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Other Sports: Soccer/Football Thread Part Six

TCTC

TCTC

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Jack Straw said:
Haaland may finish the season with more goals than Aaron Judge has home runs.
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There are only 4 teams in the league with more goals than Haaland. Unreal.

I think De Bruyne deserves more recognition though. He was instrumental in every goal they scored today. Haaland really benefits from playing with him.
 
Jack Straw

Jack Straw

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TCTC said:
There are only 4 teams in the league with more goals than Haaland. Unreal.

I think De Bruyne deserves more recognition though. He was instrumental in every goal they scored today. Haaland really benefits from playing with him.
Click to expand...
Oh absolutely. KdB is amazing, a genius with the ball. I mean, you take arguably the best goal scorer in the world, add him to the best passer in the world, both playing for the team that controls the ball better than anyone else… It‘s like a science experiment.
 
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CanadianFlyer88

CanadianFlyer88

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TCTC said:
There are only 4 teams in the league with more goals than Haaland. Unreal.

I think De Bruyne deserves more recognition though. He was instrumental in every goal they scored today. Haaland really benefits from playing with him.
Click to expand...
Haaland was crushing opponents with average to below average service from his teammates before he arrived in Manchester.

It's not terribly surprising that he is converting at a better rate now that he is surrounded by world class talent.

I'm glad he picked England over Spain in the end. Even though I see fewer of his games now, he's getting better exposure in North America.

The kid is absurd and such a pleasure to watch.
 
TCTC

TCTC

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CanadianFlyer88 said:
Haaland was crushing opponents with average to below average service from his teammates before he arrived in Manchester.

It's not terribly surprising that he is converting at a better rate now that he is surrounded by world class talent.

I'm glad he picked England over Spain in the end. Even though I see fewer of his games now, he's getting better exposure in North America.

The kid is absurd and such a pleasure to watch.
Click to expand...
Yet he was always outproduced by Lewandowski in the Bundesliga by a sizeable margin.

He's always shown a unique finishing touch, but there was reasonable doubt that he could produce at that rate in the Premier League, especially in a Guardiola system. He's not exactly the type of player you expect to thrive under Guardiola. After seeing how Guardiola had no idea how to use Ibrahimovic in Barcelona I'm surprised how well Haaland has been integrated in his team. But his finishing touch is just so good that it doesn't really seem to matter as long as he has players like De Bruyne around him feeding him chances.
 
CanadianFlyer88

CanadianFlyer88

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TCTC said:
Yet he was always outproduced by Lewandowski in the Bundesliga by a sizeable margin.

He's always shown a unique finishing touch, but there was reasonable doubt that he could produce at that rate in the Premier League, especially in a Guardiola system. He's not exactly the type of player you expect to thrive under Guardiola. After seeing how Guardiola had no idea how to use Ibrahimovic in Barcelona I'm surprised how well Haaland has been integrated in his team. But his finishing touch is just so good that it doesn't really seem to matter as long as he has players like De Bruyne around him feeding him chances.
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Lewandowski was surrounded by world class talent, too, and is a freak in his own right. Haaland and Lewandowski are the best goal scorers in the world right now... but only now does Haaland have an all star squad behind him, with probably the best set up man in world football in KdB.
 
Appleyard

Appleyard

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TCTC said:
Yet he was always outproduced by Lewandowski in the Bundesliga by a sizeable margin.

He's always shown a unique finishing touch, but there was reasonable doubt that he could produce at that rate in the Premier League, especially in a Guardiola system. He's not exactly the type of player you expect to thrive under Guardiola. After seeing how Guardiola had no idea how to use Ibrahimovic in Barcelona I'm surprised how well Haaland has been integrated in his team. But his finishing touch is just so good that it doesn't really seem to matter as long as he has players like De Bruyne around him feeding him chances.
Click to expand...

It was nice to see him showing more sides to his game today with his two assists as well, seems like his movement is adapting slightly to Guardiola... Foden, Silva, Grealish, KDB are getting into the false 9 spot more now without Haaland being crowded as he is kicking out more or dropping to hold up more depending on the build up. And then getting back into his spot as soon as play slows down or ball switched or played back.

Getting more and more involved from week to week with more touches and more influence outside of just the finishing.

Just a very intelligent player.

A bit scary too that there are areas he can still obviously improve in.
 
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TCTC

TCTC

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Appleyard said:
It was nice to see him showing more sides to his game today with his two assists as well, seems like his movement is adapting slightly to Guardiola... Foden, Silva, Grealish, KDB are getting into the false 9 spot more now without Haaland being crowded as he is kicking out more or dropping to hold up more depending on the build up. And then getting back into his spot as soon as play slows down or ball switched or played back.

Getting more and more involved from week to week with more touches and more influence outside of just the finishing.

Just a very intelligent player.

A bit scary too that there are areas he can still obviously improve in.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that one assist on Foden's 2nd goal was really nice. I think his biggest weakness is still his right foot. He seems to be doing everything with his left foot. That should make him more predictable for defenders, but apparently they still have a hard time stopping him.

It's crazy watching Gabriel Jesus dominating week in week out and then realize that City actually got a upgrade in Haaland. And they don't seem to miss Sterling at all either.
 
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Appleyard

Appleyard

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TCTC said:
Yeah, that one assist on Foden's 2nd goal was really nice. I think his biggest weakness is still his right foot. He seems to be doing everything with his left foot. That should make him more predictable for defenders, but apparently they still have a hard time stopping him.

It's crazy watching Gabriel Jesus dominating week in week out and then realize that City actually got a upgrade in Haaland. And they don't seem to miss Sterling at all either.
Click to expand...

They had the 3rd lowest net spend in the Premier League this summer... -18 million quid.

And got better. Ridiculous really.
 
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TCTC

TCTC

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Appleyard said:
They had the 3rd lowest net spend in the Premier League this summer... -18 million quid.

And got better. Ridiculous really.
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Yeah, the way City have done business has been really smart. That's why they don't really have to worry about Financial Fair Play either even after paying like 100 million for Grealish because they are always able to get high fees for the players they sell. Obviously they had to spend like crazy for years to reach this point.

Real Madrid is another club that has been really smart in recent years. Always selling high on players like Casemiro or Varane and replace them with younger, better players.
 
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Appleyard

Appleyard

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TCTC said:
Yeah, the way City have done business has been really smart. That's why they don't really have to worry about Financial Fair Play either even after paying like 100 million for Grealish because they are always able to get high fees for the players they sell. Obviously they had to spend like crazy for years to reach this point.

Real Madrid is another club that has been really smart in recent years. Always selling high on players like Casemiro or Varane and replace them with younger, better players.
Click to expand...

Yeh, the academy (which was always very good from 1980s onwards, but is now next level) and youth transfer/development policy is also helping in that regard... usually about ~20 million+ a year over last few years selling young guys who were not quite good enough. Which adds up.

Plus ofc Foden and Palmer being good enough to be first team players. (and Delap, McAtee, Doyle, Mbete, Harwood-Bellis, Couto and Lewis being not a million miles away from good enough... probably ~3 of them make it at City)
 
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Hollywood Cannon

Hollywood Cannon

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