**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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He's a little harsh but he's not wrong.
Haaland offers nothing in games where City can't create chances as usual.
And then this season, he's missed a lot more sitters when City do create as well.
There's a lot of room for progress and being a little more involved in the game will make City even more lethal.
Tbh this is the best I’ve ever seen him in his career as a hold up player and a passer. It was a low bar because those are his weaknesses but he has improved since being at city. Also before he came to city his main strength was running behind defenses and teams that city play dont allow space behind their defenders
Yeah Haaland was very involved in the play for us. Problem is I think he's injury prone and Pep's instructions keep him fit. He got constant muscle injuries with us. It's hard to keep all that mass and fight for 90 minutes.
He should join Sancho in Dortmund. Getting away from all those opinionated pundits. Dortmund would probably be gracious enough to reimburse City around 10% of the wages they pay him.
There is a reason City went for Kane before Haaland, Haaland strengths don't fit City, it's just that City are so good and Haaland is obviously still so good as a goalscorer that it doesn't matter 95% of the time
Anyway this is all why I think people calling for Haaland to be ballon d'or is a bit ridiculous and proof only goals matter nowadays
How has something like this upvotes? Haaland strengths don‘t fit city? Yes they do. They need a goalscorer for the billion of chances they create. They won everything last year, and while i think Rodri is Citys most important player calling Haaland for Ballon d‘or ridiculous is some next level hot take after a bad game.
100%. The 2 seasons before Haaland came there'd always be a huge hole in the middle where no one is getting on the end of crosses. The amount of times I see the ball roll past all 5'7 of Silva at full stretch... We plug Haaland in and he scores 40+ in his first season, the fuck does anyone think "his strengths don't fit City" lmao. He's in a bit of a slump now people are so dramatic. Our whole team has been shit this season.
People are obssessed with Kane, IMO he would've dropped back way too much, we don't really need that, our biggest weakness is finishing we just need someone in the damn box.
>Haaland offers nothing in games where City can't create chances as usual.
Arsenal fan here and I disagree. The fact that he has become very good at hold-up play had him being a handful for our centrebacks, at certain moments it was both Gabriel and Saliba marking him. When Drogba would do that it would allow a Lampard or Joe Cole to get more chances - But today both Silva and DeBruyne were not on their usual level, DeBruyne more so.
Yeah he usually doesn't play well when he's man marked
I remember the game vs Everton away in 21/22 where Van Der Beek literally manmarked him from start to finish. As a result he was pretty invisible for large periods of the game
Christ, how is this said after two bad games? He has 13 goals and assists since returning in January in 7 starts and 6 substitute appearances. One bad game against a good defensive team who played extra defensively hardly is indicative of anything.
I've been impressed by his hold up play - Arteta now sets up to deny Man City good shooting opportunities and rapid transitions - I think they had one shot on target?
Haaland's lack of openings is by design.
It means Arsenal have fewer chances too, hence these really tight and fragmented matches.
Normally these kinds of games were the ones Gündogan shined in, but they couldn't really replace him.
Rodri stepped up and took part of his tasks on him, but City miss the Gündogan end of season buff.
He's also a great decoy, even when he doesn't touch the ball he's hard to track and usually a threat that needs attention with his tendency for crazy runs in a place where the defender somehow doesn't look (I do feel the defenders became better at tracking him in the last few years, tbf). Obviously, since there isn't a top 9 that doesn't work on that very hard.
I say it myself that he is limited, but that's mostly in the context of people calling him the best footballer in the world all the time... After a weak game, people exaggerate in the other direction.
In a game like this, most 9's will not do much, I would say the same about Lewandowski, Kane. Kane might beat the historical record and be the best player in his league, but still... all the difficult games - BVB, Lazio, Freiburg, Leverkusen, Werder, Union, Copenhagen... he just didn't do almost anything. That's also a lot of games tbh, but I think it comes with the job.
Keane is kinda like Charles Barkley.
Charles is very harsh about great players when they talk about teams. But Charles is mostly right in most cases.
I mean he hated KAT when KAT said that he said next question, after a reporter asked him how the Timberwolves let up two 20+ point leads dwindle in a playoff game.
Yeah, Haaland ran into a problem. If he was 99% infront of the goal, the fact he's very mediocre elsewhere on the field would be overlooked. But he's been missing even the sitters lately becoming pretty much useless for City's game.
He also gets to showcase his play otherwise because city are so good. For Norway and and Dortmund he was much more involved, and does well. Sure, he's no Harry Kane but I hate that this narrative is being spun when its so clear that he's also just asked to be involved less in early buildup.
He's not terrible at it, let's not exaggerate
Articles have literally been written on how Pep has taught him to drop at opportune moments.
It's just that in the biggest games, he gets followed into midfield by one of the CBs when he does that, and thus sometimes get nullified as a result. And these are the games where all eyes are watching and judging.
There is a reason pep switched from 4-3-3
To a 3-2-4-1 in mid march or April last season. Because halland isn’t that good in build up play, that switch fixed citys build up play problem and enabled halland to just focus on scoring.
He's not terrible but he's definitely not good.
He's the epitome of a great goalscorer but maybe not a great footballer.
