A Bald Fraud's Chester City

[1macca1]

Gulf Harry Potter has been handing out oily envelopes.

Clichy when he has hair.
The Xhaka tackle is a poor example, it’s massively different. Two footed/zero control/lots of momentum etc.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Imo they'd still win the league but something i noticed this season that city lack players who gives them good pace and width Doku is only one but he new to league grealish is average Foden is also not gonna give you that B.silva too they missing Mahrez type of player.

 

[Batman]

I said when he left that Gundogan's absence would affect them. Without KDB and Rodri they really had no proper leader out there today. Walker is captain but I don't think he has what it takes to drive them forward. Silva is a wonderful footballer but he doesn't have the pedigree of a match winner like Gundo or KDB. Haaland is very clearly a blunt tool who needs to be directed. They'll improve but it will take time and someone will have to grow in to the role while KDB is out. They will continue to struggle against teams that can defend well and have an outlet to bypass their press and put them in danger.

 

[BaZZe]

Anyone willing to join me on the "Haaland is a flat track bully" train after that one?

 

[Dokaka]

Haaland sitting on 8 goals in 8 games without their main playmaker behind him and somehow still catching strays, find it a bit weird. Why are people so insistent on downplaying him? We all know he's not the drop deep and create something type, not sure why that somehow detracts from him being one of the best goal scorers we've seen.

His job is to get on the end of things but if nothing is created, he's ineffective. I'm not exactly sure how that seems to spawn such negativity. The man himself has admitted his overall game is raw and limited right now.

 

[1macca1]

His job is to get on the end of things but if nothing is created, he's ineffective.

this is why I’d be disappointed with him winning the balon d’or. Would feel like one of those handful of unjustified winners over the last 25 years.

 

[Batman]

Haaland sitting on 8 goals in 8 games without their main playmaker behind him and somehow still catching strays, find it a bit weird. Why are people so insistent on downplaying him? We all know he's not the drop deep and create something type, not sure why that somehow detracts from him being one of the best goal scorers we've seen.

His job is to get on the end of things but if nothing is created, he's ineffective. I'm not exactly sure how that seems to spawn such negativity. The man himself has admitted his overall game is raw and limited right now.

For me personally he just gives off school bully vibes. I've yet to see him actually get in a scrap and get the better of someone who can match him physically. He's fine when he can dominate someone physically and the ball is put on a plate for him. He doesn't do very much up against adversity and I think when you're speaking about a guy potentially winning a Ballon d'Or, you expect to see someone more capable of taking accountability when his side are up against it. I can't think of anyone as limited and in need of service having won it frankly.

He's a good player but I just feel that the enormous drop off in his productivity with KDB missing is damning if you're in the running for an award that more or less says you're the best in the world. Cristiano, Messi, Benzema and Modric don't need their hand held to be at their best. They go and make something happen when needed. Haaland doesn't appear capable of that yet.

 

[Dokaka]

this is why I’d be disappointed with him winning the balon d’or. Would feel like one of those handful of unjustified winners over the last 25 years.

But why? He's so exceptionally good at that specific thing that he more than justifies his status in the game.

The man scored 49 goals last season and played a big part in winning a treble. Of course that's Balon d'Or territory, no matter how your overall play is.

It's okay to be limited if you're insanely good at a very specific thing.

For me personally he just gives off school bully vibes. I've yet to see him actually get in a scrap and get the better of someone who can match him physically. He's fine when he can dominate someone physically and the ball is put on a plate for him. He doesn't do very much up against adversity and I think when you're speaking about a guy potentially winning a Ballon d'Or, you expect to see someone more capable of taking accountability when his side are up against it. I can't think of anyone as limited and in need of service having won it frankly.

He's a good player but I just feel that the enormous drop off in his productivity with KDB missing is damning if you're in the running for an award that more or less says you're the best in the world. Cristiano, Messi, Benzema and Modric don't need their hand held to be at their best. They go and make something happen when needed. Haaland doesn't appear capable of that yet.

I mean sure but we're at the tail end of an incredible generation of footballers so I'm not sure who else is an obvious candidate. As limited as Haaland is, which he himself admits, he still banged in 49 goals, bagged 8 assists and literally won everything. When you make such incredible use of your limited skillset, you should be in contention for Ballon d'Or IMO.

Imagine if you'd go back to like 2011 and Walcott was banging in close to 50 goals a season, every single person on here would - justifiable so - argue for him being a Ballon d'Or contender despite his limited game. The end product is simply too ridiculous to ignore.

