Madridistas All Over Copa And Euros Collide While Colombians Dominate - The Other Teams Thread

It's very early to tell but Flick seems to be a good coach overall. His Bayern team looked scary in CL ( I didn't watch Bundesliga at all). He failed at the Germany NT and I thought that he was maybe the right person at the right time at Bayern.
But this Barcelona side looks to continue his Bayern stint with lesser squad on paper.
I guess you can't implement your ideas when you have your squad just for a few weeks per year.

Strong Barca is good for Madrid and it makes the league and Classicos much more interesting.

 

Let's see what 24-year-old Haaland has accomplished so far in his career, using cold hard facts

- 288 career goals in 338 games
- Scored 32 goals in 35 games with a dogshite Norway
- Scored 41 goals on 39 games in UCL (became top scorer 2 times)
- Averaged around 1 goal a game in every team
- His numbers are the best European Football has seen post World War 2
- Broke countless of goalscoring records since joining Man City

By far the most impressive stat about Erling Haaland is that he has been caught offside 15 times in 69 Premier League games (before Brentford game in past weekend). For comparison, Rodri (a defensive midfielder) was caught offside more times than Haaland. It shows Haaland's extraordinary football IQ to perfectly time his run.

At this point, suggesting Haaland is NOT a GOAT-level striker is a completely delusional statement from your side. Haaland is perhaps the only active player under 30 who became a football legend. Especially after provning himself in a legit top league, alongside his past achievements before joining Man City.

Lol. Haaland completely shits on Shearer, Kane, Suarez, Henry looking at their first 3 Premier League seasons.

Keep in mind Haaland has not even completed his 3rd EPL season (only played 4 games so far)

Comparing Haaland to the goal scoring peaks of the best marksmen to ever play in this league, all of these goal records are incredible and he still completely shits on them pic.twitter.com/aYQ8U3EKKw

— Ewan (@DontSayMilitant) September 14, 2024

Haaland has scored against every team in Premier League and scored more goals against BIG 6 teams since joining EPL. He scored against Bayern & Leipzig the season Man City won UCL. And if it wasn't for Courtois having MOTM-performance, Haaland would have scored against Madrid too lol.

If 2022 World Cup was played in the summer as usual, Haaland would already have won 2023 Ballon d'Or while Karim Benzema missing it out. Haaland will most certainly finish his career with at least 1 Ballon d'Or even if he stays at EPL.

Pep is the GOAT coach, it's a foregone conclusion Man City will never be as dominant as they have been once he's gone. Man City still have a ridiculous team for competing for titles even if Pep is gone.

Which other team can possibility sign Haaland if he decides to leave EPL? PSG plays in an irrelevant league, no Serie A club can afford his salary demands, Real Madrid have Mbappe and Barca struggles financially & not UCL contender.

Yamal has proved himself as an elite level forward at 16 years old and key player for Spain & Barca. He is actually class.

The only reason Arda gets playing time is due to injuries on Bellingham and Camavinga (Madrid's 12th player). Once they are been, Ancelotti will firmly put Arda back on the bench.

Xavi is the only reason why Yamal even was promoted to Barca's 1st team at 15 and became a starter at 16. Xavi could have easily prefered Rafinha or another established forward after Dembele left Barca.

No other coach would have the balls to actually heavily rely

 

Man City hearing starts today into their charges.

3 person independent panel to go through the detail, with a verdict expected in 2-3 months. I assume they will try and keep everything as quiet as possible while it goes on.

 

Barca is playing well and we’re not playing well right now. But the season is a marathon. We have to just keep within striking distance until we get our team sorted…i.e. Keep collecting 3pts no matter how we play. It doesn’t scare me because Barca have always played well. Over the last two years, there were a lot stretches when they played better than us….but we got the big trophies.

I trust Carlo. We will only see where our team is truly at once he gets his key guys back….Jude, Cama, Tchou …for a few weeks together. Then we can make a fair assessment.

Lamal is an incredible talent…but what separates him from other young players is his maturity on the ball. Makes great choices. We have the exact same level talent and maturity in Arda…..but we haven’t bet on Arda like they have on Yamal yet.

I really hope Carlo bets on him. At least 4-5 games as a starter for 60 minutes or so. Makes all the difference.

Today I would bet on Arda before Rodrygo. Let’s give him some time.

 

He was injured for 4 months last season and missed 3 months each in 2022-23 and 2021-22. Very injury prone.

 

Long season……this thing hasn’t even properly started yet. People need to chill.

Squad planning, rotations, keeping players fresh over the long term, form management….and luck with injuries/ suspensions….

All these are now even more critical factors to win big trophies.

It’s crazy to draw any conclusions about anything yet…..

If you think about our league form, all we lacked is 2 goals ….one against Mallorca and one against Las Palmas and we’d have 100% of points.

Last year we would have scores those two goals in the dying minutes lol

 

Champions League on Thursdays. Gross

 

Europa and Conference League spread throughout Wednesdays and Thursdays

 

Meh, saw this one coming. This is/was why ~90% of Culers had no interest in Olmo. Pretty much what was expected.

Whatever he does or does not do is a bonus.

 

I am confused if you are trying to argue that Haaland is on track to be a GOAT-level striker or are you saying he's already in the GOAT discussion? I'd probably agree with the former but the latter would display an astounding level of recency bias.

also, Henry was a winger so comparing them purely on goal stats is a bit unfair to say the least.

 

Haaland can score another 1000 goals, he will never be a better football player than Henry and some more names in history of PL.

Comparing Haaland with Henry lol, what a disgrace.

 

Haaland's career trajectory is like Hugo Sanchez and Lewandowski right now. Great scorers, but more complete strikers like Van Basten, R9 just another level and usually the ones in GOAT striker convos.

 

I wouldn’t describe Henry as a winger exactly. Not saying I agree or disagree with any point made prior, but Henry was a striker, often a focal point in attack for Arsenal, who drifted wide to the left a lot, as well as to the right during a game, but he wasn’t a winger like any of his counterparts were during the era he played in.

 

AGAIN, isnt the entire barca team pretty much Made Up of kids who might or might not break half wayn down the season? I think they wont look all much better than what they look right now AND ITS a tall ask to have them injury free all year. They dont have the Depth, ad I honestly see More embarrasing CL fixtures un their near future.

 

The difference is that their players suicide on the pitch…they running nonstop. While we gave other teams play and attack us

 

He started as a winger, especially during his Juve years.

 

The Viking's first year and his current form places him in the hierarchy of contemporary 9's. He was, in his first year and at this time, numero uno. Firm.

When he's 35 years old, folks can debate his career comprehensively.

The fact he was taking Spanish lessons before and after moving to the Mancz is neither here nor there. Merely to liaise better with the manager and certain players? Possible, indeed possible, but .. nah.

 

I had his Arsenal days in mind. But yeah you’re right, he was a more traditional winger prior to Arsenal. Was a winger at Monaco when we had an offer accepted back in ‘96. Played as a left wing back at Juve. Winger for France in the ‘98 WC.

Arsene played him differently at Arsenal.

 

Henry was definitely a winger. His height and skill made him useful as a CF but it was by far not his best position and even at Arsenal it was Bergkamp who played with his back to goal while Henry, Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg played more out wide. They also had Kanu and then Van Persie as CF's.

 

Its a one off - just for the opening matchday the CL (and next week the EL) will have a midweek to themselves. Which is why the Spanish teams playing in the EL play their La Liga matches over the next 3 days.

 

You're wrong because they don't even have the full squad available.
At the end of the day it doesn't matter whether they are "kids", what matters is what they do on the pitch.