The pundits have decided that Haaland is invincible and unstoppable. I suspect that teams will start man-marking and clogging De Bruyne to cut off the supply. City have plenty of other avenues to channel the ball to him, though.
They are very green down there. I mentioned I've done their marathon. The first time I did it they had decided, presumably because it wasn't so environmentally friendly, that they wouldn't give out bottles at the water stations. They gave cups of water instead. Not so easy to run with.
To be fair, there’s quite a lot of evidence to support them at present. He is clinical, which makes him such a threat in a team which creates so many chances. He is also quick and very physically imposing, which makes it hard to man mark him in the way teams have done to negate players in the way teams often do. He will have off days like everyone else and teams will develop plans to contain - although in doing so they will give more space and time to some of the other destructive players City have.
Haaland is 9 league goals off the total needed to win the golden boot last season, there is 30 games left
The Greens are actually the largest party in Brighton these days. I'm definitely not against that, but the place is a pale imitation of its edgy self from the late 70's and 80's. It's all a bit too sanitized for the likes of me.
The key to stopping him is to stop De Bruyne and Bernardo. Man mark both of them all game. It's doable but it means your own chances of scoring are negligible as you'll have zero proactivity in midfield. You also cannot concede any corners or free kicks in dangerous areas. It's also preferable to foul Ederson rather than allow him to throw or kick the ball out quickly. Ah feck it just forfeit the game take the 0-3 loss. If everyone just did that, the fecker won't win the golden boot or break any more records so who's laughing now?
Sadly too many places go that way in the world, as soon as the become edgy the are open to gentrification
Maddison definitely leaving Leicester in Jan or summer. No way should he be staying there beyond that, been a Champions League quality player over the last 12-18 months. Was gonna say it’s surprising he doesn’t get called up for England but then you realise he’s got no chance as he’s not a RB.
I thought Villa were a dreadful watch yesterday, but Forest were even poorer tonight. Leicester have a lot of good players at this level, Forest have none, they are certs for relegation imo.
It was weird how Forest got promoted They had a lot of loan players (some of whom, like Spence, were very decent), others had good seasons but were experienced at that level, yet not good enough for the PL and their form was top ten but not promotion standard, except for a very purple patch which got them up into the play offs. So come the end of the season, they did need an overhaul. Signing 22 players and throwing together a “team” probably won’t work although it’s early days and they are not adrift yet.
Their approach in the summer was naiive to the extreme. It's one thing if they went for shrewd signings or wise old heads to keep them afloat for a year before pushing on next season, but by and large the players they brought in had little to no PL experience. Kouyate and Boly fit the bill for shrewd signings. The rest just strike me as a massive gamble, and that's without getting started on the need to manage certain 'characters' like Lingard and Aurier off the pitch too.