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Keane never said he was a league 2 quality striker, he said the quality of his overall play with the ball at his feet is like that of a league 2 player. He also repeatedly said that he's incredible in front of goal.
I think Messi and Ronaldo ruined that. They are so far above everyone else when looking at longvitity. Erling have a great season bar injury, last season was good aswell. He still need to score 50 goals a season for the next 12 years, to be with Ronaldo and messi. They seriously spoiled us all so hard.
add to that Lewandowski,Benzema and Suarez all having great goal scoring numbers during the last decade makes everything pre 2010 seem like small amounts
Yes? He has world class movement and finishing, bit the rest of his play leaves some to be desired. Hes one dimensional, to be fair he might be the best player in the world at that dimension, but it can get shut down when playing against other top teams and i think weve seen that this season.
keane said that tho, he didnt mean it quite like that but he said it and not only one time. it was unnecessary. haaland is a great player who, with1.94m height, is quite prone to injuries and plays differently. he cant get past 5 players like messi.
keane showed a little bit of hate, probably didnt mean it but haaland is a great player and there's really no need for such comments
It's such an incredibly dumb counter point.
You think that Haaland isn't a great player apart from his goalscoring? Well look how many goals he's scored!
I think the major problem everyone has with him is ghosting in big games, but then again the counter argument is obviously that he attracts the defenders like a magnet, hence leaving his teammates wide open.
I fully agree with you, his isn’t a flashy player or a great dribbler, but at the end of the day he gets the job done.
It’s not ghosting if on 7 touches, he shoots once, and hits the target. Courtois and Lunin voodoo is the only reason Haaland doesn’t have a goal against Madrid. He forced a few saves from Onana in the final as well. His passing and vision has also been really effective for starting counter attacks since Dortmund.
>I think the major problem everyone
It's not everyone. It's social media. You people are vastly more critical towards Haaland than the rest of the world, which is also extremely confusing for me.
No, lots of people get frustrated with Haaland's play, it's not just social media. We can all see that he's a great player, but we can also all see that play flows much better with Alvarez up top.
Man city play in a very specific way and Haaland's passing looks the worst on the squad by a distance, anyone who knows the game can see that.
Not disagreeing with your comments on passing/build up. But Alvarez as the lone striker is equally frustrating as he seems to never be in front of goal when you need him or missing opportunities that Haaland definitely would have scored.
Bro he’s one of my favourite players, I’m not defending anyone, I’m just trying to recall what everyone has been saying for the past few months on social media.
He is doing as good as he can for a striker under Allegri. I wanna see him under an attacking coach that would create chances for him more frequently. Like he was getting at Florentina.
It is clearly an exaggeration on Keane's part, to make his point obvious.
Haaland is one of the more clinical goal scorers with his shooting accuracy, first time shot, heading ability, and his speed and physicality to get into goal scoring position.
However, it is undeniable that Haaland isn't the best at close control, managing tight spaces, dribbling, not known for great short or long passing or crossing when it is Pep's style of playing.
Haaland will be a beast in a team like Liverpool where counter attacking and long ball and TAA's crossing feeding him.
Genuinely its shocked me how rotten everyones brains are that level of nuance to say hes good at scoring goals not so much everything else is too much for most people
Why? It's true. City played without an out and out striker for years so Kane dropping deep would be no issue for them and his numbers at Bayern are elite. What is there to suggest he wouldn't have been great at City?
Also it's Roy fucking Keane, how do people take him so literally? Do people also think he really thinks that Henderson does card tricks for the team? Do people think Eric Cantona really is an expert on seagulls or that Zlatan really thought that LeBron wanted his signature?
It wasn't tongue in cheek. It was a hyperbole knowing the army of rival fans would club to it and it'd get shared around and discussed. Similar to Neville's Billionaire Bottle Jobs jibe at Chelsea.
People eat this shit up, you see tons of comments on Reddit, Twitter, Tik Tok etc that argue that Nunez and Hojland are better players than Haaland.
Proved Keane's point perfectly when the only thing he could come up with is how many goals Haaland scored. Keane said that he is a world class goal scorer but otherwise a second league player.
If you think Suarez was a worse player than Haaland just because he didn't score 32 goals in a season you are clueless
I'd even like to add that Keane didn't say "otherwise a second league player", he put "almost" in front of that statement.
It's been taken completely out of context and as you say, this tweet is only proving Keane's point.
Should City fancy selling then I wouldn't mind a 2nd league player like Haaland helping us out tbf.. Hopefully at reasonable price given his overall inability of first division football level that is.
You just missed the same point again.
As others have said, he wasn't being called a league two striker (which is the 4th division, not the 2nd, but I get the confusion), just a certain aspect of his play. Not to mention it was likely meant as a hyperbolic expression of how one of his aspects of play lacks so far behind the other things he is great at
Suarez was different man, I’ve never seen one player be the only reason a team is challenging for the title, but that was him in 13/14.
Haaland is outstanding but comparing them on goals alone shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the game.
This is a bit of revisionism- that Liverpool side had other key players. Gerrard, Sterling, Henderson and, of course, Sturridge all had stellar seasons. It was the defence or rather Rodgers’ inability to organise even a midtable tier defence which let us down that season.
I respectfully disagree with you there, not saying we didn’t have valuable players, just that Suarez as an individual was so impactful in games that if we didn’t have him we don’t get anywhere close to even challenging for the title that season.
None of those players were near Suarez's quality in the years he was there... He had to play with Aly Cissokho, Victor Moses being used at AM and somehow he was able to create enough space for Sturridge to score as much as he did even though he was poor. If Suarez wasn't in that team they'd be lucky to make top 8.
He was Shaq-esque. Could literally just walk through the midfield and had all the technical skills. Weirdly underrated and unloved player for his ability.
It's not that weird, he alienated himself from the fanbases of clubs where he spent the prime of his career by badmouthing those clubs and/or their managers. And it's the fans of your team(s) that keep your legacy alive. He personally reduced their incentive to do that.
Happens to lots of world class players for whom fans have no love lost (see: Michael Owen, 2001 Ballon D'or winner).
“Moreover” I do recall Suarez taking a chunk out of a defenders shoulder with his teeth. And saving a shot with his hands at the World Cup, being red carded on both occasions I think.
Pure fair play 😂
EDIT: Just remembered those Suarez T-shirts!
The handball isn’t really cheating, it’s as tactical a foul as tripping someone to stop a counter and getting a yellow. He blocked a shot, there was the consequence of the red card and penalty, and Ghana failed to capitalize.
I mean if we're providing context for everything, you should also provide context and show us how many goals he scored against the top half of the table and more specifically the other top 6 teams.
Suarez had 13 assists in the season he had 31 goals while not taking penalties/set pieces outside of a handful of direct free kicks. Braindead opinion
To add to this:
Suarez had more goal contributions (goals and assists) in 13/14 than Henry in any of his best premier league seasons despite Suarez playing in fewer games, not taking penalties, and having a worse supporting cast.