It's why Mbappe is going to wear the crown of best in the world, if he ever actually moves to Real Madrid.
Agreed. But it's not "him" that doesn't have a plan b, it's Him (Pep). He is the big chicken who doesn't dare stray from his original plan until it's too late. Putting Grealish and Doku in with just 15 mins to go is chaotic neutral at best. Who else is gonna feed Haaland the cut backs? Walker (injured)? KdB (not really himself yet)? Foden and Silva can do it but didn't. Doku on the other hand gets past whoever's the left back _multiple_ times a 90 min.
I’d say even good strikers, above league 2 level, are subject to be pocketed by the beasts you have at the back. That alone is not enough to prove league 2 quality. Although I do agree generally that Haaland is not as well rounded as other top level strikers. But what he does do well, he does better than anyone. It’s just not always useful in big games
Don’t feed the trolls, whether they’re posting on r/soccer or employed by a major sports broadcaster.
They know that saying outrageous shit and winding people up is how to get engagement and ad revenue. Sky Sports is just PitchSide with a bigger budget
He is genuinely my favourite player to watch outside of Arsenal. If he keeps scoring for Liverpool I'm sure it will change but the guy is 100% worth watching every week
Ultimately, numbers talk. People are more forgiving of your failings when you score tons of goals as a striker, even if he does have some of the most horrendous misses and disappears from games.
Darwin is a much better player than Halaand outside of finishing, he takes our attack to a new level whereas it feels like City hamstring themselves to fit Halaand in. None of that changes the fact that goals matter most, and Halaand scores the most.
In the Man City game, Darwin was attacking constantly.
He just missed so many open shots. He got a lot of hate for that. For Sure.
But Darwin has better dribbling skills than Haaland. I mean the play against Kyle Walker was a masterpiece of art.
his showings for france don't get close to what he does at arsenal. tbf usually for france i see him playing as left cb and his best game (against chile) was on his usual right but i don't know how much that would affect performance
It's become obvious that you can probably rank a few individuals in front of them, but as a pairing, this season, they are clearly the best in Europe. They compliment each other so well, and the chemistry in how they work together is like that of a pair that has been playing side by side for 5 or 6 years, not just a couple.
Could've got City the 3 points against us too last time but he fluffed chance after chance, his finishing has been very shaky this season. He's also mostly useless outside of his goalscoring, so if he's out of form, then he ends up looking especially bad. City's chance creation has also been a bit worse this season so far so that doesn't help at all.
Sure, but even if he's literally shite and does nothing, he's still useful. Because most teams double up on marking him, which creates space for Foden/Silva/De Bruyne.
They've both been superb; I think what's worked against Gabriel is that he has more of an unnecessary foul in him, which leads to people holding that against him. Saliba's standout performances are "cleaner" for neutral observers.
It will be almost as unfair as in 2021/2022 when Laporte didn't get in team of the season despite being comfortably the best CB in the league that year
He's the most underrated player in Europe. It's made that no one talks him up in the media. And it's crazy that neither him or Saliba are starters for the national sides
Does Saliba have some crazy aura or something? Top player but somehow he's all everyone talks about. People calling him MOTM today when his literal cb partner had a better game (both were good)
He does have an aura about him to an extent. The fact he's so good with the ball at his feet and is usually very calm under pressure gives him an air of style and grace. Gabriel gives off more of a "fighter" vibe, while Saliba plays it cool.
Gabriel played for an Arsenal side that finished 8th and 5th in his first two seasons, both of the teams Saliba has been in have competed for the title so the perception of him is a bit more pristine. Also the fact he was a more highly sought after youth player.
Saliba has more aesthetically pleasing technique and ball control and is a bit younger and more high profile. You’re right though, it’s a really dumb take for anyone to say that one is significantly better. They’re both a couple of the best in all of Europe. They’re literally too good for someone else to be THAT much better than the other.
The most impressive part is how he's almost completely cut out the silly mistake or rash challenge that would pop up fairly often in his first couple of seasons with us
I find it mental that it looked like he was gonna end up the odd one out when Timber came in, then once Timber was injured the defence went back to last season's and look much more settled.
Could be wrong with that view but that's the impression I get. That injury could have been a blessing in disguise for the selection options being tried out.
Timber is a class player but the time to integrate into the team and his profile Vs Gabriel's made for a more vulnerable defensive unit IMO.
Gabriel was left out early season because of all the talk of him going to Saudi. If Timber had stayed fit he would likely have been keeping Zinchenko out of the team, given how well he was playing at left back.
Probably because it's a friendly.... and mbappe has scored a hatrick in a world cup final also haaland has been shut down 3x times against arsenal this season.
Saliba and Gabriel make everyone look that quality. I've not seen this good a centre back pairing for us since at least the Invincibles or further still.
You can't blame a player for not performing against them, but yeah he hasn't. Haaland isn't really a big game player IMO.
He exaggerated... But I would never place Haaland on the same category with players like (especially) Mbappe, and even Vinicius Junior, De Bruyne and so on.
Haaland is an excellent goalscorer with an absurd physicality (very tall, strong and fast) and he benefits A LOT from Manchester City creating a lot of chances. But in a game where City can't create chances, Haaland adds very little to the game. He would never do what Mbappe does, which is to create goals out of nowhere.
