Erling Haaland's adventures in Manchester City

Fuckin robot

CBarca wrote:Fuckin robot

The petition has 1.8m+ votes at the time of writing this

Varnagel wrote:It's hilarious how one of Benzema's biggest haters on GoalLegacy for years is using it as an argument. I thought he was a scrub & being carried by the likes of Cristiano & others during entire 2010s decade according to you?

Haaland is currently on track to win European Golden Boot and hit Prime Cristiano/Messi numbers. Something Benzema was never capable to do lol.

Criticizing him for playing bad and praising him for playing well is called being fair, not a hater. If he goes back to playing bad again, you will see me criticize him again. It's simple really.

It's hilarious how when he was playing bad, your were kissing his ass repeatedly and now that he's playing at a BdO level, you are shitting on him.

Benzema is at the end of his career. Soon enough, he will start regressing. But in the past couple seasons, he stepped up big time when no else was around and carried the team to trophies against all odds. Trophies are a team achievement, but Benzema was one of the biggest contributor, and without him, we wouldn't have won jack shit last season.

But by no means, go ahead and keep comparing them. Give us more posts that show just how high your IQ is.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:And Benz did that in spades and deservedly got a BdO out of that.

He did?!

Myesyats wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:And Benz did that in spades and deservedly got a BdO out of that.

He did?!

Just a formality. Already got his tuxedo and victory speech ready

The petition to the UK parliament that was for banning Erling Haaland from the Premier League for being a robot amassed over 2 million signatures before being taken down. How does this work? Can you suggest anything in those petitions? I assume that's not the case since it was eventually removed from the site, but it looks like you can theoretically bring any suggestion up for processing, as long as there are enough signatures to it.

"Petitions which reach 100,000 signatures are almost always debated. "

yeah you can petition for anything but if it's clearly banter there's no way they'll debate it

Honestly, this is probably what you will hate but we are looking at the next generation now.

Ronaldo, Messi are essentially finished for club football and next year Benzema, Salah (purely quoting due to his PL records before you start) will soon become history. Someone like Haaland has all and every right to be compared to them, has he achieved the level to be compared? No, but right now, he is on track to beat all Salah's PL records, and if he helps City get that CL, they won' stop similar to Madrid in their prime. So I do understand Madrid fans being so defensive, but guys, you can set your line of defense to preserve your legends, Haaland as of now keeps getting closer to it each gameweek, so strap on.

As a Messi fanboy I am genuinely scared for his 91 goal record

Cruijf wrote:As a Messi fanboy I am genuinely scared for his 91 goal record

You shouldn't. Ronaldo and Messi reached an unprecedented level of consistency at the highest level that we never thought was possible in human terms. It was so good, it almost made us dread their retirement day because we felt football would go back to being 'normal' again after them.

And then, just when the red curtain was slowly being lowered to put an end to the beautiful era of superheroes, Norway yells "Hold on!" and decides to unleash the God of Thunder straight from Asgard as a gift to those of us who were desperately hoping for this beautiful era to continue.

I hope he breaks Messi's record. I hope he breaks Ronaldo's record. I hope he stays injury-free and be as consistent as those two. Because there's nothing more beautiful for neutrals than seeing a ruthless goal machine sinking teams and reducing them to mere specks of dust.

There's only one thing missing from his repertoire as far as I'm concerned, and that's Ronaldo's long, unstoppable rocket-like shots from outside the box, which were so satisfying and enjoyable to me. If he could develop that skill as well, he would be the complete marksman. But I realize it might be difficult with the way the Bald Fraud sets up his teams.

Casciavit wrote:

FennecFox7 wrote:First off, Andy Carroll was actually a decent player who’s career got completely fucked by injuries and his lack of finishing. On the ball, he wasn’t heskey.

Irregardless, Haaland is excellent with the ball at his feet. Anyone who watches city regularly can see his ability on the ball, particularly his passing ability.

Exactly. Him looking awkward as fuck when he runs with the ball is why people think he’s an oaf. I’ve seen him play passes that you never would’ve thought he’d be capable of based on his perception.

This guy is a monster and he’s going to round out his game very nicely over the coming years. Watch this space.