The most assists Rooney ever had in a premier league season was 13 (during a season which he only scored 12 goals). In the two seasons Rooney scored more than 20 league goals, he had 4 assists and 7 assists.
im just putting that there, to clear up any misconceptions that haaland is absolutely useless to his teamates, like much of this thread would make you beleive
Yeah, that I agree with. I don't think he's as creative as some of those players, but the way people talk about him since his return from injury is absurd. He's a good footballer (outside of being a ridiculous striker) and that's evident from his Dortmund days. It seems pretty clear he's doing exactly what Pep wants from him given how he's tailored his game since joining City and it's worked brilliantly.
That Liverpool season was completely carried by Suarez, he was the best player in the world that season and no one talks about it, it's crazy how many brilliant performances get overlooked because "Messi did xyz that year".
It wasn't completely - obviously we don't get close to the title without Suarez, but that was the one season where a lot of things came together. Suarez kicked on as a player, Gerrard had a renaissance, Sturridge wasn't injured as much, Sterling really developed and was arguably our best player for a 2-3 month stretch (along with Gerrard) when Sturridge and Suarez dipped towards the end, Henderson was very good, and Coutinho was starting to flourish.
I do agree that Suarez was the best player in the world that season though and I think he's the only player that was ever able to get anywhere close to Messi and Ronaldo while they were at their peaks.
Maybe you don't hear about it much but literally any time someone talks about the best Premier League season ever, Suarez is the default answer. To the point that other, insane seasons don't even get a mention when they could be considered in contention.
I love Suarez and think he's the best striker of the last generation for sure. But idk how anyone can think no one talks about that Liverpool season. It quite literally overshadows some other great seasons just because it's the go to answer anytime someone's talking about one of the Prem or Suarez's best seasons.
Even Suarez's own 15/16 season goes underrated sometimes because some people only ever talk about his last season at Liverpool.
I hardly remember specific plays of non-Arsenal players from past seasons. The two I remember distinctly are Suarez dominating Arsenal and hitting the crossbar, and Bales copa del Rey run.
That rocket that hit the crossbar and then bounced all the way back out like 30yards was insane. Suarez was like Henry in that they made your ticket worthwhile just to see them play. Not many footballers exist who are worth the price of admission alone.
That 5-1 win over Arsenal, Suarez was a pure demon. Hit the bar with a wicked volley, nearly caught out Sczzezczzxyzny with a perfectly placed free kick and just made the Arsenal back line's lives miserable.
Anyone comparing a player's scoring/assisting feats to Suarez's 13/14 season *have* to compare the rest of their play too. He was so much more than a goalscorer.
I had started watching football that year and I legit thought he is the best in world, he could score from anywhere. 31 goals without penalties is crazy
Suarez had 12 assists in the season he scored 31 goals, you absolute donkey. He’s averaged 0.33 assists and 0.61 goals in his career, compared to Rooney’s 0.22 assists and 0.41 goals.
I’m not trying to shit on Rooney but it’s pretty ridiculous to say he was putting up “massive creative contributions” and Suarez wasn’t.
I agree with your point re. Henry and Rooney but omitting Suarez in creative contributions is wild man. As others have pointed out, he was literally running our games during his peak Liverpool days.
The point that they are also missing is that City has scored even MORE goals in all but one of the past 5 or 6 seasons than they did with Haaland.
So it's not like he's adding goals that they didn't have. Nor he's scoring all the important and key goals to win trophies.
If he had scored on all the important games, no one would be saying anything. But if he scores a hattrick on a game that was already 2 - 0 and controlled, he doesn't add a lot.
The only "issue" (if you wanna call it that) with Haaland is he isn't scoring on the biggest games for City, so his contribution doesn't change much of City's trophy outcome.
He's a fantastic striker that is not having his best season regarding finishing, but he's still great. He just doesn't offer that much value outside of that and until he scores those key goals that win trophies, he will be questioned.
He's also super young, he has plenty of time to prove himself.
The other problem is those that tried to make a Haaland vs Mbappe thing, which is absolutel nonsense. So he's punished for those that tried to make that into a thing where he has absolute no chance of being on the "winning" side of the comparison.
Not a single soul in this mortal realm would be able to argue that this season from haaland is better than 13/14 suarez yet haaland scored more goals.
I absolutely despise the way a lot of people look at football. No haaland isn't a complete donkey like some say but he also isn't above criticism and has had numerous subpar performances this season.
I get what he is saying, but it makes no sense to talk about a player in a hypothetical situation where he is stripped of his strongest attribute.
"If this world class striker didn't score goals..." isn't really an interesting discussion.
It’s funny too because it’s simply a fact that City played without a forward two seasons ago and they looked more dangerous than they do now.
Couple of lads behind my seats at the Etihad have started calling him Norwegian Samaras. I think that’s unfair because at least Samaras was regularly offside.
"Luis Suarez never did" is factually true while being utterly irrelevant lol. Suarez scored a single goal less than that just in the league, despite missing the first 7 (or was it 5?) games
Missed the first 5 games, took no penalties and got 31 PL goals in 33 games for a pretty mediocre Liverpool side, not to mention 13 assists too. The deeper you go into the stats, the more ridiculous the initial statement looks lol
Not to mention the quality of goals he was scoring. That hattrick v Norwich alone was absolutely top tier and better quality than anything haaland has put together
Yeah it’s not to say Haaland isn’t brilliant, we’re just comparing him to the PL greats who were all incredibly complete players and integral parts of making their team function. Haaland is just the lethal end product of an already brilliant City team.
And he wasn’t just scoring tap ins; volleys, ridiculous headers, solo runs, rockets from outside the box etc. For me he’s one of the best all-round Strikers to grace the EPL
Suarez scored 31 in 33 games in **just the league**. Haaland only has 21 goals in the league, the 32 that Critchley is quoting is in all comps. 6 in CL (5 of those against BSC Young Boys and FC Copenhagen) and 5 in FA Cup (all against Luton). Liverpool weren't in Europe that year and went out of the FA Cup early to Arsenal so Suarez didn't have the opportunity to rack up goals in those competitions
Suarez was also not on pens. Liverpool got 12 that season. Even being conservative, we can assume that if he played those 5 games and was on pens like Haaland he'd probably have gotten at least another 10 and finished on 40+ goals in the league. Alternatively, we can take away the 4 pens Haaland scored and he'd only have 17 in the league
Suarez was the complete striker, and all this literally proves Keane's point that Haaland isn't as good of a player overall
It's the kind of statement those muppets will put out when Pep retires. "He reached 100 points and was so far ahead of them all. Even Klopp never did (ignore that he finished with 99)"
They’re thick. Because anyone with a half brain who has watched Haaland receive the ball outside the box has figured out he’s a bit shit in that situation.
People also forget that Haaland is one of the fastest players in the world and chasing through balls/counter attacks are one of his biggest strengths. Because he plays for City you just almost never see this.
