Yeah, stylistically I think he’s a better fit for Liverpool; more opportunity to really run. However, he’s more complete than some people give him credit for. He can work in tight spaces both with the ball at his feet and by making smart/timely runs. Gotten fairly good with his head too.
My thought about Messi going to PSG was “well… maybe.” I think Haaland will do very well at City. If he scores less than 30 goals a season in all competitions I’ll be surprised (I was going to say 40, but it looks like they’ve never had that, and their top scorer last season was Gungodan with 17).
Interesting that he negotiated for another small release clause.
Good call, he would be really fun at Liverpool…he’s so terrifying on the run. I agree on the headers, I just think he still fumbles inside the box…but maybe it’s a few dreadful misses stuck in my head. I think of him in many ways as the anti-Lewandowski, many things different except the end result.
Also: can he play a complete season?
I already like Man City because of Guardiola, I’ll likely watch them more to see this.
ETA: seconds after I posted that, up popped an article from Alan Shearer in The Athletic (won’t post since it’s paywalled) saying Haaland will score 40 goals. Impressive if true.
I don’t think he’s elite in small spaces. Zlatan is the only big guy I’ve ever seen that I would still say was nimble, but I think he’s plenty good.
I guess a couple more questions I have about this: City is currently playing a false 9. They’ll either have to play two systems, sell Foden, or play Haaland a ton. Which is it? They will have 7 starting quality attackers on the roster if nobody leaves. I imagine at least 2 will. Who? For the two questions I’m going to predict: they play with two systems to mixed effect, and Jesus and Sterling.
They won’t sell Foden. He is their golden boy. And English football’s golden boy too. One of the key successes when Man Utd were dominant for so long was they had players like Beckham who were world class that were produced by the club’s own academy. Foden is the equivalent for City. All that money they spend to buy superstars but their best prospect is one of their own.
Jesus I expect will go because he will want to play regularly and they can get good money for him. Sterling potentially at this stage could go too but last summer Bernardo Silva wanted to leave and the club rejected offers. Maybe now they will be willing to let him move on if he wishes again.
That’s my guess out of everyone who is currently at the club. I think City will buy a younger midfielder to take over from Fernandinho. The odd one out is Jack Grealish. £100M signing. Most expensive player in British history but I don’t think he starts if everyone is fit and available for selection.
Or maybe a 4-2-3-1 with rodri next to Fernandinho? I just think it’s a shame to have an excellent and not natural winger like Mahrez (or grealish I guess) and sit him.
Liverpool beat Chelsea in the FA Cup Final in a penalty shoot out after it finished 0-0 after 120 minutes of football. Just like in the League Cup Final in February.
There is something remarkable about the mentality of the Liverpool team. I don’t think they will win the Premier League but they’ll take it to the final day and they have the Champions League Final to play.
He lost a couple finals, but losing to Bayern a couple times and Real Madrid doesn’t strike me as much of a curse. I thought his label as a choker was always undeserved.
The USWNT just got a new contract. Some things in it that were overdue (grass fields, same per diem) and some that are unearned (splitting WC bonuses) that are just a PR move. Tactically this worked out well for the women, but the whole ordeal is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth for the bad faith arguments and the uneducated people chiming in constantly. Glad it’s done now though.
How do you see the World Cup bonus pool as a PR move?
I’m glad they finally got it worked out too, but I think it’s a good way for the country to move toward an equal pay regimen for both soccer teams, by leveling FIFA’s pay differentials in-house.
It’s a collective bargaining negotiation, of course PR is going to be heavily involved (look at the recent MLB lockout for example).
Besides, US Soccer is in a very different position than private sports leagues. US Soccer is a non-profit that is supposed to grow the sport. In that regard, equalizing FIFA payments is not a bad move. For one, it gets WNT and MNT fans to stop sniping at each other - and realizing when one side does well both sides do well. For another, it stops all the issues of casual fans not understanding the payment structure.
It’s good for US Soccer that this deal has gone through. And Cindy Cone deserves a lot of credit for proposing it.
There was another good article in The Atlantic about Haaland this week. Paywalled, but consider this a plug for an online magazine that has a $1/month trial offer for six months.
Guardiola has had a pure goalscorer at City before: Sergio Aguero. Their relationship got off to a rocky start. “To score five goals in two games is a good statistic,” Guardiola told the press at one point. “But he has to help us in the first pressure and run a lot and help us a lot with movement. You cannot be brilliant when you disappear when you don’t have the ball.”
With time and training, Aguero developed into the player Guardiola wanted, an all-purpose striker who played for the team. There’s no guarantee Haaland can do the same. His defending will get better and he’ll learn to co-ordinate his brilliant movement for team-mates’ sake. But to be blunt about it, Haaland’s just not good with his feet, which is an awfully strange thing to say about a player moving to Manchester City.
Wow, Mbappe staying at PSG. I’m super surprised, especially since their front three dramatically underperformed expectations. Reasons I can think of wanting to stay: money, PSG agreeing to other demands (coach, bringing in other players, etc), stay in France, thinks PSG has a better future (this seems unlikely to me), thinks the front 3 just needs time to gel (also seems unlikely. Messi doesn’t fit IMO), Real Madrid’s pursuit of Haaland turned Mbappe off, winning the CL at PSG would be a bigger deal than winning at Real Madrid.
I dunno, very surprising. As a Barcelona fan it’s pretty welcome though.
Tebas Javier (La Ligas president): “What PSG is going to do by re-signing Mbappe with large amounts of money (which who know from where and how they (PSG) pay him) after losing 700 million euros in the last seasons and having 600 million euros in salary tables, is an INSULT to football. Al-khelafi is as dangerous as the Super League."
There’s obviously some bitterness there about Real Madrid not getting him, but on the other hand I appreciate how consistently vocal he’s been about reputation-washing/emirate funding in other leagues. I read a tweet from some footie journalists that La Liga was considering suing, but I don’t know what basis that would have.
What a saga. At some point it’ll be interesting to see what the total bill is for the front 3 next year.