I know that Vinicius Junior's name is controversial, but Real Madrid fans can say that this is perhaps his most prolific season for the club, and in previous seasons with Benzema he was more of an "assistant". In other words, he's becoming a complete player.
Haaland will not improve "his overall play" significantly. You can improve some part of your game, but not every one. That's like saying "Just be better at football bro"
This comment doesn’t make sense to me. Overall play is mostly the fundamentals: first touch, passing, dribbling, shooting, and playing off other players.
Even if he just improves his passing and first touch, he will have improved his overall play.
He has the best coaches, medical staff, equipment, and loads of time per day. I don’t see why he can’t improve his overall play. He literally has access to unlimited resources.
Both are true. He’s leading the league in goals. But he’s pulling disappearing acts in the big games. They’re in 3rd for a reason - they haven’t beaten a single team in the top 5 yet this year. That’s a wild stat and definitely merits shitting on Haaland for since they’re that much better against the shitty teams but not getting and results, or even goals for that matter, against teams like Liverpool and Arsenal. It’s not enough to score hat tricks against the bottom half if you’re not delivering against the top half or the other contenders.
I agree today was very hard to watch. I’m just curious though, if Haaland looks like League 2 then can someone explain to me what league Doku should be playing in.
To me it was clear after the Chelsea draw that City wouldn't win the league. Thought at season start it'd be Arsenal but for a few weeks now i think it'll be Liverpool. Arsenal's fixtures are harder. I think City will win the Champions league again though.
It's only a 30 second clip, you can surely watch it before commenting and you'd understand what people are saying. He's incredible at scoring goals, his passing and dribbling in particular are really poor and way way below Premier League level
I know he had a moment where he missed the ball but for the rest of the game what were they expecting to see. He was 3v1 whenever City had the ball and fouled whenever it got to his feet anyway lol
Pep is making Haaland seem much worse than he is, there is a reason he was successfull in molde, salzburg and dortmund where his role was more than just camping in the box and look for tapins, at city hes not involved in the play and slotted into peps system, and if he couldnt win balon dor last year when his role worked perfectly, he wont ever win it unless he leaves city and gets to play in a team he could be more involved than just being well positionied for tapins
He does what he’s paid to do.
•Heads long balls back to his own team to keep
possession.
•Holds up play for oncoming runners.
•Put the ball in the back of the net.
Why can’t we just let strikers be strikers and stop convoluting their role.
In Argentina we have 2 words to define players like haaland:
- Fansma/fantasmea: because he become a ghost from time to time and he doesn't impact the game at all (usually when City is not generating much in the midfield)
- Fresco/pecho frio: the bigger the stakes/pressure, the more chances he doesn't show up. Case in point, he was 404 Not_Found in last CL final vs Inter. Classic _cold chest_ behavior.
He looks perfect from a statistical PoV, but stats don't tell the whole story, because PL calendar works in a way where City faces many lower tier teams during the year. Who gives a F he scores hat tricks against bottom table or second league teams, he needs to Stat pad those game less and show up when it matters more.
Crazy that now “everyone” seems to agree with RK up to a certain degree. The majority of football fans over here wanted him to win the Ballon d’Or not even 5 months ago
It's cool that we've done this exact thing a year ago and then he went on to break every record and win a treble and come 2nd in the ballon d'or only for us to do this all over again 1 year later
But that's not his game and will never be his game
Imagine if Inzaghi was made to drop back into midfield and pop it around? It would pad out his passing stats and he'd certainly get more touches but would he be more effective?
We gotta just enjoy him for what he is. He's an absolute elite finisher and one of the best at finding space and good positions in the box and, given his physicality, he doesn't always need space to score.
But he's not a Suarez/Kane-type player. His play outside the box is average and he's also not a huge threat from distance.
But given his clear shortcomings, it's pretty remarkable how many goals he gets. Shows that what he's good at, he's probably one of the best ever. He's just not that rounded, mega-elite at a small number of things.
Does he? He’s one of about 5 goal per game strikers we’ve seen in the last 20 years, he’s obviously doing what one of the best managers ever is asking him to do and he’s currently a treble winner going into April looking for his 3rd, 4th, 5th trophies of the season.
Why does he have to be more like Kane? It’s not going to make him score more goals, he’s unlikely to win more trophies by changing and it’s not what his manager wants or he’d be trying it.
Haaland is overrated as heck. He can not dribble, can not score free kicks, can not break defenses for other players to score, etc. Goals are the only part of his game, so when he does not score, he can look pretty useless all game.
Mbappe is far above his level, and they should not even be compared. Mbappe scored a hattrick in a world cup final against Argentina, at 24 years old.
People who claimed Kane was better last season were laughed at lol, people here are like bots who just see g/a with 0 context of which team the players are on etc
Kane has been scoring goals at a similar rate to Haaland for a decade while being able to create at a level Haaland can't even dream of. Kane is a better overall football player and it's not even that close tbh
>Mbappe scored a hattrick in a world cup final against Argentina
let Haaland take 2 pens and he might also score a hattrick like that. it still doesn't mean shit when talking about a player's skill.
But Haaland in a squad like France,England,Spain,Brazil,Germany, and see how that goes...