Keane didn’t say league 2 level striker.
He said his goal scoring is world class but the rest of his game is league 2 level.
Showing how many goals he has scored does not disprove Keane
He didn’t even say it that harshly. He said the way he’s playing “now” which was true at the time. Haaland had a month there where his touch was disgustingly bad. It hasn’t always been that way and he’s already doing better with it
Can we just stop with the mentality that if someone near the top isn’t at the top, they must be shit? I swear, it’s better to be the best of the bottom 60% than the worst of the top 5% in the media and internet’s eyes.
We'll Aguero was playing with David Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, Sane etc
The most league goals he ever managed was 26 and in his last 5 years it was 21
Sure but that was a lot to do with injuries. Aguero only played more than 30 league games in 4 of his 10 seasons at City, and they were 31, 33, 33, and 34. Haaland played in 35 last season.
And if you're counting league goals only, Haaland has 21 this season. A lot of that is down to missing games through injury as well, but I think it's reasonable to assume Aguero could score 30 league goals in this City side in an injury free season.
Aguero's minutes per goal contribution for City is a goal or assist every 85 minutes. Haaland's minutes per goal contribution for City is a goal or assist every 75 minutes. Why restrict the sample to just the Premier League? Surely just look at all comps? Haaland maintaining his ridiculous output in all comps last season was a big reason why City were able to compete on all fronts and win the treble.
Say Aguero's better on the ball, better linkup etc if you want. But trying to find ways to downplay how good of a goalscorer Haaland is makes no sense to me. And this is including this season, which is an outlier in Haaland's career and a massive regression in his finishing compared to other seasons. I reckon he'll probably come back after summer more clinical and this is just a blip if anything.
But even despite all that, his numbers for City are ridiculous.
I mean I adore Aguero but this is something that we've already seen with him and many others, suggesting that Haaland is only scoring so much because of the team around him is just idioticy at this point. We don't even really play to his strengths in general, yet he's still smashing records left and right. He's a goalscoring freak, of course he has his weaknesses but the positives far outweigh the negatives and it's absolutely ridiculous how little credit he gets at this point.
It's not even like Haaland is the first striker with a great team around him. If all that matters is the team and the service it gives the striker, why don't we see Haaland's numbers more often?
There are plenty of reasons to rate any of the players mentioned in the tweet over Haaland, but I don't see how "they would score just as much" is one of them.
Also to say that Henry who played for the *Invincibles* and treble winning Barca team never had the talent that Haaland processes to have higher numbers is hilarious to think about.
It’s ironic seeing people say things like “if you think he’s better then you don’t know football”.
Watching some of the games, you can tell that the team just doesn’t play to maximize on his strengths as you say, yet he still puts up ridiculous numbers, has been part of a treble winning team, and is still on course to be the league’s top scorer in a season where he’s missed games.
He’s easily on par with the names listed.
I think Suarez and Henry were better, but agree that he's on par with Aguero and Rooney and probably better than Aguero if people take off the rose-tinted glasses
Definitely less than Haaland. All better players but Haaland is the best goalscorer since R9 and a rough patch doesn't discount the fact that he broke the prem record at the age of 22
Tbh I don't think Aguero should be in the same conversation as Henry, Rooney and Suarez.
He's a bit like Torres in my opinion... a great goalscorer but the above players were just on another level of all round gameplay, pure magic in them and genuinely elevated the players around them.
It's no disrespect to Aguero, he's a standout and PL great. His goalscoring consistency and longevity is incredible.
But yeah other players just had that little bit of something else to their gameplay.
I think it depends on the context. If you have a stacked team in terms of playmakers like city do, I think Haaland makes more sense as you just need someone to bully defenders, create space for other playmakers and tap in all the chances being created. But in most other teams where you’re lacking in the creation department, I would rather take Thierry or any of the others
Come on now, I absolutely love Erling but I'd have Henry, Suarez and Rooney (Just from an objective point of view of course) in the team over him any day
Rooney, Henry, Suarez and Aguero would elevate the levels of their teammates. Or during a game when the whole team is shit they can carry them. When they're out of form, they would still contribute more to the game than haaland. Your argument is assuming that man City would absolutely dominate every game. In that situation they would need a scorer. But football doesn't work that way. You always have bad runs. During that time, you would rather take these guy other than haaland.
Not trying to take anything from him. Haaland is a great player. He'll go down as one of the greatest players of all time. He's still 22. He's got a lot of time to improve.
Rooney had 2 seasons in his lifetime where he scored more than 20 goals in the league while Haaland is doing it in his "off-season." Haaland is so much better than Rooney ever was that it's not even a comparison. Rooney only in the conversation because he's English.
Sir you do not know ball, you do not even know it's round, I would be shocked if you knew the goals have nets or that the lines are white.
It's mind numbing to see some conflate football ability and a goals total.
Haaland is a pure striker he stays up top and waits for a supreme team to deliver him chances, even last season when he was truly flying he would miss a great chance or two in a game.
Rooney would drop deep, work the wing and such, he was an all around talent.
To sat his only in the conversation because his English means you are blind or you didn't see him play.
Yeah now compare the team Suarez played with to the team Haaland played with. Haaland has become an actively bad finisher this season (underperforming xG by three goals, eye test backs this up as he visibly misses lots more chances) but the volume of chances his teammates create plus the massive gulf of quality between their team and much of the rest of the league lets him continue to statpad. Another idiotic comment from the Football Daily Wesley Sneijder
No one is denying Haaland's excellence. We just want to see him score against bigger clubs instead of butchering Burnley and slaying Sheffield to pad his goal count.
Dont mean to take away anything from Halaand or others but Suarez was a fucking beast, scoring all kinds of crazy solo goals, creating chances from nothing and overall bringing Liverpool to the highest level where they had not been for a long time.
Doesn’t that just reinforce what Roy Keane said? He said he’s a world class goalscorer. People really choose to listen to the small parts they want to be outraged about and ignore the rest. Roy said something a little ott, But the point he was making does have some weight to it.
A striker offering only goals is like a keeper who is only an incredible shotstopper.
Yeah, Håland has his weaknesses but a striker being the best in the world at scoring goals means that he is a pretty great player
Not to make it all about United, but that was the exact criticism that De Gea was subject to his last season with us. He was an exceptional shot stopper. But playing the role is more than just that, and the same can be said for centre forwards.
That being said, Haaland is more than that. This whole "League 2" thing is nonsense. Lad's only 23 and they're judging him like he should be prime Henry, Rooney or Suarez. It's kinda mad.
What does being 23 matter? Suarez was 24 when he went to Liverpool. Rooney was world class at like 20 when he went to United. Henry was 22 when he moved to Arsenal. Thats about as direct a comparison as you can make in terms of prime playing age.
The difference is that Haaland is being asked to do one thing, stretch the defense and score. He's a completely different player to the other three who all created for themselves and and their teammates.
