Manchester City* - 130 charges (and counting...) (Part 2)

[mattyhurst]

Got no gold watches then

[Magnus]

@jaffod

Maybe you should post this somewhere where someone will give a fuck.

Given this is the only football forum I use, I think not.

[Bonus]

@Magnus

@Nobluff

Haaland has 0 goals in the Saudi Pro League.

The thing with Haaland is that he is consistent in all teams he play for. He sometimes needs a bit of time to find the flow, but when he does, he helps carry any team. He played fantastic for Molde, then blew up Salzburg, catapulting his career. Moved to Dortmund, played amazing there. Then Manchester.
Crucially, he is spectacular on the Norwegian National Team, literally carries it at times. The Norwegian National Team, has fairly decent players and now even a pretty fine team, but does NOT have the stars in every position like Manchester City has.

And that’s what makes him amazing. That he is consistently the best forward on any team, including teams where he does not at all get the service like he often gets in Manchester. He just creates so much space with his acceleration, his positioning and his strength. Space for others as well as for himself.
Haaland has an unbelievable 55 goals in 48 matches for Norway. And that is beyond insane:

So reading some of the previous comparisons and sour grapes by people who do not attempt to be objective, has been rather ridiculous. Especially since I have followed his career and seen what he does elsewhere than Manchester.

Haalands just a poor mans Harald Brattbakk…

[Magnus]

Hehe. Harald Brattbakk was quite good in his day (totally different player type though ).
I remember well the 90s
Rosenborg in Champions League and all that.
I used to have several friends who supported Rosenborg. Brattbakk, Jacobsen, Hoftun, Strand etc. were great players in those days (in a Norwegian specific setting, they were awesome).

Some of them, the best Rosenborg players from the 90s, could likely also have done well in England. Not all of them though.

[dalglish]

Yeah I remember highlights of that Rosenberg team in the CL. The Norwegian team in the late 90s was a decent side - I wonder if the current crop will be able to outdo them and make a WC quarter final?

[Magnus]

I don’t know, but we have certainly far better players today.
The side in the 90s (National team) was fearsome due to strategy (a simple but effective one), but not technicallly gifted compared to other teams. What is new is that today we have technically gifted players and we can “run” games and not just soak up pressure.

I think we have a chance to get all the way to the quarter finals, but I think getting out of the group is already quite good and then there is a substantial knock our phase with best of 32 and best of 16. We were drawn into a fairly difficult one with France and Senegal and didn’t really get one of the easiest groups like we had maybe hoped for.

Time will tell.