Has Haaland REALLY regressed this season? | The Breakdown 

When you set the standards to high even for yourself

This season Haaland scored more than most of the PLs best ever strikers would in their best ever seasons.. yet Haaland is disrespected constantly. Its the level he set for himself. The very best are always hated most.

I don’t get how Messi and Ronaldo fans say guys we’ll “never see players like Messi or Ronaldo again” then get mad when Mbappe and Haaland aren’t at their level lol.

People underestimate what him taking 2-3 defenders out of the game does for the rest of the teams play

It's crazy to think he's only 23 and has already broken Aguero's highest Premier League goal tally in both seasons. When it comes to great players, many people recognize their talent, some criticize them, but eventually, everyone will come to appreciate Haaland

it's not been applauded enough how Rodri has been the main man carrying City this season. even when KDB or haaland had bad games he was always at his very best! for me he's been City's POTS over Foden

I think most of the league just figured out to park the bus against him. I also don’t think city’s ultra high possession style suits him. He’d thrive in a more counter attacking team

He is still worldclass this season, his presence alone forces opponents to focus on him and not be able to mark his team mates

So far there are 14 players who have scored 25+ goals in a Premier League season, out of these there are only 7 who have managed to do it more than once. Haaland has done it in his first two seasons in England. There could be tons of reasons why or why not, but fact is still that it's an incredible achievement, and that it still points to him being an absolute world class striker. However, I do agree that he has been less leathal than last season. More bigger misses, but I wouldn't say that's too surprising for any player to not always have better and better numbers. It could be "2nd season" syndrome, because of the injury and potentially coming back too early, or something else, but his numbers are still that he is by far the top scorer in PL this season. Aguero to have a comparison started with 23 in his first season, only to drop to 12 the next - then to 17, 26, 24... World class striker, but also had a dip in his second season ... and for Keane - I think he has been advised to build up on the agenda against the Haalands just to ensure he stays relevant in media. It causes a lot of clicks and interaction, and thus also more viewers, readers and income from advertisement.

He's the best striker the prem has ever seen, based on numbers strictly. Is he fun to watch? Probably not for a lot of people. Is he effective? Yes Is he elite? Yes Is he still young and still evolving? Yes.

He is still worldclass this season

Great video, Adrian. I feel like we simply don’t enjoy players anymore. There’s always a debate, always a problem, always a critique. There’s a time and place for that stuff, sure. But maybe, I dunno…enjoy these types of talents while we have them, right?

When we started understanding football we saw Messi and Ronaldo win games on their own. That is our standards. that is the problem for Haaland and Mbappe and everyone who may follow Leo and Cr7

Awesome summarisation. Ridiculous to think people still doubt Haaland after what he has achieved already.

Not until he scores less than 25 goals. Now we should expect 25 or more until he reaches an age like 32. Personally I think he’s a striker that will reach 600 goals in his career, he’s already very close to 300, but does get more injuries than the average top striker so anything above 600 goals in his career will be insane for me.

The Messi and CR7 effect is that we go so used to watch those two literal "Gods" pour out insane numbers and fits over the years, getting the bar so high that when we have exceptional players like Mbappe and Haaland, they are met with a "Meh" even when they score ridiculous amounts of goals. I guess the only thing that we could critize Haaland for is the fact that he is lacking that "Clutch" attribute of been able to carry the team on his shoulders and score that determinating goal in order to win the match when it´s needed. But besides of that, the guy is an absolute monster of a striker.

Messi and ronaldo spoiled us 🐐🐐 I just look at the stats and it's hard to process these numbers.

It's hard to even ask that question when a player has scored 38 goals with two games to go!!!

the hangover from messi and ronaldo era is just beggining

He has become one of those athletes that people just love to hate for no particular reason at all

I think people forget that Haaland's been carrying an injury since December. Yes he came back in February, but it was clear to see that he never fully recovered, hence his movement and other parts of his game were way off it.

This is the kind of analysis that the majority of the football fan base needs to hear.

Love all your videos. You always know what you are talking about, unlike some other people. Thanks for another banger❤

Thank you for breaking this down so eloquently!!! He’s greatest battle is with his own standards which in a way is a excellence in and of itself

I really love this video It really demonstrates why I’m never on fan pages or social media Hyperbolic trash or GOAT conversations without letting people play out their careers There is no patience in football which always ends up betraying because people are people

always great videos, you have a flair for this

Bro, love the content. Can you make a video on what's happening with the Bayern manager position? I have no clue why they keep getting rejected and a lot of theories are flying around. Would make a great episode. Thanks and keep up the work. You inspire me to get into the RU-vid game.