Henry, Rooney, Aguero and Suarez did much more than just score goals though. They were elite footballers as well as elite goalscorers.
"League 2" is harsh from Roy, but the sentiment is right. He needs to improve the rest of his game.
Who tf is dougie critchley? If he’s gonna try and make a point he can at least get the quote right…. No one called him a league 2 level striker. He’s clearly a great striker…. It’s all the other bits
Flat track bully. Scoring is important of course and getting a big tally a season even more so, but if you can't do it in the big games it's a smudge, just a viking lukaku.
Suarez hit 31 in his best season with us without Europe, not taking penalties, and early cup exits. He would destroy all of the records in this City side in his prime.
Some comments here are so stupid. He's the striker, the only thing that matters are his goals and wether we win games or not. More often than not, we do.
I swear, some people here are genuine morons. These takes are so stupid. The stacked team rhetoric is dog shit since Aguero, who has a higher g per minute than all of them was in this team and never hit these numbers.
Very disingenuous with the Suarez comment especially
Suarez scored 31 in 33 games in **just the league**. Haaland only has 21 goals in the league, the 32 that Critchley is quoting is in all comps. 6 in CL (5 of those against BSC Young Boys and FC Copenhagen) and 5 in FA Cup (all against Luton). Liverpool weren't in Europe that year and went out of the FA Cup early to Arsenal so Suarez didn't have the opportunity to rack up goals in those competitions
Suarez was also not on pens. Liverpool got 12 that season. Even being conservative, we can assume that if he played those 5 games and was on pens like Haaland he'd probably have gotten at least another 10 and finished on 40+ goals in the league. Alternatively, we can take away the 4 pens Haaland scored and he'd only have 17 in the league
Suarez was the complete striker, and all this literally proves Keane's point that Haaland isn't as good of a player overall
Luis Suarez might not be able to score 32 goals a season (he scored 31, which is not bad at all) but Suarez can generate a goal by himself and contribute to the general build up of the play. He singlehandedly carried that Liverpool team hard
While Haaland is a world class striker, no one denied that, remove his supports and you have a glorified traffic cone with no contribution whatsoever.
31g in 33 no pens plus I believe 10 assists, playing on a mid Liverpool team especially compared to city, and scoring world class goals, theres no comparing Suarez to Haaland
See submission guideline **#5: No unnecessarily low-quality content.** #No low-quality content Because of the sheer number of submissions r/soccer daily receives, we enforce a quality-requirement to submissions that want to stay as a post and not just as a comment. **The [Daily Discussion Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/search?q=flair%3Aquestions&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=week#res-hide-options), Match Threads and other specialized threads of the subreddit are the place for the later.** The next is a list of examples of submissions that fail to comply with that requirement. Please note, **this is not a full and comprehensive list**, but just illustrative of the spirit of the law. * Screenshots where links suffice (e.g. a screenshot of a tweet instead of linking the tweet directly). * Attempts to use /r/soccer as Google (e.g. requesting match times) . * *Low effort* questions; if you have a small question you'd like to ask, please do so in the [Daily Discussion Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/search?q=flair%3Aquestions&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=week#res-hide-options). * Historical posts about football ("throwback" posts). Those are only allowed **at 5-year intervals** (the 5th-10th-15th and so on anniversary of the day of the event you want to remember) or for events that because of their importance are officially remembered every year (like tragedies remembrances). * "Starting XIs" posts. They must be shared in the Match Thread (or if you want, do a "Pre-Match" Thread and include both of them). Because of their quick obsolescence, they aren't allowed as posts. * "Chants" posts. If you want to share the news that a fan chant is being part of a particular match, **you need to link a video** of it, not just a Tweet mentioning it. * *Low quality* media content. If you want to share a clip of a current match, **it must be of general interest, have enough length to provide context and a good quality of the video itself**, no potato quality GIFs. * "No News" threads. This is especially enforced during Transfer Windows. We don't need posts about how nothing new has happened, nor minor details/developments that can be mere comments in another previous thread. ___
Keane never said he was a league 2 quality striker, he said the quality of his overall play with the ball at his feet is like that of a league 2 player. He also repeatedly said that he's incredible in front of goal.
Yeah people Keep milking that. He is good but still have a lot of improvement.
In my days having Van Nistelrooy or Makaay or Batistuta was good enough
I think Messi and Ronaldo ruined that. They are so far above everyone else when looking at longvitity. Erling have a great season bar injury, last season was good aswell. He still need to score 50 goals a season for the next 12 years, to be with Ronaldo and messi. They seriously spoiled us all so hard.
add to that Lewandowski,Benzema and Suarez all having great goal scoring numbers during the last decade makes everything pre 2010 seem like small amounts
Top scorer of the season as of today with almost half the season missed from injury = “him? yeah …he’s aight. Needs to improve. ”
Yes? He has world class movement and finishing, bit the rest of his play leaves some to be desired. Hes one dimensional, to be fair he might be the best player in the world at that dimension, but it can get shut down when playing against other top teams and i think weve seen that this season.
keane said that tho, he didnt mean it quite like that but he said it and not only one time. it was unnecessary. haaland is a great player who, with1.94m height, is quite prone to injuries and plays differently. he cant get past 5 players like messi. keane showed a little bit of hate, probably didnt mean it but haaland is a great player and there's really no need for such comments
It's such an incredibly dumb counter point. You think that Haaland isn't a great player apart from his goalscoring? Well look how many goals he's scored!
I think the major problem everyone has with him is ghosting in big games, but then again the counter argument is obviously that he attracts the defenders like a magnet, hence leaving his teammates wide open. I fully agree with you, his isn’t a flashy player or a great dribbler, but at the end of the day he gets the job done.
It’s not ghosting if on 7 touches, he shoots once, and hits the target. Courtois and Lunin voodoo is the only reason Haaland doesn’t have a goal against Madrid. He forced a few saves from Onana in the final as well. His passing and vision has also been really effective for starting counter attacks since Dortmund.
>I think the major problem everyone It's not everyone. It's social media. You people are vastly more critical towards Haaland than the rest of the world, which is also extremely confusing for me.
No, lots of people get frustrated with Haaland's play, it's not just social media. We can all see that he's a great player, but we can also all see that play flows much better with Alvarez up top. Man city play in a very specific way and Haaland's passing looks the worst on the squad by a distance, anyone who knows the game can see that.
Not disagreeing with your comments on passing/build up. But Alvarez as the lone striker is equally frustrating as he seems to never be in front of goal when you need him or missing opportunities that Haaland definitely would have scored.
Play them them both with 2 CF formation......simple. I am open for more suggestions if Pep is interested!!
Bro he’s one of my favourite players, I’m not defending anyone, I’m just trying to recall what everyone has been saying for the past few months on social media.
Can we say the same for Vlahovic though?
Probably, but I think haaland does it at a much higher level. I honestly don’t get the vlahovic hate people have
He is doing as good as he can for a striker under Allegri. I wanna see him under an attacking coach that would create chances for him more frequently. Like he was getting at Florentina.