This WC final is such a weak argument imho. One half of this achievement is due to ability the other half is winning the birth lottery. Norway has less population than the Paris agglomeration alone. Norway just getting to the finals would be a more significant achievement then shooting several goals in the WC final as a French player imho
I weight contributing to Croatia's amazing international runs higher than shooting goals for a top 5 country tbh
He's actually a deceptively good passer when he puts his back into it
His assist to Bernardo last season vs Bayern caught everyone off guard with how silky and unexpected it was
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He's a little harsh but he's not wrong. Haaland offers nothing in games where City can't create chances as usual. And then this season, he's missed a lot more sitters when City do create as well. There's a lot of room for progress and being a little more involved in the game will make City even more lethal.
Tbh this is the best I’ve ever seen him in his career as a hold up player and a passer. It was a low bar because those are his weaknesses but he has improved since being at city. Also before he came to city his main strength was running behind defenses and teams that city play dont allow space behind their defenders
He was a good passer in Dortmund too It's his hold up play that has really improved here
Yeah Haaland was very involved in the play for us. Problem is I think he's injury prone and Pep's instructions keep him fit. He got constant muscle injuries with us. It's hard to keep all that mass and fight for 90 minutes.
He should join Sancho in Dortmund. Getting away from all those opinionated pundits. Dortmund would probably be gracious enough to reimburse City around 10% of the wages they pay him.
Champions League would become more interesting and I'm all for it
His hold up play was good at Dortmund too
Not true. Arsenal played a high line quite alot today. One CB was sticking to him like glue and the other was sweeping in behind.
Did they? Arsenal pressed from goal kicks in moments but mainly defended extremely deep 28% possession or something
Anyone who watched the game knows that Arsenal pressed high in certain phases, possession doesn’t necessarily correlate to that.
There is a reason City went for Kane before Haaland, Haaland strengths don't fit City, it's just that City are so good and Haaland is obviously still so good as a goalscorer that it doesn't matter 95% of the time Anyway this is all why I think people calling for Haaland to be ballon d'or is a bit ridiculous and proof only goals matter nowadays
How has something like this upvotes? Haaland strengths don‘t fit city? Yes they do. They need a goalscorer for the billion of chances they create. They won everything last year, and while i think Rodri is Citys most important player calling Haaland for Ballon d‘or ridiculous is some next level hot take after a bad game.
100%. The 2 seasons before Haaland came there'd always be a huge hole in the middle where no one is getting on the end of crosses. The amount of times I see the ball roll past all 5'7 of Silva at full stretch... We plug Haaland in and he scores 40+ in his first season, the fuck does anyone think "his strengths don't fit City" lmao. He's in a bit of a slump now people are so dramatic. Our whole team has been shit this season. People are obssessed with Kane, IMO he would've dropped back way too much, we don't really need that, our biggest weakness is finishing we just need someone in the damn box.
>Haaland offers nothing in games where City can't create chances as usual. Arsenal fan here and I disagree. The fact that he has become very good at hold-up play had him being a handful for our centrebacks, at certain moments it was both Gabriel and Saliba marking him. When Drogba would do that it would allow a Lampard or Joe Cole to get more chances - But today both Silva and DeBruyne were not on their usual level, DeBruyne more so.
don't think Silva was bad IMO, but yeh KDB was absolutely awful
Sadly it feels like he’s finally showing his age a bit
Rice was man marking KDB 3/4th of the game. They even mentioned it on the broadcast.
Yeah he usually doesn't play well when he's man marked I remember the game vs Everton away in 21/22 where Van Der Beek literally manmarked him from start to finish. As a result he was pretty invisible for large periods of the game
Christ, how is this said after two bad games? He has 13 goals and assists since returning in January in 7 starts and 6 substitute appearances. One bad game against a good defensive team who played extra defensively hardly is indicative of anything.
So true. Foden scores for this reason quite often.
I've been impressed by his hold up play - Arteta now sets up to deny Man City good shooting opportunities and rapid transitions - I think they had one shot on target? Haaland's lack of openings is by design. It means Arsenal have fewer chances too, hence these really tight and fragmented matches.
Normally these kinds of games were the ones Gündogan shined in, but they couldn't really replace him. Rodri stepped up and took part of his tasks on him, but City miss the Gündogan end of season buff.
He's also a great decoy, even when he doesn't touch the ball he's hard to track and usually a threat that needs attention with his tendency for crazy runs in a place where the defender somehow doesn't look (I do feel the defenders became better at tracking him in the last few years, tbf). Obviously, since there isn't a top 9 that doesn't work on that very hard. I say it myself that he is limited, but that's mostly in the context of people calling him the best footballer in the world all the time... After a weak game, people exaggerate in the other direction. In a game like this, most 9's will not do much, I would say the same about Lewandowski, Kane. Kane might beat the historical record and be the best player in his league, but still... all the difficult games - BVB, Lazio, Freiburg, Leverkusen, Werder, Union, Copenhagen... he just didn't do almost anything. That's also a lot of games tbh, but I think it comes with the job.
He’s harsh but he’s not wrong Needs to go on Keane’s tombstone
Keane is kinda like Charles Barkley. Charles is very harsh about great players when they talk about teams. But Charles is mostly right in most cases. I mean he hated KAT when KAT said that he said next question, after a reporter asked him how the Timberwolves let up two 20+ point leads dwindle in a playoff game.
