Man City simply aren't the same team without Gundogan this season. People underestimate just how vital he was to their success over the years.

I can see why people are saying this about haaland because when de bruyne has an off game haaland goes into the witness protection program

City are the biggest tactical foulers in the league. Rodri does it for fun every game without picking up yellows.

The media flip flop from day to day. Clickbait is king!

I don't think anyone has really ever disagreed with this, but he doesn't need to be a great footballer, he just needs to be a great goalscorer.

I’d take that bang average footballer at LFC any day of the week

Haaland is paid to score goals, he scores lots of them so does his job. Pretty simple really.

Haaland is, when fully fit, a world class goal-scorer. The numbers back it up. But he is a very limited footballer.

"Bang average footballer". He has played in 4 seperate teams. 3 different clubs, in different leagues and for his country. His record for all 4 teams is absolutely unreal. Anyone who thinks Haaland is average is either a gobshite or knows nothing about football

He is no R9 or Kane prototype. He is a shooter who is a physical specimen and maximizes that to the hilt.

He's currently got the Golden Boot. Not bad for 'bang average'

I'm an arsenal fan but honestly you guys are crazy disrespectful. Haaland is one of the world's best goal scorers. Players all have different profiles. His profile is that of a goal poacher. He is not a link up player

I remember similar being said about Gary Lineker but he just knew how to put the ball into the back of the net... These types of players are worth their weight in gold and who cares if they don't do much else as long as they keep scoring on a regular basis.

Arsenal fan here, Halaad definitely not average! Exceptional goal scorer, the service was not there for him, he’s a box player and a great one at that

Haaland is a prolific goal scorer but his overall player is that of a League 2 player. Well done Ally best pundit and commentator in the business. 👏

Dont think he was bought for his dexterity, just show me goals per game at the end of the season.. Cant stand these forwards who get 16 -18 goals per season and people say they were on fire ...

Nunez never stops working for the team. Doesn’t score as much but the man works his socks off even without a goal scoring opportunity. Haarland is the opposite. Scores more and that’s it. But it is what pep’s team needed especially last season

He’s an excellent, excellent goal scorer. But he’s never been a great *player* This isn’t really breaking news

I think Haaland is not much involved in link up play with City a) because Pep doesn't want him to drop deeper and rather have him stay close to the box for as much as possible, and b) City controls the ball in the midfield / attacking midfield anyway. With Dortmund , Haaland was NOT only a typical "poacher" or "tap in merchant". Dortmund played a typical fast, transitional counter attacking football in which link up play in a deeper role was a pivotal part of Haaland's register. Same goes for his time with Salzburg and Molde. He thrived in this role as much as he's been rather successful with Manchester City. McCoist is one of these typical reactionary pundits who just can't see things in context... and he's a bonafide flip flopper to boot.

Like most I am a football fan not a professional. However I bet most Premier League Teams wished the bang average Eland was in their team.

These people are delusional Haaland has the best minutes per goal ratio of any player to compete in the champions league scoring on an average of every 64 minutes, fastest player to 10,20 and 30 Champion league goals most of these broken before joining city, Quickest and youngest player to reach 50 goals in Bundesliga history, broke the epl top scoring record for 1 season in his first season Ronaldo: Minutes per goal or assist at 21 was 156. Messi: Minutes per goal or assist at 21 was 103. At 22 Messi had 92 goals and 46 assists in 200 games while Haaland had 187 goals and 44 assists in 236 games He offers a lot more the tap ins and if scoring them was so easy every striker would do it Haaland has played most of his career in weaker teams compared to Barca and Man United playing with the like of Durtmund until he joined city This dude can reach any heights

The irony of a City fan complaining about tactical fouling!😅😂

Look at Peps history, false 9 is his preference. Haaland is not a Guardiola player. Pep has compromised his beliefs to accomodate a monster goalscorer.

Thank you Ally McCoist for bringing some MUCH NEEDED balance to the Arsenal criticism!

Haaland relies on service... No service no goals. Others before him did not rely on service...

Halaand isn’t best footballer, his job is to score goals and he does it best and goals wins you games, in terms of other aspect of the game he’s not designed for that

Imagine how many goals that bang average footballer would score in Scotland.