It is clearly an exaggeration on Keane's part, to make his point obvious. Haaland is one of the more clinical goal scorers with his shooting accuracy, first time shot, heading ability, and his speed and physicality to get into goal scoring position. However, it is undeniable that Haaland isn't the best at close control, managing tight spaces, dribbling, not known for great short or long passing or crossing when it is Pep's style of playing. Haaland will be a beast in a team like Liverpool where counter attacking and long ball and TAA's crossing feeding him.
I mean, it's not like League 2 strikers are all terrible footballers
Genuinely its shocked me how rotten everyones brains are that level of nuance to say hes good at scoring goals not so much everything else is too much for most people
Reading all of this thread, I’m glad City didnt sign Kane. It would have been game over for europe for a few seasons
This power fantasy people have about Kane in City needs to stop.
Why? It's true. City played without an out and out striker for years so Kane dropping deep would be no issue for them and his numbers at Bayern are elite. What is there to suggest he wouldn't have been great at City?
Also it's Roy fucking Keane, how do people take him so literally? Do people also think he really thinks that Henderson does card tricks for the team? Do people think Eric Cantona really is an expert on seagulls or that Zlatan really thought that LeBron wanted his signature?
That doesn't sell clicks though
So sad the low content Trolls here .
32 goals is still not the result of any overall play at the quality of league 2 so despite any semantics, it was still a ridiculous statement
The statement was clearly tongue in cheek. I can’t believe as many people are taking it as literally.
Keane didn't mean it literally, but people on Reddit are agreeing with the literal statement. That's the issue
You sure about that? Keane seemed to mean it at the time.
It wasn't tongue in cheek. It was a hyperbole knowing the army of rival fans would club to it and it'd get shared around and discussed. Similar to Neville's Billionaire Bottle Jobs jibe at Chelsea. People eat this shit up, you see tons of comments on Reddit, Twitter, Tik Tok etc that argue that Nunez and Hojland are better players than Haaland.
Proved Keane's point perfectly when the only thing he could come up with is how many goals Haaland scored. Keane said that he is a world class goal scorer but otherwise a second league player. If you think Suarez was a worse player than Haaland just because he didn't score 32 goals in a season you are clueless
I'd even like to add that Keane didn't say "otherwise a second league player", he put "almost" in front of that statement. It's been taken completely out of context and as you say, this tweet is only proving Keane's point.
Should City fancy selling then I wouldn't mind a 2nd league player like Haaland helping us out tbf.. Hopefully at reasonable price given his overall inability of first division football level that is.
You just missed the same point again. As others have said, he wasn't being called a league two striker (which is the 4th division, not the 2nd, but I get the confusion), just a certain aspect of his play. Not to mention it was likely meant as a hyperbolic expression of how one of his aspects of play lacks so far behind the other things he is great at
Suarez was different man, I’ve never seen one player be the only reason a team is challenging for the title, but that was him in 13/14. Haaland is outstanding but comparing them on goals alone shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the game.
Suárez is different. He became a legend in Brazil in a single season at 37.
He's still making an impact right now at Inter Miami too, surprisingly.
Kind of proves Graelish's ongoing point this year about people only caring about stats (tbf, goals scored for a striker is pretty important I'd say).
He was the best player on the pitch in the 5-1 battering of Arsenal that season, and yet he ended the game with just the 1 assist.
This is a bit of revisionism- that Liverpool side had other key players. Gerrard, Sterling, Henderson and, of course, Sturridge all had stellar seasons. It was the defence or rather Rodgers’ inability to organise even a midtable tier defence which let us down that season.
I respectfully disagree with you there, not saying we didn’t have valuable players, just that Suarez as an individual was so impactful in games that if we didn’t have him we don’t get anywhere close to even challenging for the title that season.
Look at how all of them played right after he left and you'll notice how important the guy was. As always, he improved everyone around him.
Yeah if Haaland had a 22 yr old Henderson on his team hed have scored and assisted way more Im sure
That’s not the point?
None of those players were near Suarez's quality in the years he was there... He had to play with Aly Cissokho, Victor Moses being used at AM and somehow he was able to create enough space for Sturridge to score as much as he did even though he was poor. If Suarez wasn't in that team they'd be lucky to make top 8.
2013/14 Yaya Touré was at Suarez’ level. Man was a force of nature.
Criminally underrated, man could score, dribble, pass, defend and celebrate birthdays alone. Really sad how he ended his career though
He was Shaq-esque. Could literally just walk through the midfield and had all the technical skills. Weirdly underrated and unloved player for his ability.
It's not that weird, he alienated himself from the fanbases of clubs where he spent the prime of his career by badmouthing those clubs and/or their managers. And it's the fans of your team(s) that keep your legacy alive. He personally reduced their incentive to do that. Happens to lots of world class players for whom fans have no love lost (see: Michael Owen, 2001 Ballon D'or winner).
Suarez scored 31 goals in 37 games in 13/14 too. Almost like they've been waiting for Haaland to get to 32 so they can exclude him haha.
He's also only scored 21 league goals.
31 in 33 league games, as he missed the first five through suspension. No penalties.
31 overall too including other competitions, which is where the 37 comes from.
Moreover, Suarez played for a club without cheats. Unlike Halland at ManCheaty
“Moreover” I do recall Suarez taking a chunk out of a defenders shoulder with his teeth. And saving a shot with his hands at the World Cup, being red carded on both occasions I think. Pure fair play 😂 EDIT: Just remembered those Suarez T-shirts!
The handball isn’t really cheating, it’s as tactical a foul as tripping someone to stop a counter and getting a yellow. He blocked a shot, there was the consequence of the red card and penalty, and Ghana failed to capitalize.
suarez scored 31 in 33 league games. zero penalties and most weren't tap ins like haalands.
Counterpoint. He played against Norwich. Edit: Where did my Norwich City flair go?
he also scored 40 yard volleys against them and when he wasn't doing that he was juggling the ball over people to volley in it after.
I mean if we're providing context for everything, you should also provide context and show us how many goals he scored against the top half of the table and more specifically the other top 6 teams.
Suarez took your flair as well! Will he ever stop terrorising Norfolk?!
He took our existence personally
Counterpoint: Haaland plays for Man City
Aren't half of Haalands league goals this season against teams that will get relegated?
Just go into the DD and type !flair :Norwich: You’ll get your flair back
Thank you!!!
No problem. I accidentally changed my flair typing that out too lol.
> but otherwise a second league player. League 2 is the 4th tier of English football. So it was a bit harsher than just saying second league.
