Erling Haaland's adventures in Manchester City

Haaland will help City in these end to end match ups, and it seems like Pep will play 4 CB's for extra defensive stability. I think these two changes alone make City more CL-ready than previous years. I think they'll get past Bayern, but Madrid is less likely.

Ederson is the question mark though. This guy is an idiot. In the 6 years he's been with City he never once made a big save in the CL, and he has a history of losing his head with brainfarts.

Pep binned Jesus, Sterling, Cancelo, and has benched Laporte. He just needs to add benching Ederson to that list, and if he does then I'm putting money on City winning the CL.

Vibe wrote:Ederson is simply not a top GK, he just fits Pep's system as a distributor.

And as Curtois showed last season, a top GK can be the difference between winning and losing the CL.

Knockout football isn't played in the midfield anymore. It's played in the boxes. Clutch goalies and strikers are the most important thing. Courtois last year and Martinez in the WC are excellent examples.

Ruled out from Norway's friendly matches against Spain and Georgia with groin discomfort. Time for Alexander Sørloth to step up his game!

Casciavit wrote:

Vibe wrote:Ederson is simply not a top GK, he just fits Pep's system as a distributor.

And as Curtois showed last season, a top GK can be the difference between winning and losing the CL.

Knockout football isn't played in the midfield anymore. It's played in the boxes. Clutch goalies and strikers are the most important thing. Courtois last year and Martinez in the WC are excellent examples.

One of the worst top club goalkeepers ive ever seen. A rich man's Bravo. Every time I see anyone get a shot at City's goal I always think it'll be a goal lmfao

Jibs is a top footy mind here and glad he agrees Ederson is trash.

I mean else is he known for beyond his ball-playing skills to which in itself are overrated.

I never want to hear him compared to Alison again.

Thimmy wrote:

Reading the earlier pages of this thread seems like you and me were the only ones to mention his creativity. Others were calling him Andy Caroll on the ball.

Casciavit wrote:

Thimmy wrote:

Reading the earlier pages of this thread seems like you and me were the only ones to mention his creativity. Others were calling him Andy Caroll on the ball.

I assume those people didn't watch him much, if at all, prior to his City move. I've been following him since he played for RB Salzburg. It's pretty clear to me that he's nowhere near as one-dimensional as a lot of people seem to suggest he is. Just the other day, I read a comment on a tabloid article that claimed he wasn't very fast. It's easy to have opinions about things  

Thimmy wrote:

Casciavit wrote:

Thimmy wrote:

Reading the earlier pages of this thread seems like you and me were the only ones to mention his creativity. Others were calling him Andy Caroll on the ball.

I assume those people didn't watch him much, if at all, prior to his City move. I've been following him since he played for RB Salzburg. It's pretty clear to me that he's nowhere near as one-dimensional as a lot of people seem to suggest he is. Just the other day, I read a comment on a tabloid article that claimed he wasn't very fast. It's easy to have opinions about things  

It's like you with Mbappé. You watched a couple fast full backs deal with him in the CL 3 or 4 years ago and decided he was a one dimensional speed merchant.

farfan wrote:

Thimmy wrote:

Casciavit wrote:


Reading the earlier pages of this thread seems like you and me were the only ones to mention his creativity. Others were calling him Andy Caroll on the ball.

I assume those people didn't watch him much, if at all, prior to his City move. I've been following him since he played for RB Salzburg. It's pretty clear to me that he's nowhere near as one-dimensional as a lot of people seem to suggest he is. Just the other day, I read a comment on a tabloid article that claimed he wasn't very fast. It's easy to have opinions about things  

It's like you with Mbappé. You watched a couple fast full backs deal with him in the CL 3 or 4 years ago and decided he was a one dimensional speed merchant.

I didn't watch him much at Monaco, and I don't watch PSG at all these days, but I did follow PSG during his first 2 seasons there. One dimensional, speed merchant is quite a bit of a stretch. I think he's one of the top forwards in the world right now and he can clearly do a lot more than just run at full speed, but that doesn't mean that I haven't noticed that he has struggled in so many instances where I've seen him come up against pacy fullbacks.

Hardly anyone can match his speed, but as far as I can tell, that's been a recurring theme for some time now. I've observed it enough times that I thought it was worth pointing out. I actually suspected that PSG decided to get Hakimi after they saw how he handled Mbappe in the first leg between Dortmund and PSG.