Average players don’t have goal scoring records like he does across multiple leagues, they don’t break premiership scoring records in their first season or win trebles as the clubs top scorer in all comps. Parts of his game are seriously lacking at the moment but he is still one of the best strikers in football and a generational talent that will be talked about as one of the greatest scorers the game has ever seen. He’s far better than Ally ever was

I've been saying for a while that playing with Haaland against the top teams is like playing with one less man. Quite often you have to be reminded that he's on the pitch. I'm surprised that someone finally came out and said it.

I hate that expression: "Taking one for the Team"....translated, that is simply known as: "Blatant Cheating". I think it is about time these sinical fouls are punished with a straight red.

Anthony Taylor was superb , man of the match

Bang average but we’d all take him in our teams in a heart beat

Haarland is just the ultimate onside Goal Hanger. He knows how to stay onside amazingly well and reads the line beautifully for that but he is just a Goal Hanger and therefore gets alot of tap ins to be top scorer which is fair play to him as that’s his game. Reminds me of Rudd Van Nisteroy in that regards just great at being in right place at right time to get tap in however if they are man marked throughout the game and have a half decent CB up against them then they look like they have done nothing in the game.

It's a joke if anyone says Haaland is anything but a world class striker. I'm a Liverpool fan, and i know talksport is constant clickbait, but it's a total lack of class to keep calling Haaland a poor player after what he has done

halaand is so boring i would not spend 1cent to watch a statue in a game

Funny how people taunt Nunez that he's a sh*t Andy Caroll, when its actually Haaland who's a very good Andy Carroll 😂

Halaad is a physical power house with sheer aggression and a brilliant finisher , Sergio Auguro was a brilliant footballer and brilliant finisher Romario and Brazilian Ronaldo. Were top of the class. The best I ever saw technically superb

Guardiola isnt the right Coach for haaland, haaland needs to make his own crazy runs, his positioning is his biggest weapon, but under Guardiola he has no freedom for that. Still the best goalscorer in prem History btw^^

Haaland is top quality box player anything else is average

He's a great poacher and tap in merchant, but put him in a team like Spurs, and he wouldn't reach more than 15 goals a season. He can't pass, he can't score from a free kick, and he never scores from outside the box. He's the best version of Bendtner.

The biggest team are usually big on tactical fouls , I remember Brazil, Barca, Casemiro in real Madrid would get away with 3-4 fouls before a car. They usually get away with it because they are so good on the ball that you almost forget to pay attention to that of the game.

Leipzig beat bayern with kane haaland scores 5 against Leipzig i rest my case

Nice clickbait title. He didn't say he was a bang average PLAYER. He said his build up play is bang average.

Man broke premier league record as a kid in his first season. Hes better than bang average , yes a lot of players would score many goals for city but no one has done it like him , hes not the most skillful of players but he does bring something with his pace , power and finishing that cannot be denied.

Every single person on here slating him would love him in there team

In the Liverpool game the referee was booking players left, right and center. We cant be having these different levels of refereeing

Literally makes no sense. Like saying Sergio Busquets is a league 2 player because his shooting is terrible.

Haaland has proved so many haters wrong it's rediculous. He set so many records last year that most of them will stand for at least 50 years to come. He has improved everything that people have complained about him until now. People still complain. Me too. My complaint is that he isn't clutch enough. He will continue to improve. People complained he never scored with his head. Now dude scores the most headers on his team. People complained he couldn't assist. Dude is no 5 with assists on his team, only 2 behind Rodri. People complained at first that he didn't link with his fellow teammates. Dude has a deadly combo with KDB and an almost equally lethal combo with Foden. He also works well with Alvarez as a false 9 and Graelish on the left. Used to work well with Mahrez and Gundogan as well. In Dortmund he was equally deadly with Sancho and Bellingham. Now people are complaining he isn't a baller on the field. I'm sure he will improve that too. However, his job is not to dominate the midfield and sprint home. His job is to score goals. People forget that he is doing exactly that. He's still the top scorer in the Prem despite being injured for a good number of games. The hate is insane. If you really want to hate on him, there's really only thing to hate on, and that's the fact the dude has so many millions that he doesn't know what to do with it, and spends it on mostly flashy stuff instead of starting a charity. That's the only valid thing you can hate on. This is also something you should hate most footballers for. They make too much damn money and throws it away on garbage luxury items.