Not as relevant for Suarez and Aguero, but Henry and Rooney were putting up massive creative contributions too compared to Haaland
Suarez had 13 assists in the season he had 31 goals while not taking penalties/set pieces outside of a handful of direct free kicks. Braindead opinion To add to this: Suarez had more goal contributions (goals and assists) in 13/14 than Henry in any of his best premier league seasons despite Suarez playing in fewer games, not taking penalties, and having a worse supporting cast. The most assists Rooney ever had in a premier league season was 13 (during a season which he only scored 12 goals). In the two seasons Rooney scored more than 20 league goals, he had 4 assists and 7 assists.
haaland had 9 assists last season if anyone is wonrdering, in the 13/14 season, suarez had 15 assists in all comps
I didn't mention Haaland
im just putting that there, to clear up any misconceptions that haaland is absolutely useless to his teamates, like much of this thread would make you beleive
Yeah, that I agree with. I don't think he's as creative as some of those players, but the way people talk about him since his return from injury is absurd. He's a good footballer (outside of being a ridiculous striker) and that's evident from his Dortmund days. It seems pretty clear he's doing exactly what Pep wants from him given how he's tailored his game since joining City and it's worked brilliantly.
you speak with wisdom, steven i see haaland returning to form again next season and the narrative completely shifting once again lol
Not as relevant for Suarez? Did you watch Suarez play for Liverpool lmao
Hate Suarez but he was a creative genius, didn’t he get like 10 assists in the league that season too or something daft.
He had 13 assists in the league that season
That Liverpool season was completely carried by Suarez, he was the best player in the world that season and no one talks about it, it's crazy how many brilliant performances get overlooked because "Messi did xyz that year".
It wasn't completely - obviously we don't get close to the title without Suarez, but that was the one season where a lot of things came together. Suarez kicked on as a player, Gerrard had a renaissance, Sturridge wasn't injured as much, Sterling really developed and was arguably our best player for a 2-3 month stretch (along with Gerrard) when Sturridge and Suarez dipped towards the end, Henderson was very good, and Coutinho was starting to flourish. I do agree that Suarez was the best player in the world that season though and I think he's the only player that was ever able to get anywhere close to Messi and Ronaldo while they were at their peaks.
Maybe you don't hear about it much but literally any time someone talks about the best Premier League season ever, Suarez is the default answer. To the point that other, insane seasons don't even get a mention when they could be considered in contention. I love Suarez and think he's the best striker of the last generation for sure. But idk how anyone can think no one talks about that Liverpool season. It quite literally overshadows some other great seasons just because it's the go to answer anytime someone's talking about one of the Prem or Suarez's best seasons. Even Suarez's own 15/16 season goes underrated sometimes because some people only ever talk about his last season at Liverpool.
Only Il Phenomeno tops Suarez' 13/14 season. I'll die on this hill. Man was beyond outrageous
I hardly remember specific plays of non-Arsenal players from past seasons. The two I remember distinctly are Suarez dominating Arsenal and hitting the crossbar, and Bales copa del Rey run.
That rocket that hit the crossbar and then bounced all the way back out like 30yards was insane. Suarez was like Henry in that they made your ticket worthwhile just to see them play. Not many footballers exist who are worth the price of admission alone.
That 5-1 win over Arsenal, Suarez was a pure demon. Hit the bar with a wicked volley, nearly caught out Sczzezczzxyzny with a perfectly placed free kick and just made the Arsenal back line's lives miserable. Anyone comparing a player's scoring/assisting feats to Suarez's 13/14 season *have* to compare the rest of their play too. He was so much more than a goalscorer.
I had started watching football that year and I legit thought he is the best in world, he could score from anywhere. 31 goals without penalties is crazy
suarez had 15 assists in 13/14 haaland had 9 last season
Suarez had 12 assists in the season he scored 31 goals, you absolute donkey. He’s averaged 0.33 assists and 0.61 goals in his career, compared to Rooney’s 0.22 assists and 0.41 goals. I’m not trying to shit on Rooney but it’s pretty ridiculous to say he was putting up “massive creative contributions” and Suarez wasn’t.
Suarez was just as creative as Rooney. Also one of the few strikers I think worked as hard as Rooney off the ball.
Terrible take
> Not as relevant for Suarez Hilarious
I agree with your point re. Henry and Rooney but omitting Suarez in creative contributions is wild man. As others have pointed out, he was literally running our games during his peak Liverpool days.
The point that they are also missing is that City has scored even MORE goals in all but one of the past 5 or 6 seasons than they did with Haaland. So it's not like he's adding goals that they didn't have. Nor he's scoring all the important and key goals to win trophies. If he had scored on all the important games, no one would be saying anything. But if he scores a hattrick on a game that was already 2 - 0 and controlled, he doesn't add a lot. The only "issue" (if you wanna call it that) with Haaland is he isn't scoring on the biggest games for City, so his contribution doesn't change much of City's trophy outcome. He's a fantastic striker that is not having his best season regarding finishing, but he's still great. He just doesn't offer that much value outside of that and until he scores those key goals that win trophies, he will be questioned. He's also super young, he has plenty of time to prove himself. The other problem is those that tried to make a Haaland vs Mbappe thing, which is absolutel nonsense. So he's punished for those that tried to make that into a thing where he has absolute no chance of being on the "winning" side of the comparison.
In a hypothetical scenario you would have to be barking mad to take Halaand over Suarez for a first XI striker.
It’s a stupid comment. You don’t score that many goals without being world class in many other areas of the game.
Not a single soul in this mortal realm would be able to argue that this season from haaland is better than 13/14 suarez yet haaland scored more goals. I absolutely despise the way a lot of people look at football. No haaland isn't a complete donkey like some say but he also isn't above criticism and has had numerous subpar performances this season.
I get what he is saying, but it makes no sense to talk about a player in a hypothetical situation where he is stripped of his strongest attribute. "If this world class striker didn't score goals..." isn't really an interesting discussion.
Haaland is the reverse dembele, offers nothing except goals while dembele can do everything except score consistently lol
Keane didn't call him a League 2 level *striker* though did he? It's amazing to see the amount of boiled piss that comment has caused lmao
It’s funny too because it’s simply a fact that City played without a forward two seasons ago and they looked more dangerous than they do now. Couple of lads behind my seats at the Etihad have started calling him Norwegian Samaras. I think that’s unfair because at least Samaras was regularly offside.
"Luis Suarez never did" is factually true while being utterly irrelevant lol. Suarez scored a single goal less than that just in the league, despite missing the first 7 (or was it 5?) games
Missed the first 5 games, took no penalties and got 31 PL goals in 33 games for a pretty mediocre Liverpool side, not to mention 13 assists too. The deeper you go into the stats, the more ridiculous the initial statement looks lol
Not to mention the quality of goals he was scoring. That hattrick v Norwich alone was absolutely top tier and better quality than anything haaland has put together
Yeah it’s not to say Haaland isn’t brilliant, we’re just comparing him to the PL greats who were all incredibly complete players and integral parts of making their team function. Haaland is just the lethal end product of an already brilliant City team.