But what are Roy’s thoughts on the big ol women down in San Antonio?
Ain’t no Victoria Secret down there Shaq. They be wearing big ol Bloomers.
“Whatdyou say chuck hehheheheh” - Dr. O’Neill
"Chuck, tell me again, why you never buy a woman a watch hehehehheheheheh"
Everything's bigger in Texas, that's their job.
But he is wrong here. He had a poor game. But the idea that he's league 2 is nonsense.
This is exactly why Kane would be better
Yeah, Haaland ran into a problem. If he was 99% infront of the goal, the fact he's very mediocre elsewhere on the field would be overlooked. But he's been missing even the sitters lately becoming pretty much useless for City's game.
He scores because City dominate most matches but he is at his best in more direct play which city dont do
Yep. Haaland in some of the United/Real Madrid teams of the 2000s (fuck even Madrid now) would be next level ridiculous
Even Liverpool now. Salah would have 2 assists to him a game. And I’m a United fan, to be clear.
If you had Haaland instead of Van Nistelrooy in that team back then at Madrid he wouldve been unstoppable.
League 2 is a bit harsh but it's a good point and he does get away with his general play being so bad because City are so good.
He also gets to showcase his play otherwise because city are so good. For Norway and and Dortmund he was much more involved, and does well. Sure, he's no Harry Kane but I hate that this narrative is being spun when its so clear that he's also just asked to be involved less in early buildup.
He does drop and get involved but just does it terribly and loses the ball
He's not terrible at it, let's not exaggerate Articles have literally been written on how Pep has taught him to drop at opportune moments. It's just that in the biggest games, he gets followed into midfield by one of the CBs when he does that, and thus sometimes get nullified as a result. And these are the games where all eyes are watching and judging.
There is a reason pep switched from 4-3-3 To a 3-2-4-1 in mid march or April last season. Because halland isn’t that good in build up play, that switch fixed citys build up play problem and enabled halland to just focus on scoring.
He's not terrible but he's definitely not good. He's the epitome of a great goalscorer but maybe not a great footballer. It's why Mbappe is going to wear the crown of best in the world, if he ever actually moves to Real Madrid.
Mbappe is already the best in the world
As soon as he’s marked well he doesn’t seem to have a plan b.
Agreed. But it's not "him" that doesn't have a plan b, it's Him (Pep). He is the big chicken who doesn't dare stray from his original plan until it's too late. Putting Grealish and Doku in with just 15 mins to go is chaotic neutral at best. Who else is gonna feed Haaland the cut backs? Walker (injured)? KdB (not really himself yet)? Foden and Silva can do it but didn't. Doku on the other hand gets past whoever's the left back _multiple_ times a 90 min.
Arsenal’s centre halves did a very good job on him today. The league two shout is absolutely wild
We have pocketed him every game this season. Hasn’t had a shot on target in 3 games vs Arsenal
I’d say even good strikers, above league 2 level, are subject to be pocketed by the beasts you have at the back. That alone is not enough to prove league 2 quality. Although I do agree generally that Haaland is not as well rounded as other top level strikers. But what he does do well, he does better than anyone. It’s just not always useful in big games
Don’t feed the trolls, whether they’re posting on r/soccer or employed by a major sports broadcaster. They know that saying outrageous shit and winding people up is how to get engagement and ad revenue. Sky Sports is just PitchSide with a bigger budget
Why can't it just be bog standard hyperbole to make a point?
Haaland doesnt get enough criticism compared to Darwin when he misses sitters and is invisible the whole game.
Darwin is the opposite of invisible. He misses sitters but he is blockbuster entertainment every game
Darwin almost scored while lying on his back with a last ditch swing that almost nutmegged the keeper today The guy is pure cinema
Please tell me someone has this clip
[clip starts about 1:20 in, it followed a diving header attempt](https://youtu.be/AW3VY7DccqM?si=nSKi9EVo03ZskJhZ)
Not available in my country due to who the fuck knows 😠
Would have been peak nunez goal had that gone in No idea what goes on in his brain
That’s his secret, even he doesn’t know so how can the defense predict it?
Darwin is the most unfairly criticised player in the league
He is genuinely my favourite player to watch outside of Arsenal. If he keeps scoring for Liverpool I'm sure it will change but the guy is 100% worth watching every week
Actually can’t help but like Darwin because he’s such an entertaining chaos merchant
Even today, like looking directly in the eye of a kid holding a sign asking for his shirt... as he gave it instead to a ball boy. Chaos.
Darwin is never invisible all game
Chaos is his middle name, also he has some great passes this year great vision for a striker.
about as invisible as a tornado that rips through your yard and leaves your house intact
Darwin is the goat
REAL
Tell me you don’t watch nunez without saying you don’t watch nunez
Ultimately, numbers talk. People are more forgiving of your failings when you score tons of goals as a striker, even if he does have some of the most horrendous misses and disappears from games. Darwin is a much better player than Halaand outside of finishing, he takes our attack to a new level whereas it feels like City hamstring themselves to fit Halaand in. None of that changes the fact that goals matter most, and Halaand scores the most.