El Gunner wrote:honestly i don't know everything i've said about him before in this forum... but i've definitely always been Haaland >>> Mbappe, and im sure you guys remember this as well.

I've just always seen more from him. Regardless of the fact that he is absolutely a stone cold killer in front goal, something Mbappe could only dream of, i also felt like he had a potential to grow his game more than Mbappe. He is still so young, don't be surprised if he just gets better in every aspect, and that's scary. The dude is a legit unicorn in all of sports history, not just football.

I guess my biggest concern was him joining a Pep team, i felt like Pep might stunt his growth, but who was i to doubt arguably the greatest coach of all time?

I like them both, and I know Mbappe is known as a more complete talent, and I don't disagree with that.

But it's amusing because despite Haaland being more limited he's wayyy less selfish than Mbappe. I honestly think Mbappe is more selfish than a young Cristiano Ronaldo. I'm not saying Mbappe isn't creative and that he can't pass, as he definitely can. His assist count is quite good too. However, when I watch PSG I'm shocked by his decision making.  

If a pass is a better option than shooting Haaland will play the pass 8/10 times. If a pass is a better option than shooting Mbappe will play the pass 2/10 times. This is actually one of Haaland's best traits and it's quite surprising for a striker who scores as much as he does to play in that way. He's a real team player, and you can see it in the celebrations when his teammates score, or his lack of negative reaction when Pep subs him off. Good vibes all around.

Mbappe is way more egotistical, and I don't know maybe it's because of the politics at PSG, so he feels the need to be more selfish to protect his star power....

Also it's about time Mbappe leaves PSG. That project is a hopeless mess. Especially if MNM all stick around. Even when Messi/Neymar leave, I wonder if PSG will even win the CL. Mbappe is lazier defensively than Messi, if Messi couldn't win a CL in the last 8 years being a liability off the ball, it wouldn't surprise me if Mbappe falls into that trap.

At this rate, Haaland is going to have a better CV on club level because his career decisions are more intelligent.

He saw that City was missing a striker and knew he'd been given +5 clear chances a game just because of their playing style. He knew that his 'technical' side was his weak point so what did he do? He went and joined the coach who's the best ever when it comes to coaching the technical aspect of football.

Barring a freak injury, Haaland is going to stack Ballon d'ors, break scoring records, win CL's, and be the face of the biggest league in the world.

Meanwhile Mbappe is sticking around because of the money, but to the media he claims its because he thinks winning a CL with PSG is bigger for his legacy. Haaland winning a few CL's with City/Barca/Madrid will do more for his legacy than Mbappe winning just one CL for PSG.

Mbappe going to Madrid and winning 3-4 CL's will do more for his legacy than just winning one CL with PSG. I don't know why he thinks it would be like Greece winning Euro 2004. They're the biggest spenders and have the highest wage bill. There's no underdog story here that would magically boost his legacy.

He's already idolized in France and by Parisian's, like yeah winning a CL would boost his status even more there, but in the grand scheme of things his legacy is bigger if he stacks a few with the traditional big boys.

Interesting, hadnt thought about that detailed comparison in the future on their careers. Haaland has definitely surprised me in how fast n how much he has improved this season, just wow. I still think Mbappe is better but as Cas said some aspects of his game n fact that Haaland leading Man C likely means he will end up winning more.

Mbappe definitely needs to move... if he does like Real can only see that, but hope one of the EPL clubs can snatch him just to stop Real having him plsss

I was the one on this forum, who had balls to say that I would prefer Haaland over Mbappe in the long term. Simply because those kind of strikers are rare these days and the most important thing is putting the ball in the net with the right kind of set up around a player like Haaland. Pep and City are able to provide that set up, on which Pep definitely deserves credit for evolving beyond his hipster football and adapting to a player like Haaland. I can see Haaland joining Madrid after 2-3 seasons.

Vibe wrote:So Haaland farts on his opponents when they get close to him? What the actual fuck.

If there were one player who'd do such a thing, I'd definitely put my money on him

Vibe wrote:So Haaland farts on his opponents when they get close to him? What the actual fuck.

Are you referring to this?

pic.twitter.com/h25XCQWvRC

— Out Of Context Football (@nocontextfooty) April 25, 2023

Fans think Erling Haaland 'farted' on Leon Goretzka

Apparently, it started as a joke and a fake quote from Leon Goretzka and now it's turned into a meme/running gag.