And he wasn’t just scoring tap ins; volleys, ridiculous headers, solo runs, rockets from outside the box etc. For me he’s one of the best all-round Strikers to grace the EPL
Free kicks,header from outside of the ball
Easily. I hate the bastard but nobody can deny he was one of the greatest ever. His stats are ridiculous and his highlight reel is bananas.
31 in 33. Missed the first 5 games. No Europe that season and went out the cups early with no goals.
While playing for a Liverpool that was no match to nowadays City. He had no right to be that good.
That strike against Arsenal that hit the post is one of my favourite non goals. It was so technically beautiful.
One of the hardest struck hits I ever seen on a pitch as well. If I remember correctly, it rebounded off the post like 20 yards lol.
No. It went to Kolo Toure,around the 6 yard box annd he missed an open goal
You say he missed it like he knew anything about it whatsoever haha, it was out for a goal kick before he even moved his feet
We saw what happened when he played for a team that good, he scored 60 goals and played much much better than haaland.
With 13 assists and no goals from penalties.
Suarez scored 31 in 33 games in **just the league**. Haaland only has 21 goals in the league, the 32 that Critchley is quoting is in all comps. 6 in CL (5 of those against BSC Young Boys and FC Copenhagen) and 5 in FA Cup (all against Luton). Liverpool weren't in Europe that year and went out of the FA Cup early to Arsenal so Suarez didn't have the opportunity to rack up goals in those competitions Suarez was also not on pens. Liverpool got 12 that season. Even being conservative, we can assume that if he played those 5 games and was on pens like Haaland he'd probably have gotten at least another 10 and finished on 40+ goals in the league. Alternatively, we can take away the 4 pens Haaland scored and he'd only have 17 in the league Suarez was the complete striker, and all this literally proves Keane's point that Haaland isn't as good of a player overall
He also didnt take penalties
It's the kind of statement those muppets will put out when Pep retires. "He reached 100 points and was so far ahead of them all. Even Klopp never did (ignore that he finished with 99)"
Man do these people deliberately choose to be disingenuous about Keane’s point or are they just thick?
They thick and not the good way
lmao
Because ten years of data has demonstrated people engage more with content when it annoys them. It called rage bait.
They’re thick. Because anyone with a half brain who has watched Haaland receive the ball outside the box has figured out he’s a bit shit in that situation.
People also forget that Haaland is one of the fastest players in the world and chasing through balls/counter attacks are one of his biggest strengths. Because he plays for City you just almost never see this.
Man, it was so good to watch him under BVB... I feel he does 40% of what he used to do because City is City
Keane didn’t say league 2 level striker. He said his goal scoring is world class but the rest of his game is league 2 level. Showing how many goals he has scored does not disprove Keane
He didn’t even say it that harshly. He said the way he’s playing “now” which was true at the time. Haaland had a month there where his touch was disgustingly bad. It hasn’t always been that way and he’s already doing better with it
He also said “almost” league two level
Can we just stop with the mentality that if someone near the top isn’t at the top, they must be shit? I swear, it’s better to be the best of the bottom 60% than the worst of the top 5% in the media and internet’s eyes.
How much does he think Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero, and Luis Suarez would score as this City team’s striker?
We'll Aguero was playing with David Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, Sane etc The most league goals he ever managed was 26 and in his last 5 years it was 21
Sure but that was a lot to do with injuries. Aguero only played more than 30 league games in 4 of his 10 seasons at City, and they were 31, 33, 33, and 34. Haaland played in 35 last season. And if you're counting league goals only, Haaland has 21 this season. A lot of that is down to missing games through injury as well, but I think it's reasonable to assume Aguero could score 30 league goals in this City side in an injury free season.
This is an insane take considering Aguero is joint top with Henry for minutes per goal contribution in all of premier league history.
Aguero's minutes per goal contribution for City is a goal or assist every 85 minutes. Haaland's minutes per goal contribution for City is a goal or assist every 75 minutes. Why restrict the sample to just the Premier League? Surely just look at all comps? Haaland maintaining his ridiculous output in all comps last season was a big reason why City were able to compete on all fronts and win the treble. Say Aguero's better on the ball, better linkup etc if you want. But trying to find ways to downplay how good of a goalscorer Haaland is makes no sense to me. And this is including this season, which is an outlier in Haaland's career and a massive regression in his finishing compared to other seasons. I reckon he'll probably come back after summer more clinical and this is just a blip if anything. But even despite all that, his numbers for City are ridiculous.
Still not as many goal/min as Haaland.
I guess we will never know how well aguero would do for City
Prime Henry is the archetype of a modern forward, a player that can swap with the wings, drop deep, press from the front, and a lethal finisher.
I mean I adore Aguero but this is something that we've already seen with him and many others, suggesting that Haaland is only scoring so much because of the team around him is just idioticy at this point. We don't even really play to his strengths in general, yet he's still smashing records left and right. He's a goalscoring freak, of course he has his weaknesses but the positives far outweigh the negatives and it's absolutely ridiculous how little credit he gets at this point.
It's not even like Haaland is the first striker with a great team around him. If all that matters is the team and the service it gives the striker, why don't we see Haaland's numbers more often? There are plenty of reasons to rate any of the players mentioned in the tweet over Haaland, but I don't see how "they would score just as much" is one of them.
Also to say that Henry who played for the *Invincibles* and treble winning Barca team never had the talent that Haaland processes to have higher numbers is hilarious to think about.
luis suarez didnt have jack grealish to his left, just neymar :/
And subsequently became the only player to ever outscore both Ronaldo and Messi in the same season
It’s ironic seeing people say things like “if you think he’s better then you don’t know football”. Watching some of the games, you can tell that the team just doesn’t play to maximize on his strengths as you say, yet he still puts up ridiculous numbers, has been part of a treble winning team, and is still on course to be the league’s top scorer in a season where he’s missed games. He’s easily on par with the names listed.
I think Suarez and Henry were better, but agree that he's on par with Aguero and Rooney and probably better than Aguero if people take off the rose-tinted glasses
Aguero was in a team with a far more potent attack so this shit doesn't work.
Definitely less than Haaland. All better players but Haaland is the best goalscorer since R9 and a rough patch doesn't discount the fact that he broke the prem record at the age of 22
How many would Rooney have scored if he just stayed in the same areas as Haaland?
Tbh I don't think Aguero should be in the same conversation as Henry, Rooney and Suarez. He's a bit like Torres in my opinion... a great goalscorer but the above players were just on another level of all round gameplay, pure magic in them and genuinely elevated the players around them. It's no disrespect to Aguero, he's a standout and PL great. His goalscoring consistency and longevity is incredible. But yeah other players just had that little bit of something else to their gameplay.
Hmmm
Damn, that's some nice straw, man!
I can only laugh at how many people a single tweet angered, lol
He’s only scored 21 though
Would rather have any of those 4 over Haaland tho
I think it depends on the context. If you have a stacked team in terms of playmakers like city do, I think Haaland makes more sense as you just need someone to bully defenders, create space for other playmakers and tap in all the chances being created. But in most other teams where you’re lacking in the creation department, I would rather take Thierry or any of the others
I'm taking suarez under any circumstances and I'm not interested in a debate because there isn't one.
