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Football: End of the seasons, start of the dramas.


A Horse Named Stranger

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City ran up their goal difference, so they have some cushion even if they do drop points somewhere — although that never looked likely.

The PL is the only competition left for them, of course they would still chase it hard.

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9 hours ago, Scott_N said:

Pretty sure that is the most glory hunting thing I've ever read. Then further exacerbated by the presumption of referring to Man City as 'City'.

Two middling, non-entities that have been juiced by theft and petro-fascists, respectively.

Chelsea was playing in the CL, challenging for the PL title, and winning FA cups before Abramovich bought them. They may not have Liverpool's or Man United's storied successes, but I wouldn't have called them middling at the time.

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Chelsea were not really title challengers before Abramovich in the PL era. They only finished in the top 4 in 3 out of 11 seasons and qualified for the CL in 2 out of 11 seasons pre Abramovich. They did have some cup success though (2 x FA Cups, 1 x League Cup, 1 x Cup Winners Cup and 1 x Super Cup).

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Controversial opinion, but is Haaland the player that City need? Yes they need and out and out goal scorer, but much like the conversation around Grealish, is Haaland filling a position that they kind of already have? 

I always assumed Kane was a good fit, because hes not only the goalscorer, but hes a full on complete forward, who drops very deep, links play brilliantly, holds up the ball and can also score a hat full. Is Haaland that? 

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Haaland is not as good (yet) at dropping deep and linking up play as Kane is but he does fill a position that City need and is an upgrade over what they currently have for the CF position. The difference between Haaland and Grealish is that City were already stacked in the positions that Grealish plays in and he was not an upgrade over what they already had.

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Lol. Haaland is excellent. KDB & Haaland in one team is a scary thought. If you're spending that amount of money on someone, you would take Haaland every single day of the week given his age. Also, he drops deep a decent-ish amount for Dortmund, from the games that I've seen.

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Haaland isn't the complete package, no. Kane is a better playmaker by far. Though, worth mentioning that Haaland is also a way better finisher right now. He's a great poacher, has a great shot and is way better at running in behind than what Kane is. 

I'm guessing he'll participate a bit less in the City triangles compared to Jesus or whoever pretends to be a striker at City now, but given how explosive he is, he's always a threat in behind, also against low blocks.

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The fact Haaland isn't a perfect fit for City's system is part of the reason to sign him. It's more or less what Pep tried with Ibra back in the day, although Haaland isn't as poorly a fit, nor as disruptive of a personality- plus it won't mean sending Eto'o plus a crapload of cash to Inter, allowing them to sign Lúcio, Milito, Sneijder, Motta and Pandev with it and making a team that will beat you.

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Point being is what is the profile of player city need in that centre forward role. You’d suspect Pep would really be looking for a goal scoring false 9, bit of a Messi. Not sure Haaland is that , though he has the strength to be used as a target man to bring others into the game. 
 

Is Jesus the sort of player Pep wants, just better? Even Jesus has been sent over to the wings in favour of a midfielder up front.

While they don’t play the same way, Liverpools main goal threats are the wide forwards, not the Firmino / Jota role, and their role is often around creating space and enabling the goal scoring of others. 
 

From what I’ve seen of Haaland, he’s very atheltic, very good at getting in behind ( not very useful against most teams in the prem), good off the ball, and decent hold up play. Maybe he’s a stronger Aguero type and maybe that is what they need but I’m also a little cautious that he’s not the profile of player they need in that central role and eventually they will shift him over to the wing to make the most of him.

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5 minutes ago, Raja said:

He's quality & technically more than good  enough to do whatever Pep wants him to do.

LOL. This sounds scarily like Jamie Redknapps recent comments that left Carragher so bemused, arguing that Pogba is a great fit for City because he’s ‘a good player’. Obviously that is gibberish and there is a reason why Carragher looked so irritated by it all. 

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27 minutes ago, Rorschach - 2 said:

Haaland isn't the complete package, no. Kane is a better playmaker by far.

I just think it's a no brainer with the age of the two players, and Kane will be more expensive than Haaland's release clause.

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Just now, Raja said:

I just think it's a no brainer with the age of the two players, and Kane will be more expensive than Haaland's release clause.

Yeah, I think so too. 

 

13 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

From what I’ve seen of Haaland, he’s very atheltic, very good at getting in behind ( not very useful against most teams in the prem), good off the ball, and decent hold up play.

See, this is wrong. I think you consider him running in behind, and most teams have parked the bus. But Haaland is terribly explosive over 5 meters too, so he gets to balls and through-balls even in tight spaces. There is no defender capable of keeping pace with him over that distance - and yes, that includes van Dijk.

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Haaland is already a top class CF. His hold up and link up play is not that bad either (he's much better at it than, say, Lukaku). He's young still and is going to play under one of the best coaches in world football. If anyone can polish up Haaland's link up and hold up play it's going to be Guardiola.

Being more of an Aguero type player is not a bad thing either. Let's not forget that Aguero was excellent under Guardiola before he became plagued by injuries - he got 95 goals + 24 assists in 131 games in the first 3 seasons under Guardiola. He even managed 23 goals + 4 assists in 32 games in his 4th season when the injury issues started. It was only last season where he really struggled.

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2 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Haaland is already a top class CF. His hold up and link up play is not that bad either (he's much better at it than, say, Lukaku). He's young still and is going to play under one of the best coaches in world football. If anyone can polish up Haaland's link up and hold up play it's going to be Guardiola.

100%. All one has to do is watch him play!

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2 minutes ago, Rorschach - 2 said:

Yeah, I think so too. 

 

See, this is wrong. I think you consider him running in behind, and most teams have parked the bus. But Haaland is terribly explosive over 5 meters too, so he gets to balls and through-balls even in tight spaces. There is no defender capable of keeping pace with him over that distance - and yes, that includes van Dijk.

Hmm, I think there is a reason why most top teams don’t play with nippy central forwards any more. It’s because so many teams defend deep. There might be some occasions where you can get a ball in behind a defence but there are reasonably rare and mostly top teams are playing in front of and around defences. The reason Pep played midfielders up front is because he sees that role as predominately creative, space making.

Now it could be that he sees that Haaland could combine his attacking qualities and become an more all rounder. Sure Aguero is the model, and even Aguero had to adapt quite a lot to fit that role. He was also exceptional technically which enabled him to do that 

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