The pass to Foden he made against the rags was an unbelievable pass. Benz himself would be proud. His hold up play is good, I agree, particularly against dortmund when mahrez and grealish were being double teamed and marked out, haaland himself dropped deep and progressed the play.

Nishankly wrote:Ronaldo, Messi are essentially finished for club football

The what?

Cruijf wrote:As a Messi fanboy I am genuinely scared for his 91 goal record

Messi is a bit out of reach for someone like Haaland. He was/is a more complete player and his on-field contributions extend far beyond goalscoring.

It's Ronaldo's fans who should be sweating bullets at the moment. His legacy, whether rightly or wrongly, seems be largely built on goalscoring exploits and records. Haaland is on track to surpass each and every one of them.

Its kind funny if you consider Vlahovic went for the same price as Haaland when he was on the last year of his contract.

Seems a bit strange to call it his worst match of the season when he did get on the scoresheet, but he hit the post and missed the ball from a cross against Southampton. This looked like the Man City of last season, with the whole team getting in on the action in the final third.

I'm not sure how this is physically possible, but this shot went into the inside of the post and then out for a goalkick

Gravity is an interesting concept. Some opposition players gravitate toward specific offensive players which opens up space for other players. Haaland's gravity is very impressive. It's like the footballing version of prime Shaquille O'Neal. He's such a physical specimen and he's getting so much attention from the media due to the amount of goals he's scored. Coaches are having zoom calls discussing how to stop him. This fear factor transpires into the players as they consciously feel the need to get as tight to him as possible, but that just opens up space for his teammates.

City's 2nd and 3rd goals are examples.





Excuse my MS paint job, but that shows what I mean. Cheat code of a striker.

Cruijf wrote:As a Messi fanboy I am genuinely scared for his 91 goal record

Haaland can score 100 goals in a year and he still won't be better than Messi. Maybe the future kids who did not grow up watching Messi might see that Haaland has higher stats than him, but anyone who watched Messi knows Haaland can't match him.

When Haaland can dribble past 4-5 players, score 50+ goals per season for a decade, and play through balls from 50M away then he can be in that conversation. He's going to be more in the Gerd Muller/Cristiano space than Messi/Pele/Maradona/Cruyff/Di Stefano.

Casciavit wrote:

Cruijf wrote:As a Messi fanboy I am genuinely scared for his 91 goal record

Haaland can score 100 goals in a year and he still won't be better than Messi. Maybe the future kids who did not grow up watching Messi might see that Haaland has higher stats than him, but anyone who watched Messi knows Haaland can't match him.

When Haaland can dribble past 4-5 players, score 50+ goals per season for a decade, and play through balls from 50M away then he can be in that conversation. He's going to be more in the Gerd Muller/Cristiano space than Messi/Pele/Maradona/Cruyff/Di Stefano.

I think it's absurd that Haaland, or Mbappe for that matter, are being discussed in the conversation of "GOAT" when they're still in the learning phase of their respective careers. I don't think those conversations should be relevant for players who are expected to reach their potential several years into the future.

That said, "the best.." or "greatest of all time" discussions have always seemed very divisive to me, in the sense that most people tend to favor the most entertaining players and others favor the players they feel have a stake to claim for that title in terms of their decisiveness and ability to influence results regardless of the entertainment value that's regularly put on display.

I think it's natural to lean towards Messi in this regard, as he has displayed both elite level entertainment and impact throughout his career, but I also think it's fair to claim that CR7 has been the more decisive player at times during the same period, which is something that likely won't be acknowledged by the people who value entertainment above all else, and I believe that is the majority of us. Most people watch sports for the sake of being entertained, after all.

Casciavit wrote:When Haaland can dribble past 4-5 players, score 50+ goals per season for a decade, and play through balls from 50M away then he can be in that conversation. He's going to be more in the Gerd Muller/Cristiano space than Messi/Pele/Maradona/Cruyff/Di Stefano.

I think that's a fair opinion, but the only thing I can objectively agree with is the part where you alluded to consistency or sustainability. I think that's the primary thing that's separated Messi and CR7 from everyone else who's played during the same generation. Without their consistency and longevity, this conversation would have been far more open.