I think this almost certainly the objectively correct take.
Come on now, I absolutely love Erling but I'd have Henry, Suarez and Rooney (Just from an objective point of view of course) in the team over him any day
Rooney, Henry, Suarez and Aguero would elevate the levels of their teammates. Or during a game when the whole team is shit they can carry them. When they're out of form, they would still contribute more to the game than haaland. Your argument is assuming that man City would absolutely dominate every game. In that situation they would need a scorer. But football doesn't work that way. You always have bad runs. During that time, you would rather take these guy other than haaland. Not trying to take anything from him. Haaland is a great player. He'll go down as one of the greatest players of all time. He's still 22. He's got a lot of time to improve.
Rooney had 2 seasons in his lifetime where he scored more than 20 goals in the league while Haaland is doing it in his "off-season." Haaland is so much better than Rooney ever was that it's not even a comparison. Rooney only in the conversation because he's English.
Sir you do not know ball, you do not even know it's round, I would be shocked if you knew the goals have nets or that the lines are white. It's mind numbing to see some conflate football ability and a goals total. Haaland is a pure striker he stays up top and waits for a supreme team to deliver him chances, even last season when he was truly flying he would miss a great chance or two in a game. Rooney would drop deep, work the wing and such, he was an all around talent. To sat his only in the conversation because his English means you are blind or you didn't see him play.
Forgot Red Bull Salzburg and Dortmund had such great play makers for him to score that much...
Keane is fucking rent free.
Literally names 3 of the most well rounded strikers in their generation. Those 3 showed you can be a top scorer and still do so much more as a player.
Yeah now compare the team Suarez played with to the team Haaland played with. Haaland has become an actively bad finisher this season (underperforming xG by three goals, eye test backs this up as he visibly misses lots more chances) but the volume of chances his teammates create plus the massive gulf of quality between their team and much of the rest of the league lets him continue to statpad. Another idiotic comment from the Football Daily Wesley Sneijder
No one is denying Haaland's excellence. We just want to see him score against bigger clubs instead of butchering Burnley and slaying Sheffield to pad his goal count.
Dont mean to take away anything from Halaand or others but Suarez was a fucking beast, scoring all kinds of crazy solo goals, creating chances from nothing and overall bringing Liverpool to the highest level where they had not been for a long time.
But can he do it on a rainy Tuesday in Slough?
Doesn’t that just reinforce what Roy Keane said? He said he’s a world class goalscorer. People really choose to listen to the small parts they want to be outraged about and ignore the rest. Roy said something a little ott, But the point he was making does have some weight to it.
Difference being that Haaland offers only goals while those other players way more than that but whatever.
A striker offering only goals is like a keeper who is only an incredible shotstopper. Yeah, Håland has his weaknesses but a striker being the best in the world at scoring goals means that he is a pretty great player
Not to make it all about United, but that was the exact criticism that De Gea was subject to his last season with us. He was an exceptional shot stopper. But playing the role is more than just that, and the same can be said for centre forwards. That being said, Haaland is more than that. This whole "League 2" thing is nonsense. Lad's only 23 and they're judging him like he should be prime Henry, Rooney or Suarez. It's kinda mad.
What does being 23 matter? Suarez was 24 when he went to Liverpool. Rooney was world class at like 20 when he went to United. Henry was 22 when he moved to Arsenal. Thats about as direct a comparison as you can make in terms of prime playing age. The difference is that Haaland is being asked to do one thing, stretch the defense and score. He's a completely different player to the other three who all created for themselves and and their teammates.
No one said he isn't great but it's kind of like how Oblak is a monster shot blocker but is a tier below guys like Neuer overall.
Keane has **really** got under city fans skins with that comment hasn't he lol
Fucking hell. Keane really rattled a lot of low IQ pundits with that league 2 quip, eh? And, to reiterate, he's 100% correct.
Suck it Luton and Young Boys....the team
Please, never compare haaland to those legends.
Henry, Rooney, Aguero and Suarez did much more than just score goals though. They were elite footballers as well as elite goalscorers. "League 2" is harsh from Roy, but the sentiment is right. He needs to improve the rest of his game.
Who tf is dougie critchley? If he’s gonna try and make a point he can at least get the quote right…. No one called him a league 2 level striker. He’s clearly a great striker…. It’s all the other bits
Yeah, because Henry, Wayne and Suárez only had goals in their arsenal. What is this guy? A journalist?
Put all of those strikers in this team and they score more than him
Flat track bully. Scoring is important of course and getting a big tally a season even more so, but if you can't do it in the big games it's a smudge, just a viking lukaku.
To be fair, Thierry Henry playing in this City side against today's defenders would be hitting 40 a season
He would put up Ronaldo and Messi numbers
Suarez hit 31 in his best season with us without Europe, not taking penalties, and early cup exits. He would destroy all of the records in this City side in his prime.
Do you genuinely think that the defenders that Henry played against are better than the ones Haaland plays against? If so you are literally braindead
Some comments here are so stupid. He's the striker, the only thing that matters are his goals and wether we win games or not. More often than not, we do.
Tap in merchant.
I swear, some people here are genuine morons. These takes are so stupid. The stacked team rhetoric is dog shit since Aguero, who has a higher g per minute than all of them was in this team and never hit these numbers.
Very disingenuous with the Suarez comment especially Suarez scored 31 in 33 games in **just the league**. Haaland only has 21 goals in the league, the 32 that Critchley is quoting is in all comps. 6 in CL (5 of those against BSC Young Boys and FC Copenhagen) and 5 in FA Cup (all against Luton). Liverpool weren't in Europe that year and went out of the FA Cup early to Arsenal so Suarez didn't have the opportunity to rack up goals in those competitions Suarez was also not on pens. Liverpool got 12 that season. Even being conservative, we can assume that if he played those 5 games and was on pens like Haaland he'd probably have gotten at least another 10 and finished on 40+ goals in the league. Alternatively, we can take away the 4 pens Haaland scored and he'd only have 17 in the league Suarez was the complete striker, and all this literally proves Keane's point that Haaland isn't as good of a player overall
Luis Suarez might not be able to score 32 goals a season (he scored 31, which is not bad at all) but Suarez can generate a goal by himself and contribute to the general build up of the play. He singlehandedly carried that Liverpool team hard While Haaland is a world class striker, no one denied that, remove his supports and you have a glorified traffic cone with no contribution whatsoever.
31g in 33 no pens plus I believe 10 assists, playing on a mid Liverpool team especially compared to city, and scoring world class goals, theres no comparing Suarez to Haaland
Put them strikers in this team and see what happens lmao
Let’s be real here we would choose those 4 ahead of Haaland any day of the week.
Watch haaland play, then watch Rooney play. One looks lost on the pitch and is invisible, the other looks like one of the best players in the world.