He is still world class and one of the, if not, the best strikers in the world, but he has missed multiple absolute sitters this season, that’s where all this criticism is coming from. I’m talking about goals even Sunday league strikers would score. Tap-ins. With all that he probably is in top 10 players in the world this season.

Teams have changed tactics for sure, even towards the later half of last season many had adapted. When he played for Dortmund, he could his skills better. His pace, acceleration, physicality and even dribbling. In the pep system he has a single role that is to position himself correctly. Oftentimes he is a decoy too, where he creates space for the wingers. Yes he has had some misses which are not expected from a player of his class, but he is still scoring more than most strikers in the prem have in their best season in arguably his worst season since joining Dortmund. One of the things Haaland is very good at is improving himself as player throughout the offseason. He was a really bad header when he started playing for Dortmund, but he improved a lot in 21-22 and further in 22-23 at city. So, I won't be surprised if Haaland works more on his finishing or link up play and becomes even more of a beast.

Mate, he was injured for 2 months, and he had no KDB for 7 months, unlike last season. Still top scorer with 27 Prem Goals. People who think he is doing poorly are ignorant.

I have been saying it all season long. The criticism towards him is completely over the top. And people are expecting things from him he never did and is not supposed to be

I will be honest, the first 3 seconds of this video earned a like and some respect. Looking forward to the rest of thus video 😃

Why do people think growth is linearly

This is such a fair video on Haarlands assignment this season, watch Haarland go on a rampage next season too

Thank you for this video brother. Sane people who actually know about football and are not biased are so hard to find these days

I think a lot people tend to forget that he missed playing competitive for NEARLY 2 months which contributed to his dip in goalscoring. If he don’t miss those 2 months he’d probably be around those 52 goals in all comps he got to last year.

All of his critics were drooling when he was at Dortmund.. begging for him to join their clubs. He’d be great at Real Madrid.

First season record breaking 😂 that treble season set citys bar so high 😂. Suffering from success. Haaland was out injury and of course out of form for few games. But hes still the dangerous threat that he is. Ask madrid 😂. Even when he doesnt put nunbers he always has defenders on his back. City's squad is just that good they still win everything. Cant wait for next season with hopefully amazing transfers competing in CL 🙏

It's such a mystery to see why Borussia Dortmund aren't winning the Bundesliga when they had the likes of Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham. The 2020-21 squad was so stacked that they should have to challenge with the indomitable Bayern Munich side, who were too reliant on Robert Lewandowski, former Borussia Dortmund players. Now, without those 2 players, they are somehow in the Champions League Final, still relying on old guards like Mats Hummels, Marco Reus, and the returning Sancho.

The best striker in the world only gets criticised because he plays for City, simple as. He's going to win the golden boot for a second season in a row scoring at least 27 goals and this is an off season for him? If he was playing for Liverpool, United or an Arsenal then he'd be getting praised non stop

Most sensible about Haaland. I completely agree in your reasoning. There are so many ways to play the game, and there are so many different strenghts to play on. Haaland definitely have remarkable qualitites but like all players have his ups and downs compared to himself.

For me it's less about the talent, and more about the role, as well as moments. Haaland is an out & out striker, so the expectation of an all-round play is your problem, not his. If he adds more clutch moment to his career, he'd be more reverred; but let's not act like there's significantly more he or a coach can do to add to his game.

In sports in general, if players have been followed for their entire careers, they tend to get criticized more if they don’t meet the unreasonable expectations of their fans. However, when a player pops up out of nowhere these types of players tend to get a lot more praise, despite performing at the same level, or worse than the player that’s been in the spotlight for years.

💙Thank you for this video. You are so right. Haaland is a pure strike not all around player. He was buy to be a strike for MC not all around. He also said is not Rodri and his job is to be a strike and be inside the box. And this year because of Pep's tactic Haaland play style is to be a strike that score much for MC and also be the one that must get attention from 3-4 defender on him to make space for other in team to score.so

amazing vid!

Imagine him in this Dortmund team right now. Would be lethal with adeyemi, sancho,matsen

The main point was lost between the lines. Haaland is criticized because he can break one record after another without being as good overall as the other players. This irritates some people. Somehow Haaland is not allowed to reinvent football this way. Football suffers from orthodox fans.

