said:

His movement inside the box is out of this world

There was a match about a year ago where all the papers were wanking themselves daft over a spectacular scissor-kick that he scored.  The thing is though, with the amount of space he was given and the quality of the ball in, there's probably about 50 players in the Premier League could have done the same.

 

Earlier in the same game he scored another, much less photogenic, goal. That was one that was born of his incredible movement and finishing instincts; very, very few players could have done that. That's the one that shows how special he is.

 

Still an ugly fucker, like.

[Code]

5 hours ago, Ronnie Whelan said:

Kane is a far superior player to him imo. His all round play is outstanding. Thank God, he didn't go to either Mancs. His links to Spurs, means he won't go to Arsenal - imo he would be near perfect for them. I would love him here but that will never happen. I couldn't give a shite about England, so it's like I've a personal interest in the guy. Mind you, he doesn't piss me off in any way. 

 

Haaland is a world class finisher, but his general play is mediocre. Not league 2 like Keane said, but maybe lower end premier league. He can't light a candle to Kane. If City had Kane, they would be pretty incredible. As good as Haaland is in terms of elements of his game, I actually don't think he enhances City.

To compare Haaland with Kane is an insult to Haaland.

 

Haaland is 23 years old, he has scored 41 goals in the Champions League, he has scored 147 top flight goals and he has scored 27 goals for Norway.

 

At the same age, Kane had scored 0 Champions League goals, he had scored 49 top flight goals and he had 0 goals for England. 
 

Just a different class really.

 

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

2 minutes ago, Code said:

To compare Haaland with Kane is an insult to Haaland.

 

Haaland is 23 years old, he has scored 41 goals in the Champions League, he has scored 147 top flight goals and he has scored 27 goals for Norway.

 

At the same age, Kane had scored 0 Champions League goals, he had scored 49 top flight goals and he had 0 goals for England. 
 

Just a different class really.

 

 

None of that contradicts Ronnie's point that Kane's all-round game is better.

[Code]

2 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

None of that contradicts Ronnie's point that Kane's all-round game is better.

If you look at the assist stats in percentages, there is nothing to suggest Kane gets more assist than Haaland.

 

Haaland is also a good defender at set pieces, something people hardly give any notice when looking at attacking players abilities for the team. 

[Babb'sBurstNad]

Legend has it, If you say Haaland five times in the mirror Code appears.

[Carra_is_legend]

2 minutes ago, Babb'sBurstNad said:

Legend has it, If you say Haaland five times in the mirror Code appears.

 

As long as Haaland does not appear, the scary fuck.

 

Having said that, I obviously have not seen Code....

[Code]

1 minute ago, Babb'sBurstNad said:

Legend has it, If you say Haaland five times in the mirror Code appears.

I said we should get him when he played for Salzburg, think I said that if I should compare him with someone then Shearer might be a good comparison. 
 

FFS he scored 9 goals in one game in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2019 while at Salzburg. 

[Scott_M]

1 hour ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

None of that contradicts Ronnie's point that Kane's all-round game is better.

Kane’s game is already better. He’s a world class 9 and a world class 10. 
 

Haaland is a world class 9.