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salford city wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:

john@staustell wrote:

sheblue wrote:I know he's been injured, know he's been out for two months, know its his first start but Erling was very poor tonight. He was poor before he got injured.
Still a decent run in rhe team and hopefully he will be back to his best.

I've thought for a while we play better without him

sadly, i agree
love erling but he’s not a vital cog in our machine

He's currently a nice distraction that keeps the opposition pinned back allowing julian kev bernie and phil to exploit the confusion. It's not a bad problem to have - remains to be seen whether we suffer in the tougher games

yep, does a job but we're not the 'haaland team'
that said, he made 3 or 4 runs last night but wasn't played in - guess that could be down to him missing the last couple of months and the team not being used to having someone doing that?

Nigels Tackle wrote:

salford city wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:

john@staustell wrote:

sheblue wrote:I know he's been injured, know he's been out for two months, know its his first start but Erling was very poor tonight. He was poor before he got injured.
Still a decent run in rhe team and hopefully he will be back to his best.

I've thought for a while we play better without him

sadly, i agree
love erling but he’s not a vital cog in our machine

He's currently a nice distraction that keeps the opposition pinned back allowing julian kev bernie and phil to exploit the confusion. It's not a bad problem to have - remains to be seen whether we suffer in the tougher games

yep, does a job but we're not the 'haaland team'
that said, he made 3 or 4 runs last night but wasn't played in - guess that could be down to him missing the last couple of months and the team not being used to having someone doing that?

Yep same as when he came on against burnley. He gives us a different option of looking to play in behind the defence rather than be sat in front of it passing side to side. We are going to need him in the Santiago when we need to put one of two chances away. Nice problem for Pep to solve

Id have Alvarez ( who some on here just don't seem to appreciate) ahead of Haaland any day of the week.
Haalands first touch is poor whereas Alvarez is a far better footballer - he does so much for the team IMO.

Nigels Tackle wrote:

salford city wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:

john@staustell wrote:

sheblue wrote:I know he's been injured, know he's been out for two months, know its his first start but Erling was very poor tonight. He was poor before he got injured.
Still a decent run in rhe team and hopefully he will be back to his best.

I've thought for a while we play better without him

sadly, i agree
love erling but he’s not a vital cog in our machine

He's currently a nice distraction that keeps the opposition pinned back allowing julian kev bernie and phil to exploit the confusion. It's not a bad problem to have - remains to be seen whether we suffer in the tougher games

yep, does a job but we're not the 'haaland team'
that said, he made 3 or 4 runs last night but wasn't played in - guess that could be down to him missing the last couple of months and the team not being used to having someone doing that?

Rather tellingly I thought was out of the 25 shots we had, Haaland hardly had any. Whether that was down to his own match sharpness or whether we forgot he was playing and we had been accustomed to not having him?

carl_feedthegoat wrote:Id have Alvarez ( who some on here just don't seem to appreciate) ahead of Haaland any day of the week.
Haalands first touch is poor whereas Alvarez is a far better footballer - he does so much for the team IMO.

Hypothetical scenario of we had to sell one of them, I’d keep Alvarez. Every time

carl_feedthegoat wrote:Id have Alvarez ( who some on here just don't seem to appreciate) ahead of Haaland any day of the week.
Haalands first touch is poor whereas Alvarez is a far better footballer - he does so much for the team IMO.

Interesting but does it have to be a choice. Think there is more to come from both of them. I like Alvarez a lot, however i feel he is still developing and he needs to be more consistent. He can disappear in games and lacks a little bit of physicality, sometimes he can be pushed off the ball too easily. He's a nice lad but he needs a touch of metal in his game.
Pep will not drop Haaland and will play him back into form. But maybe more of last night, and its not a case of either, but both together.

sheblue wrote:

carl_feedthegoat wrote:Id have Alvarez ( who some on here just don't seem to appreciate) ahead of Haaland any day of the week.
Haalands first touch is poor whereas Alvarez is a far better footballer - he does so much for the team IMO.

Interesting but does it have to be a choice. Think there is more to come from both of them. I like Alvarez a lot, however i feel he is still developing and he needs to be more consistent. He can disappear in games and lacks a little bit of physicality, sometimes he can be pushed off the ball too easily. He's a nice lad but he needs a touch of metal in his game.
Pep will not drop Haaland and will play him back into form. But maybe more of last night, and its not a case of either, but both together.

32 games this season and hes scored 15 goals and 10 assists , was a main reason why Argentina won the world cup and you say he needs to be more consistent?

,

As the poster above says and I agree , IF one had to be sold Id sell Haaland. ( Not that I want any of them sold )

Can we not pretend that Alvarez has a great first touch please? As fantastic a player as he is, I haven't seen so many movements break down for a long time as when he receives a pass with any decent pace on it. Frustrating in the extreme.