The system Haaland’s plays in should also be examined too. Pep’s even higher line this season combined with slow methodical buildup play sucks space out of the opposition half that Haaland would operate in, let alone 18yrd box as it gives the opposition plenty of time to reset their defense and flood the box. We saw this illustrated perfectly with the Real Madrid game 2nd leg. Yes Rudiger did an outstanding job on Haaland but Peps high line and slow buildup didn’t do him any favors either. Add in the fact that most City players (save KDB and Foden) are gun shy in attempting riskier passes to Haaland for fear of losing the ball, and Peps system seems to nullify Haaland’s skills that defenses can struggle with, especially when playing a low block side. Again, this was perfectly illustrated in the 2nd leg of the Real game. I wonder what Haaland’s goals would be if he played for a team that was better well suited to play primarily to his strengths instead of in a more marginal capacity like City. Yes they create a boatload of chances, but, frustratingly, seem to limit the ways they can utilize Haaland thereby making it slightly easier for defenses to defend against him. Perhaps if City’s system would allow for a few more attempts with thru balls and balls over the top when Haaland breaks the line, it would make them more multidimensional in the attack and allow Haaland to score more? In the few times we ve seen thru balls to Haaland, he’s used them to devastating effect…

Nobody's doubting that he isn't extremely effective at what he does. But as a football fan, it's just ugly to watch him play. Most of his goals are just ugly. But hey, sure, if I was a City fan, I wouldn't care either. I get it.

Wow Thank You For A Great Commentary on Haaland Your spot on ! Haaland is a wonderful young man that brings joy to the game and is truly loved He’s smashed records and I believe like many others He should have won the Ballon de Or last year ! He’s not Messi or Renaldo but he’s the 22 year old young man that destroyed the premier league in his first season and as long as I live I can say I witnessed one of the greatness players in football history ! What a Wonderful young man he is ! May God bless him and his family always

Haaland would be killer at Madrid. Vini Haaland backed by Jude with a dream pairing, but wont happen now since Real have probably already signed Mbappe. Haaland I feel is best for teams like Dortmund , Madrid more than possession based teams like Barca, City etc

Im pretty sure he is still fire it's just teams are very aware of him as they should be.

Reverse his goal tallies. This seasons and last seasons. He will be considered great and praised in both. He showed his peak, everything is looking stale in comparison. In isolation, dammm THAT MANY GOALS.. THAT'S WHAT YOU NEED FROM A STRIKER

He’s had 7 weeks out from a injury, it’s not surprising

Haaland is very similar profile to Zlatan, like he has speed, the physicality, but he is not a target man, or a poacher like Inzaghi for example, he is little bit more general, I think that we should wait for some years before we see the final version of him.

He's pretty good and will be for many more years to come. Hot take, he's a goal machine.

Foot injuries carried thru, no doubt.

People need to be conscious of the beef between Roy Keane and Håland's father. It's not the first time Keane has been slagging Håland. Keane seems to just be out to create doubt in Håland's mind, he's still bitter towards his father. But imagine someone being injured for a bunch of games, and being kinda off his game and goal dry for a while there too, yet is still the top scorer in the biggest league in the world. And then factor in that this season, even more so than last season, every team has put two players on Håland to stop him. Making it much tougher for him to even touch the ball. But even when he doesn't touch the ball he does a good job, because he weakens the defence of the opposition by forcing them to allocate more of their resources on him. So even if he hadn't scored goals he'd still do an important job for the team. Yet he still scores the most goal, despite everything else. We also shouldn't expect a player who is towering the others at almost two meters to possess incredible finesse. That's not physically feasible. We'll look towards Ødegaard for that, at least us here in Norway(hence my weird letter when spelling "Haaland"). He's no Messi, but he doesn't have to be. Messi is Messi, Håland is Håland.

Hey Adrian, I am looking forward to a Barcelona video, the absolute circus that is going on at that club. Please make a Rabona TV classic (40 min) long video. Please. 💞

city needs to play more through balls to him like they did in the wolves game

I think the problem isnt the numbers. Its his presence against the big teams. I mean he really disappears in some of the big matches. If they know how to handle him defensively he is done. Ronaldo and messi are built different. Its difficult to contain those.

Very nice video of the haaland effect

Another country? He was born in Leeds, compared to South Americans who arrive not knowing a word of English I cant imagine the culture shock or langauge barrier being too great.

Not really, but he is a very VERY one-dimensional player. He's a striker and nothing else. Like, really, NOTHING else. He's bad at winning duels, he doesn't add anything to the game flow, he's not a great dribbler, he's literally just at right spot at the right time and is a clinical finisher. Now you can say he's so good at that, that it doesn't matter. And in many games, it doesn't. But what we've seen this season, is that in some games against certain, tha's just not enough.

Funny thing is that if haaland was just a bit better converting chances this season he would easily be on course to break his goal record in the league last season

Exactly thank you, Both Mbappe and Haaland are great players and both of them will retire as legends of their generation, but they don`t need to be the next Messi or Ronaldo to be future legends of the game.

meanwhile his current season rn is still better then other great strikers in the pl then they ever had

It’s interesting that German Cano of Fluminense (who pretty much equaled Haaland’s goals with less games last season iirc), also has had a drastic decrease in performance this season.