Facts. He’s a top class goalscorer but footballer he’s average

Finally people can see through this guy. Put him in the 90/2000 he’d not be spoken of , apart from goals which he misses a lot of what does he bring to the game. No from in the air at 6ft plus. He’s average at best and the fact he’s being spoken of for ballon d’or shows how football has fallen.

Man City foul before the attack even starts every time their press fails and because it doesn't look like they're stopping a counter they never get booked. Pep deliberately tells his players to do this too bc anyone who joins that team starts to do it.

hes an exceptional striker, obviously he was clocking numbers which were too good even for him to sustain-- victim of his own success

Pep taught Arteta the art of the tactical foul. Bless.

Typical fickle sports pundits. One day he’s the greatest PL forward of all time, the next he’s being mentioned in same breath as Havertz. Yeh I get it, talkback radio has to generate debate and controversy, but lunatic statements made by Keane with agreement by Mccoist erode any credibility they had.

Haaland was garbage in the UCL final against Inter. They played him right off the park, as did Arsenal.

Ally really laying it on the line: "They can all score goals - to be brutally honest with you." 🤣

spot on, once the supply dries of which is very rare incase of city, erling becomes a liability.

Typical eng media Yes he is in drop form but the bs is showing

English Prem is full of bang average footballers Being a big strong athlete lets them get a game every week

His job is to score. He had a gsme when he had two touches snd scored to goals. Haarland is a machine!

haaland has missed SO MANY SITTERS this season. I cannot see what all the hype is about when people say he is better than the likes of Kane or Salah. He had a good season with Dortmund. thats all. He is not living up to the hype.

These guys have obviously not seen Erling Haaland at Dortmund.😂😂😂

Last season Haaland was praised by the media for scoring for fun meanwhile Kane was doing the same thing without service and in a dead team

“Let it flow” is a load of balls too… a foul is a foul

Re tactical fouls - that’s all a Pep team do! Rodri etc… they just rotate.

He’s not in the same league as harry kane imo cracking goal scorer but that’s all he does offer he’s not as clinical as people think either city create loads of chances for him usually so he’s bound to score a few

I think in the long term Nunez will become a better player if he isn’t already especially after the seasons he’s having

To paraphrase another viral Roy Keane quote "That's NOT his job"

Haaland broke prem records for goals last season. You're talking pish

And this is punditry. No wonder england last major trophy was in 1966

Modern teams defend with 11 players. So you need 11 creative players on the pitch to break it down. Haaland is the reason why ManCity is creating less and lower quality chances. Because of Haaland, they are one man down in the build up. As a result, they have less quantity and quality of possession, ball progression, chance creation, and so eventually the total number of goals his team could score would be reduced. ManCity’s tiki taka play was so much more dangerous with a skillful tekky false 9 instead. It’s like they have 16 players on the pitch. Arsenal would not be able to defend that. So don’t tell me that Haaland did not get the service he needed. He is the reason why his team is providing less service.

Bang average footballer who happens to be the best in the world at doing what is hardest... scoring goals. I am sure Allison from Liverpool is a bang average footballer too. He just happens to be the best Keeper. I am not sure (other than click bait) what the point is of evaluating Haaland this way.

I feel like city don’t use haaland properly every time he makes a run they don’t look for him the goals he would get if the first thing the midfielders did was look for his run and deliver a through ball is crazy. They still want to pass it into the net and I get that’s peps style but haaland is wasted with that style of play. Watching the game v arsenal I thought LVG was city’s manager can’t lie.