Big Erl has been out for ages. He was absolutely on it last night then became obviously tired around the 55 minute mark. Give him a chance to get back up to speed. Brentford had 5 at the back and didn't revert to a 4 until he went off. Missed one on one aside, he did alright.

KinkyKinkladze wrote:
Big Erl has been out for ages. He was absolutely on it last night .

I haven't laughed this much since I farted in my cats face.

sheblue wrote:

carl_feedthegoat wrote:Id have Alvarez ( who some on here just don't seem to appreciate) ahead of Haaland any day of the week.
Haalands first touch is poor whereas Alvarez is a far better footballer - he does so much for the team IMO.

Interesting but does it have to be a choice. Think there is more to come from both of them. I like Alvarez a lot, however i feel he is still developing and he needs to be more consistent. He can disappear in games and lacks a little bit of physicality, sometimes he can be pushed off the ball too easily. He's a nice lad but he needs a touch of metal in his game.
Pep will not drop Haaland and will play him back into form. But maybe more of last night, and its not a case of either, but both together.

I think Alvarez stays with us long term whereas Erling goes at a mutually beneficial time. Playing both does not seem to play to our overall strengths. We've not missed Erling whilst he has been out but in a top game, it looks like Pep adds Kova to sit with Rodders and we lose either Bernie or Alvarez. Personally if we stopped dicking about with the back four, I think we could find a way of fitting in all our attacking talent and still have good options from the bench.

Off my Citizens site, highlights etc.


https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/fod ... tford_away

Extended highlights below Foden interview

carl_feedthegoat wrote:

KinkyKinkladze wrote:
Big Erl has been out for ages. He was absolutely on it last night .

I haven't laughed this much since I farted in my cats face.

He certainly was nowhere near as bad as you're making out.
He was involved in the 1st goal and gave a great assist for the 3rd goal. Not bad in his 1st start for 2 months.
Still got 14 goals and 5 assists in the PL this season.

Haaland was useless

Also maupay was saying shit about walkers kids to wind him up

Nick wrote:Haaland was useless

Also maupay was saying shit about walkers kids to wind him up

He was useful for the reasons i pointed out.
He was a lot more useful than Silva who was the worst player last night.

Thought Foden was missing until he scored his first goal, then he pulled his finger out
Haaland just needs to work his way back
GVARDIOL doing better in an unfamiliar position. Too much criticism

Indianablue wrote:Thought Foden was missing until he scored his first goal, then he pulled his finger out
Haaland just needs to work his way back
GVARDIOL doing better in an unfamiliar position. Too much criticism

Mate , how in the fucking world was Gvardiol doing better in a position he’s played in all season ?
He gives the ball away and cannot cross , he passes backwards CONSTANTLY .

Ffs , he was shit and that’s no exaggeration ( I can be blamed
for maybe overreacting on other players but certainly
not this one )

carl_feedthegoat wrote:

Indianablue wrote:Thought Foden was missing until he scored his first goal, then he pulled his finger out
Haaland just needs to work his way back
GVARDIOL doing better in an unfamiliar position. Too much criticism

Mate , how in the fucking world was Gvardiol doing better in a position he’s played in all season ?
He gives the ball away and cannot cross , he passes backwards CONSTANTLY .

Ffs , he was shit and that’s no exaggeration ( I can be blamed
for maybe overreacting on other players but certainly
not this one )

He has been played at LB you are right, but its not his natural position and its still new to him.( relatively) He saw plenty of the ball last night and in the first half he was basically a left wing and fullback. Without a winger in front of him he's doing it on his own. Introduction of Doku helped. Walker on the othe hand has cover with him when he presses forward and still messes up.
Plenty last night gave the ball away - but then alot of them saw more of the ball. . Gvardiol will work out fine, perhaps more centreback than pure fullback ( IMO)
Much prefer a settled back 4 ( barring injuries) but Pep aint that kind of manager so maybe we just have to suffer getting caught on the break

Shoutout to Ake who is probably our best defender now. A good job he chose to stay when we gave him permission to speak to Chelsea the other summer.

Mase wrote:Shoutout to Ake who is probably our best defender now. A good job he chose to stay when we gave him permission to speak to Chelsea the other summer.

Good call. Solid and dependable and copes well with constant changes. Would love to see Pep pick 4 defenders and stick with them every game until the game is won then bring on his subs if necessary

Indianablue wrote:

Mase wrote:Shoutout to Ake who is probably our best defender now. A good job he chose to stay when we gave him permission to speak to Chelsea the other summer.

Good call. Solid and dependable and copes well with constant changes. Would love to see Pep pick 4 defenders and stick with them every game until the game is won then bring on his subs if necessary

Me too. Consistency is key with our defence.