It would obviously be more entertaining to watch if Haaland could "dribble past 4-5 players" or had Hollywood passes in his set of skills, but I don't personally think those are a necessary part of the best player conversation. If anything, it sounds like your subjective idea of an ideal player. Ronaldinho matches that description and is the most entertaining player I've ever witnessed, but in terms of sustainable ability to decide matches, I don't think I would place him very high on my list of best players of all time.

Obviously if Haaland wins 5+ CL's, 5+ Ballon d'ors, and starts breaking record after record he'll force himself into that conversation irrespective of his playing style ala Ronaldo.

However, it's not about entertainment though it's a question about solutions. There's a reason the historic GOATs (top 5) were never traditional #9's. Haaland might have the best goalscoring instincts, but his game is largely reliant on service. There will come games where he won't get adequate service and he'll need to involve himself in another manner.

That's where the historic greats really shined. Stopped Messi from scoring? He'll dribble past 4+ players which opens up space for those around him. If he can't dribble he'll thread a pass through the tightest of openings and get an assist. Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, and Di Stefano were similar in that regard. That's why Pep immediately shunned the Haaland-Messi comparisons last week.

Now Haaland is still young and I do suspect he'll round out his game since I think he's quite creative. I just don't think he'll be nearly that same complete overall attacking threat the way those five were. Now if his goalscoring alone reaches such a high level that it is enough for his team to win everything without him contributing in other areas than he wouldn't be the first. If Ronaldo was the first sign of numbers taking precedence in historic standings then Haaland will take that to another level as he's even more robotic than Cristiano was.

Also, I know it's too early to talk about comparisons with historic greats, but 2022 Haaland is 2009 Messi to me. You know they're both going to become legends. It's really a question of whether or not Haaland can stay fit and whether or not he can add more elements to his game which I suspect he will.

I find Messi's goalscoring evolution to be particularly interesting though. His goalscoring prime was 2012, where he finished with 73 goals in one season. This is when he was Barca's main goalscoring reference and they just looked for him to finish chances. In 2013, it looked like he was going to beat those numbers because he was on pace to finish with 80 goals, but then kept getting injured/playing injured so he finished with 60 goals.

In 2014, he had injury concerns again, Xavi was getting phased out, and he was playing under Tata Martino. In 2015, he stopped playing as a 9, took on the creative burden from Xavi, and started playing RW under Lucho and scored 58 goals that season. He then maintained a 50 goal per season pace for the next four years.

Haaland isn't going to have that evolution where he's moved to RW and becomes more of a playmaker. That's why I think there's a likelihood that he beats Messi's numbers if he stays fit. It's going to be pure poaching from central areas his entire career.

I agree completely with farfan and Casciavit when you guys say Haaland doesn’t compare to Messi as overall players. I’m not worried about that. However records do add to the legacy and for me the 91 goal record is up there with the most impressive records Messi has. So it would be a shame to see him lose it.

On another note, I find the conversation about GOAT attributes very interesting. I lean towards Casciavit’s point that GOATs need to be more complete than just goalscoring, but if we want to define what it means to be “the best” in football surely we have to be talking about impact on winning? The best at a game is the one who is most able to win it or (in team games) contributes the most to winning it. And in that sense there is nothing stopping Haaland from reaching that level if he keeps this up and does it on the biggest stage. I like this definition because in principle it allows defenders, midfielders, even goalies to enter the GOAT conversation. Otherwise we are really just arguing over the best #10 of all time, not the best player.

Messi in 11/12 scored 73 goals across all comps but also had 32 assists which makes up for a total of 105 goal contributions.

That is impact on winning, not taking into account successful dribbles in opponent's half that advance the play and many other variables (for that refer to dr.@Harmonica)

Even if Haaland were to score the same amount of goals, he's never going to rack up nearly as many assists. So far he has 3 in 13 games, so he's on course for 14 assists at best, imo (thats being v generous, there are games where he has 2 touches on the ball)

To be the goat you also have to be an elite playmaker, imo.

Following on from that, would love to see CR's assists assist stats or some kind of contribution to games won. Obviously his goals have been key as goals win games, but we all know the assists n play making is prolly way low to some of the top players in the lists mentioned