Haaland is a “bang average footballer.” No, he’s a generational footballer. His numbers are off the charts and truly generational. His job is not to be a twinkle toed dancer like Doku, Grealish, and Silva with little end product. His job is to score goals and he does it better than anyone in the world. City-85 games, 81 goals, 15 assists Dortmund-89 games, 86 goals, 23 assists Salzburg-27 games, 29 goals, 7 assists Norway-29 games, 27 goals, 3 assists Total-230 games, 223 goals, 48 assists

He is bang average, last season the dopes of football didn't know how to handle him. This season he's been found out. If Owen, Cole, Rooney, Shearer, Fowler, Ferdinand, Giggs, Van Nistelrooy, Collymore, Henry and Wright played today in this new farmers league, they'd all get 30+ goals a season.

Ally is the sole reason English commentators call the grass a 'Park'. In New Zealand they call it a 'Paddock'. Let's all call it that as well, to be super inclusive........

These pundits are a joke. Man has one bad game and we all forget that Haaland is 23, scored 52 goals and led his team to the treble in his first season in the most difficult league in the world. Put some respect on his name

Haaland is a goal scorer in the mold of someone like van Nistelrooy, that's his game, his numbers are amazing and deserve respect. Why does he need to be a player who does everything when he has the likes of DeBruyne, Silva, Foden and Alvarez around him doing all the "footballing"?

Can they not say Arsenal kept him out the game? And stopped the ball going into him

City player complaining about tactical fouls is like Mourinho complaining about a team parking the bus 😂

Tap in merchant for a reason

Facts! I been saying it for the longest time! Haaland is so poor at football. Can't dribble, average shot, poor control. He's a tap in merchant who is strong and can run. But as a footballer his overall game is poor !!!

the game wasnt free flowing though lol it was stop start every 2 mins because arsenal were constantly fouling... show a yellow early and stamp it out. People think Kane dropping deep and playing pockets is good..???. its fkn useless for England cause no one leads the line you need someone running in behinds so many times Kane drops deep and theres no one on the end of a cross... its fkn insane.

Haaland should be guaranteed 25 to 30 goals a season, look at the quality of players providing him with service. They regularly put the ball on a plate for him

Roy Keane spot on as usual.

Totally agree about haaland. If the centre halfs can deal with him city turn into a 10 man team. He gets away with it by scoring loads against lesser teams who city dominate. Imagine this team with aguero as the main man instead of haaland….

Didnt Goldbridge say similar but got slated for it ? Simply stating that Nunez suits Liverpool more ?

If he's bang average God to think what you was than ally 😂

The obvious truth is that Haaland is barely premier league standard at anything except for finishing, which he is the best in the world at. Imagine putting the best finisher in the world in front of the most creative team in the world?

That "bang average" footballer sure has achieved more than most of your English players did in their whole careers. And he is hardly dry behind his ears. I guess that that makes "bang average" the new meta. 😂

His job is to score. He had a game when he had two touches snd scored to goals. Haarland is a machine! Hes also very young and has alot more ability than hes giving off. Not mbappe level yet though!

Flat track bully, that's all he is. Lukaku 2.0

He's a pure striker. Rest of his game will grow in time.

The ref chose to let professional fouls go - he could and should have booked somebody in the 2nd minute and chose to turn a blind eye. 2 fouls later from the same player and he was just at the final warning stage. Did it help the game? Nope I would say it probably helped to make the game a poor spectacle. Everybody knows Haaland is not a great footballer - but he's strong, he's determined and he sticks the ball in the back of the net at an alarming rate. Not his fault that Man City couldn't give him the service he required and he sure as hell isn't paid big bucks to look like a footballer on the halfway line.

Very unfair. Haaland is going through the same thing Ibrahimovic did with Guardiola. The Guardiola pass based system doesn't fit them, they are too big. If Haaland played in Liverpool he'd have 50 goals per season.

Scoring is part of being a footballer. This is the same as saying that a GK is poor because he cannot drible.

The Wolves v Coventry match Aly is talking about was fantastic to watch,hardly any stops by the Ref and the game flowed like the old days…..lets have more.

Deary me, the radio station that said Messi when at the height of his career was overrated and would not make it in the EPL is at it again.

Dude broke the top scorer record that’s been up for 20 years in one season 😂😂. His link up play ain’t great but the audacity 😂😂

I said this not long ago , gave example of bobby firmino is a far better player then haaland , but haaland is freak in size and speed and goal scorer but when he has ball at feet he looks average and clumsy