I'll agree that his insane end product does sometimes stop genuine discussion about his overall quality etc and that's not my intention here, I'm not calling him the runaway best player in the world. I just think him winning it or being a serious contender is more than fair, given the current options.

In reality Rodri is probably both more important and had an even better season, but we know how attackers are heavily favoured. I mean ffs you have Rasmi constantly shouting about how DMs aren't worth X amount of money, while Man City lose every single game Rodri misses

 

[SuperMikel]

Still the best team in the league. However they shouldn't be considered out of reach. Losing Mahrez and Gundogan and replacing them with Kovacic and Doku is a step down. Perhaps both will grow into their roles at City, however fact remains both are inferior to the players they replaced. Kovacic lost his head in the first half and out of frustration was kicking out and should have got sent off. Doku provides them pace and directness; however he is a turnover merchant and City cannot control a game as well when he is in the side.

 

[SuperMikel]

Micheal Oliver was part of the team that flew to the UAE with Darren England to get paid to officiate a domestic UAE match.

Liverpool getting the dirty against Sp**s, now Oliver not sending of Kovacic not once but twice.

I cant even fathom how this is allowed.

 

[BaZZe]

Haaland sitting on 8 goals in 8 games without their main playmaker behind him and somehow still catching strays, find it a bit weird. Why are people so insistent on downplaying him? We all know he's not the drop deep and create something type, not sure why that somehow detracts from him being one of the best goal scorers we've seen.

His job is to get on the end of things but if nothing is created, he's ineffective. I'm not exactly sure how that seems to spawn such negativity. The man himself has admitted his overall game is raw and limited right now.

For me, if you want to be considered the best player in the world you have to be able to show up and be the difference in those decisive moments. Haaland for the amazing goalscorer he is, has an abysmal record in the big games and the finals/semi-finals and the problem with him being so limited is, when he isn’t scoring he's completely useless. City might as well play with 10 men. Hence why I call him a flat-track bully. In fact even against lower opposition I struggle to think about Haaland having a decisive moment in a game. Most of his goals seem to just pad the scoreline for me. That's why I think he's a bit overrated.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Anyone willing to join me on the "Haaland is a flat track bully" train after that one?

Nah its more that we have the best CB in the league and he nullified Haaland. The midfield also did their job, restricted service to him, huge credit to Rice, Jorginho and Partey who all did a mammoth job defensively today.

We're massive.

 

[Oxeki]

Except for Saka that was the best they could give us and it took a fluke to win it.

There's 30 games to go. We've got a few players to come back and a whole transfer window yet.

Never. Rule. Us. Out.

Rodri's suspension ****ed us up lot but the rest should have reacted much better.

rivals re not bad like it or not, going forward Pool is very strong, luckily they leak some shot goals.
Sp**s is relaxed, no midweek games at all, they clicked quickly with new manager. will be very hard when we play them. it is always hard away to them anyway.
Arsenal was unable to beat us for years now they won in Community shield and today too. unfortunately that adds to their belief, mentality.
in the past they didnt think they can beat us now they know they can.

I bet arsenal will not even secure top 4.
End of the season, they will bottle.

Never thought I’d say this, but if we were not to win it, I would enjoy it immensely if Ange lifted it ahead of Arteta and Klopp.

Chelsea-Arsenal next round, can see Poch to get something from that game, agent Sterling and Palmer need to help us.
but honestly play like vs Wolves or today and Brighton will be a problem for us despite they leak some goals these days.

Arteta this sends a message! 8 games gone! If they come to ours end of march beat us go clear at the top!

That is sending a message Arteta you complete over the top bellend

Having seen 8 weeks of football i’m not overly worried about any of our rivals
Not convinced Arsenal are any better than last year
If we hit another run again in winter we’ll blow anyone away
It’s up to ourselves really if we can find consistent form again

Arsenal do not strike any fear whatsoever, if they're our closest challengers we should be making even more history come May.

I don't see arsenal getting all that much better than they were today, they have saka to come back in and martinelli from the start and thats them at their peak
we on the other hand were a million miles off it and can expect substantial improvement as players become available and settle.

Lucky we didn't turn up, because they were pretty ordinary if truth be told. I think we'll smash them in the return.

Not too arsed about today, still more annoyed about Wolves and the non Red (2nd yellow) for the winning goal scorer.

(don't mention Kovacic, if that's a Red then every game finishes 8 a side).