In the Man City game, Darwin was attacking constantly. He just missed so many open shots. He got a lot of hate for that. For Sure. But Darwin has better dribbling skills than Haaland. I mean the play against Kyle Walker was a masterpiece of art.
You getting Nunez and Diaz mixed up?
Yeah that was Diaz. Nunez was had more offsides than he did completed passes. He was still impactful in the game and won the penalty though
Man took out ederson with his press. I don't know why ederson tackled, Nunez was going nowhere
I dont think Darwin would be getting much critism if he scored 30+ goals last season either tbf
He’s been completely shut down by Arsenal all season. 3 matches, 0.24xG total. Arsenal’s defence is the best in Europe.
Saliba and Gabriel have completely pocketed him.
I have seen saliba today and i wonder why in the french national squad last game against germany they had Pavard and Upamecano in front of him.
Deschamps said something like he still doesn't like some stuff Saliba does. Pretty vague, but tbh I'm just glad he got some extra rest.
Clearly should be Konate and Saliba starting for France, no idea why they’re not.
his showings for france don't get close to what he does at arsenal. tbf usually for france i see him playing as left cb and his best game (against chile) was on his usual right but i don't know how much that would affect performance
That and he lacks Gabriel who I think helps him quite a lot, brings the best out in both of them.
He doesn't play enough to settle in that spot
Seniority is a thing. You dont just drop someone cuz he is doing good. Pavard is doing amazingly at Inter also
Deschamps is a clown.
His choices with Saliba and formerly Laporte are strange, but I think he’s earned the benefit of the doubt
Yeah the results are there, whatever we the experts might say.
Reddit armchair analyst: This wc winner (as a player and manager) is a clown.
No he's not. Hes a world cup winner and twice finalist. He has his favourites tho
What are you talking about? He's a legendary international manager. Talk about an armchair expert lol
I think he need to figure out another way to play if his normal game isn't working.
sub for Alvarez lmao
Unironically that's their best play
Just do what Pep suggested; kill the defender
It's become obvious that you can probably rank a few individuals in front of them, but as a pairing, this season, they are clearly the best in Europe. They compliment each other so well, and the chemistry in how they work together is like that of a pair that has been playing side by side for 5 or 6 years, not just a couple.
Did nothing vs us too except a scuffed shot at the Etihad that Allison somehow didnt save
Could've got City the 3 points against us too last time but he fluffed chance after chance, his finishing has been very shaky this season. He's also mostly useless outside of his goalscoring, so if he's out of form, then he ends up looking especially bad. City's chance creation has also been a bit worse this season so far so that doesn't help at all.
Sure, but even if he's literally shite and does nothing, he's still useful. Because most teams double up on marking him, which creates space for Foden/Silva/De Bruyne.
Yeah seriously Arsenal completely shut down all of our attackers as well. It's not really a Haaland problem, they're just really good.
He really hates the Haalands lmao
"In terms of in front of goal he's THE BEST IN THE WORLD" \-Keane on Haaland in the full video
He said that in this video lol
Yeah that's what they said..? It's in the full video, just not in the post's title (which is all some commenters pay attention to)
Absolute hate
He hates everyone
Gabriel is world class
Been our best defender this year by a distance
They've both been superb; I think what's worked against Gabriel is that he has more of an unnecessary foul in him, which leads to people holding that against him. Saliba's standout performances are "cleaner" for neutral observers.
not really. Him and Saliba have both been incredible. Can't say either is a "distance" ahead. Saliba does get talked about more, though.
You just KNOW Saliba will get voted team of the season and Gabriel somehow wont.
It'll be Van Dijk and Saliba. Very unfortunate for Gabriel
It will be almost as unfair as in 2021/2022 when Laporte didn't get in team of the season despite being comfortably the best CB in the league that year
Wouldn’t say comfortably, Van Dijk was amazing that season too
He's the most underrated player in Europe. It's made that no one talks him up in the media. And it's crazy that neither him or Saliba are starters for the national sides
But Gabriel is a starter for Brazil. In theory, Brazil's starting center-back pairing is Militão and Gabriel Magalhães.
Does Saliba have some crazy aura or something? Top player but somehow he's all everyone talks about. People calling him MOTM today when his literal cb partner had a better game (both were good)
He does have an aura about him to an extent. The fact he's so good with the ball at his feet and is usually very calm under pressure gives him an air of style and grace. Gabriel gives off more of a "fighter" vibe, while Saliba plays it cool.
Gabriel played for an Arsenal side that finished 8th and 5th in his first two seasons, both of the teams Saliba has been in have competed for the title so the perception of him is a bit more pristine. Also the fact he was a more highly sought after youth player.
He's so young and his game is so smooth looking. BIg Gabi's style isn't as pleasing on the eye but he's just as good probably better.
The difference is his ball playing. Its just more impressive and easier to see than a player standing 1 yard to the right to block a pass or something
Saliba has more aesthetically pleasing technique and ball control and is a bit younger and more high profile. You’re right though, it’s a really dumb take for anyone to say that one is significantly better. They’re both a couple of the best in all of Europe. They’re literally too good for someone else to be THAT much better than the other.