When Haaland Jr heard Roy Keane speaks about him, he should rather take his word for a grain of salt because he know himself how eager Roy Keane want to see Halaand Jr failed.

Urm.... Yea he has regressed.... His build up outside the box has actually gotten worse, admittedly it's an eye test, but he looses the ball way to much and his hold up play should be miles better for someone his size... Martinez man handled him in the final for example. Missing against arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, rarely one for the big games.

When you tops the class one year people 'expect' you to do it everytime. Expectations kills.

It’s simply because prem heads can’t handle that a player from another league came in and still put up high numbers.

you clearly don't watch full Man City games regularly. He's my least favourite player in our team, and all of your points are flawed

I’m a Liverpool fan and I hate man city but sheesh I hate what people saying about haaland ! Like what else do you want from GOAL SCORER , I get the general play thought process, but still

All the other teams just learned how to counter him

He is a finisher, a perfect 9. Stop pretending him to magically switch to Messi with playmaking, dribbling, and scoring. He is still 23, and I do think under guardiola he has improved his overall game. He has at least 10 years as a top player and I do believe he can become a luis suarez type of all round 9 after years of working on his game

Nope. It’s the City way. Pep and City don’t really use a 9 the way 99% of every other club and manager use them. Håland has served his purpose to ease their way but due to his physique and the way City play aren’t a fit. That he has succeeded there is proof of his talent.

Thanks for addressing the fact that ronaldo and Messi is beyond halland level at the moment

Knowing Keane, I'd say it's disrespectful towards Haaland. The man's just a petulant child who says any ridiculous thing to get attention.

Salah has also won two consecutive golden boots (2017-18, 2018-19)

Regressed? LOL! Some people…. KDB has been injured half the seaaon and Haaland was also injured for 7-8 games. KDB is usually the only one who supplies Haaland with passes, so he has had way less support/supply this season and been ignored a lot more. Still he has scored 27 PL goals (5 assists) in 30 games. He has scored 38 goals (6 assists) in 43 games this season. He has been involved in 76 goals (63 goals) in 64 Premier league games for City, Since coming to City he has been involved in 95 goals in 95 games! Still people critisize him…and he is still only 23. So far im his career he has been involved in 276 goals on 278 games. How many goals could he have scored if he was given more supply and KDB and himself not being injured the periods he has. He would have probably beaten last years record. ….and, so far in his career he has been involved in 276 goals in 278 games!

It’s not just a not yet at least, it’s a never. They will never be Messi or Ronaldo. Because no one will ever match them, it’s impossible.

yes Haaland is underperforming very slightly, not just because he played less, but also because he played a couple of matches BEFORE he was back at 100%, and yes of course it's easier for him when KDB is playing, KDB missed over half the season, and is still going to be the second best giver of assists

he hasnt regressed , teams know you need to stop the passess to haaland to take him out of the game

Roy will be hating the Haalands’ for the next 10 generations from his grave 😭

Fun fact, in Norway 2 a's after each other is pronounced as "aw", so you really should pronounce it as "HAWLAND"

2 golden boots in two years when the most ever is 4, he's making other strikers look average. Not Salah though as he's a winger who scores as much as strikers so he's on another level to the guys stood infront of goal.

Your content is great.. Unless it's your job, non city fans don't care.

St Pauli beat Haaland on the dfb Pokal, so let's give the last st Pauli report, we are champions! Our first professional trophy on the modern era!!!!!! Thank you for listening to this silly reports, see you next season, hopefully we get to stay on the top tier.

He’s scoring better goals this season than last season

In his 2 years at city he has scored a lot of goals, but he has actually underperformed his expected goals, and his overall play needs some work

Haaland our CF is the best thing we had since Rodri ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️

Keane wasn't keen on Haaland's father and likely not him as well. Where's his offspring? Haaland has, hopefully, a long career. Let's see it out. Cheers from Edmonton.

His goal per game ratio is almost the same as last season. His total goals are less because he has less games. So I can't understand all the hate.

There is a reason why Keane is not a manager right now

Roy Keane is such a clown. It's not even a joke

💯

What is Sophomore season?

Best striker in the world

i think he is hated because of his ability to ghost in big games no one expects him to have messi ronaldo level of clutch moments but he fails to perform for both club and country when it matters the most like you don't always have to be a clutch player but you still need to have a few clutch moments, especially when your biggest competitor has a wc final hattrick even messi and ronaldo have had plenty of bad games but they had plenty of clutch moments also di maria is loved by the fans because he has a few clutch goals or amazing games in important finals, same with drogba