Arse are a bunch of ****s though, if I had to pick a non City title winner it would be Spuds, and I ****ing hate Spuds

Sp**s will fade away as soon as fixture list piles up even without European involvement plus teams will go deeper against them and they don't have the quality to open them up. They barely created anything against 9 men for 30 minutes and took non-threating chance for an OG to get a win. Before that, they struggle against one of the worst sides in the league and managed to get double goals in 100 something minutes.

Liverpool's defense is too open and poor to sustain any title challenge. VVD is past it. Arnold is ****e at the back and they have no Rodri or (to certain extent) Rice. Unless they recruit in January and well, I see them falling away in March.

The title is about whether we will keep up the pace with City or not.

I've watched today's game twice and even though we didn't play well, just like last week, we deserved at least a draw today.

Let everyone big the arse up. I understand that the result is everything, but the reality is they got a draw and win against us by scoring two late, deflected goals.

Even though they've improved, they aren't a better team than us and we and they, know it!

The dippers look good going forward, but look equally bad defensively.
I think both us and the arse will finish above them.

We're having a wobble, we will walk it imo. Rice has made the Arse better but not our level.

We didn’t have a chance to score after the 4th minute and we didn’t create a single chance all game through our own passing in open play (only chances were from a corner and then a flick on from a hopeful lobbed up ball after the clearance from that corner).

Fewest shots in any game under Guardiola.

It’s about as poor as we’ve ever been in seven years under Pep in the last third.

On Michael Oliver and the Kovacic incidence

We were ****e today, will say though he decided on giving us nothing in the second half

Kovacic was lucky but **** me he gave us absolutely nothing in the second half. Foden got absolutely cleared out from Partey, Doku fouled multiple times..

Felt the crowd got to him in the end

No complaints

Thank **** Ratboy and that **** of a commentator weren't officiating

It was borderline. It was probably just low enough not to get upgraded. There was certainly enough force in it.

Anyway, didn’t matter in the end, sadly.

It wasn't a clean challenge, yellow was spot on, second one is no where near, Rice kicks kova's leading foot IMO (i've only seen it live btw)

I don’t disagree, but if it had been upgraded, it’d be described as one of those soft reds.

Couldn’t watch today but what happened with a Lewis goal being pulled back for a foul against us with no advantage played? Had the whistle already gone?

Only when Olivar realised the ball was about to hit the back of the net!

Foul on Haaland that lead to their goal as well he’s a ****** Oliver with us

4 minutes injury time added evidence about being reffed differently. I suspect it would have been longer of we'd scored in the 87th minute.

Here we go again !! Why the **** do some of you continually place the blame on refs when today it was our own fault.
FFS grow some balls some of you and just accept we were the reason for our downfall today, not the ref, nor his assistants,nor anyone from VAR, just us.

 

[berric]

...

Barring any other catastrophic injury run these lot, Sp**s lot and Scouse lot are in a bit of a denial.

We still haven't really clicked and we're racking up results. We're disjointed, our midfield is chop and change (Teta's fault), and our front line juggles between a couple of injury-ridden players.

We lost Timber long-term, we lost Partey for some time, Jesus and Zinchenko didn't start the season, Martinelli and Trossard both injured, Saka playing through injury, Havertz not clicking from the get-go... And we're still joint top.

This match we started with Jorginho and Nketiah at our spine and without our two killer wingers ffs.

I think we can only get better.

 

[Dutch D]

@Dokaka I mostly agree with you, but it is noticeable how he doesn't seem to turn up in the big matches. Even if they win said matches.

 

[BaZZe]

Nah its more that we have the best CB in the league and he nullified Haaland. The midfield also did their job, restricted service to him, huge credit to Rice, Jorginho and Partey who all did a mammoth job defensively today.

We're massive.

I think both things can be true in this case.

 

[Macho]

Haaland sitting on 8 goals in 8 games without their main playmaker behind him and somehow still catching strays, find it a bit weird. Why are people so insistent on downplaying him?

Insecurity seeing what we are working with.

Still the best CF for me which would be cemented depending on how he ends this season.

 

[OnlyOne]

Don’t see much point debating Haaland. I don’t think he’s Pep’s sort of striker tho. I prefer Kane.

 

[Stevo the Villan]

Fair play lads. Didn't see that result coming. Didn't catch the game but fantastic result

 

[Riou]

@GDeep™




...maybe it's a Norwegian ting