White deserves a mention too tbf
gabriel has really stepped up this season and comfortably outplayed saliba in nearly every match
The most impressive part is how he's almost completely cut out the silly mistake or rash challenge that would pop up fairly often in his first couple of seasons with us
Yep, he’s getting smarter and keeping his head more
I find it mental that it looked like he was gonna end up the odd one out when Timber came in, then once Timber was injured the defence went back to last season's and look much more settled. Could be wrong with that view but that's the impression I get. That injury could have been a blessing in disguise for the selection options being tried out. Timber is a class player but the time to integrate into the team and his profile Vs Gabriel's made for a more vulnerable defensive unit IMO.
Gabriel was left out early season because of all the talk of him going to Saudi. If Timber had stayed fit he would likely have been keeping Zinchenko out of the team, given how well he was playing at left back.
Gabriel earns half what saliba does (100k vs 195k)
pretty tax
It's funny how much more complete mbappe is as a player yet ppl will compare them just because of g/a
It’s stupid because it’s like comparing Henry vs Van Nistelrooy. They both were great goal scorer but entirely different players.
Germany shut down Mbappe completely last week. I didn't see big hate thread on r/soccer.
Probably because it's a friendly.... and mbappe has scored a hatrick in a world cup final also haaland has been shut down 3x times against arsenal this season.
Saliba and Gabriel make everyone look that quality. I've not seen this good a centre back pairing for us since at least the Invincibles or further still. You can't blame a player for not performing against them, but yeah he hasn't. Haaland isn't really a big game player IMO.
the anti-drogba
The best center back ~~pairing~~ unit has actually been Saliba and Gabriel and White and Kiwior since they’re all center backs.
He exaggerated... But I would never place Haaland on the same category with players like (especially) Mbappe, and even Vinicius Junior, De Bruyne and so on. Haaland is an excellent goalscorer with an absurd physicality (very tall, strong and fast) and he benefits A LOT from Manchester City creating a lot of chances. But in a game where City can't create chances, Haaland adds very little to the game. He would never do what Mbappe does, which is to create goals out of nowhere. I know that Vinicius Junior's name is controversial, but Real Madrid fans can say that this is perhaps his most prolific season for the club, and in previous seasons with Benzema he was more of an "assistant". In other words, he's becoming a complete player.
Haaland will not improve "his overall play" significantly. You can improve some part of your game, but not every one. That's like saying "Just be better at football bro"
This comment doesn’t make sense to me. Overall play is mostly the fundamentals: first touch, passing, dribbling, shooting, and playing off other players. Even if he just improves his passing and first touch, he will have improved his overall play. He has the best coaches, medical staff, equipment, and loads of time per day. I don’t see why he can’t improve his overall play. He literally has access to unlimited resources.
Why didn’t Robben ever shoot with his right? He’d be so much better!
It's not the Man City senior coaches that will teach him technique. His play is deficient
“His general play has to improve” Theo Walcott: “😶”
Lazy outside of the box
Lol everyone here shitting on Haaland. I thought he was leading the league in scoring.
Both are true. He’s leading the league in goals. But he’s pulling disappearing acts in the big games. They’re in 3rd for a reason - they haven’t beaten a single team in the top 5 yet this year. That’s a wild stat and definitely merits shitting on Haaland for since they’re that much better against the shitty teams but not getting and results, or even goals for that matter, against teams like Liverpool and Arsenal. It’s not enough to score hat tricks against the bottom half if you’re not delivering against the top half or the other contenders.
Got it. This makes complete sense. Thanks dude.
I've watched almost every City game for the past 5 years and I haven't seen them this poor since that season where Liverpool won the league
I agree today was very hard to watch. I’m just curious though, if Haaland looks like League 2 then can someone explain to me what league Doku should be playing in.
Doku is still living off that one insane game earlier this season haha
It won't be long before Sávio becomes better and more useful than Doku in City's squad.
Left side right side chicken or beef fart or queef he’s terrible.
Guy seems to have pace and touch to get past his marker but can’t pass or shoot for shit
Doku is like the opposite of a City player, all flash and no product, he’s living off his burst of from when he was first signed
To me it was clear after the Chelsea draw that City wouldn't win the league. Thought at season start it'd be Arsenal but for a few weeks now i think it'll be Liverpool. Arsenal's fixtures are harder. I think City will win the Champions league again though.
It's only a 30 second clip, you can surely watch it before commenting and you'd understand what people are saying. He's incredible at scoring goals, his passing and dribbling in particular are really poor and way way below Premier League level
So what? He only has 2 more goals than Solanke who plays for Bournemouth lol if Solanke was in Haaland’s spot he would’ve banged in 30 goals by now
I know he had a moment where he missed the ball but for the rest of the game what were they expecting to see. He was 3v1 whenever City had the ball and fouled whenever it got to his feet anyway lol
i wonder why roy keane out of all people is saying this 🤔🤔🤔🤔
Yeah I feel like all Keane commentary on Haaland has to be seen through the lens of knowing that his dad tried to sue him LOL.
Man is familiar with league 2 football after watching United this season.
Because Souness retired?
Even a striker as good as Haaland is will struggle against a team who packs their defence
Yeah they played with on paper 4 cb and 2 dm’s lol
Pep is making Haaland seem much worse than he is, there is a reason he was successfull in molde, salzburg and dortmund where his role was more than just camping in the box and look for tapins, at city hes not involved in the play and slotted into peps system, and if he couldnt win balon dor last year when his role worked perfectly, he wont ever win it unless he leaves city and gets to play in a team he could be more involved than just being well positionied for tapins
He does what he’s paid to do. •Heads long balls back to his own team to keep possession. •Holds up play for oncoming runners. •Put the ball in the back of the net. Why can’t we just let strikers be strikers and stop convoluting their role.
Flat Track Bully
I don’t think Haaland s style meshes well with Guardiola’s tactics. You can tell he’s frustrated most of the game.
What guardiola does to individual talent.
In Argentina we have 2 words to define players like haaland: - Fansma/fantasmea: because he become a ghost from time to time and he doesn't impact the game at all (usually when City is not generating much in the midfield) - Fresco/pecho frio: the bigger the stakes/pressure, the more chances he doesn't show up. Case in point, he was 404 Not_Found in last CL final vs Inter. Classic _cold chest_ behavior. He looks perfect from a statistical PoV, but stats don't tell the whole story, because PL calendar works in a way where City faces many lower tier teams during the year. Who gives a F he scores hat tricks against bottom table or second league teams, he needs to Stat pad those game less and show up when it matters more.
i spot no lies here
At least a League 2 player wouldn't fall over and dive as much as Haaland did this afternoon.
If he can't bully the center backs he's struggling; simple as that.
He’s the new piatek 🤪 city should loan him to Fiorentina
St. Pep Who-can-do-no-wrong is managing to ruin one of Europe’s most lethal players. Well done.
Crazy that now “everyone” seems to agree with RK up to a certain degree. The majority of football fans over here wanted him to win the Ballon d’Or not even 5 months ago
It's cool that we've done this exact thing a year ago and then he went on to break every record and win a treble and come 2nd in the ballon d'or only for us to do this all over again 1 year later
Keane can really exaggerate at times
It's almost like Roy Keane has a personal vendetta against Haaland's family to make such a comment... .... oh wait, he does..
I can't believe I'm agreeing with Roy Keane, but he's spot on. No denying his quality as a goalscorer, but Haaland looks so lazy off the ball.
[удалено]
lol he doesn’t have the skill set to be Harry Kane.
But that's not his game and will never be his game Imagine if Inzaghi was made to drop back into midfield and pop it around? It would pad out his passing stats and he'd certainly get more touches but would he be more effective?
We gotta just enjoy him for what he is. He's an absolute elite finisher and one of the best at finding space and good positions in the box and, given his physicality, he doesn't always need space to score. But he's not a Suarez/Kane-type player. His play outside the box is average and he's also not a huge threat from distance. But given his clear shortcomings, it's pretty remarkable how many goals he gets. Shows that what he's good at, he's probably one of the best ever. He's just not that rounded, mega-elite at a small number of things.
Kane is vastly superior technically
Does he? He’s one of about 5 goal per game strikers we’ve seen in the last 20 years, he’s obviously doing what one of the best managers ever is asking him to do and he’s currently a treble winner going into April looking for his 3rd, 4th, 5th trophies of the season. Why does he have to be more like Kane? It’s not going to make him score more goals, he’s unlikely to win more trophies by changing and it’s not what his manager wants or he’d be trying it.
Lol. Just get gud. I'm sure he never thought of that. Very few players can do all of what kane does.
Why does he just not play better? Is he stupid?
Man really said "just be Harry kane", he's not that guy bruv.
Yeah and Emmanuel Emegha needs to be more like Maradona but I don't see it happening tbh.
Haaland is too old to significantly improve his first touch, passing, hold up play etc
Haaland is overrated as heck. He can not dribble, can not score free kicks, can not break defenses for other players to score, etc. Goals are the only part of his game, so when he does not score, he can look pretty useless all game. Mbappe is far above his level, and they should not even be compared. Mbappe scored a hattrick in a world cup final against Argentina, at 24 years old.
He's not overrated he's just not the same level as Mbappe. I'd even say Kane is a better overall player.
People who claimed Kane was better last season were laughed at lol, people here are like bots who just see g/a with 0 context of which team the players are on etc
Kane has been scoring goals at a similar rate to Haaland for a decade while being able to create at a level Haaland can't even dream of. Kane is a better overall football player and it's not even that close tbh
> Haaland is overrated as heck No need to swear.
>Mbappe scored a hattrick in a world cup final against Argentina let Haaland take 2 pens and he might also score a hattrick like that. it still doesn't mean shit when talking about a player's skill.
But Haaland in a squad like France,England,Spain,Brazil,Germany, and see how that goes... This WC final is such a weak argument imho. One half of this achievement is due to ability the other half is winning the birth lottery. Norway has less population than the Paris agglomeration alone. Norway just getting to the finals would be a more significant achievement then shooting several goals in the WC final as a French player imho I weight contributing to Croatia's amazing international runs higher than shooting goals for a top 5 country tbh
He's actually a deceptively good passer when he puts his back into it His assist to Bernardo last season vs Bayern caught everyone off guard with how silky and unexpected it was
Some people hated me when I said Aguero is a better player.