Norway.... Halland !!!

[TDYER63]

3 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I think the key is more about starving the supply to him. Get in and around their midfield and don't allow them time to get the ball to Haaland. Starve him of possession and he'll need to go deeper in search of the ball where he will be less of a danger.

I agree. And more importantly I really believe we now have the ability to do this AND make chances for ourselves. Previously I would have felt that suppressing a ‘star’ player was best we could achieve, and hope for a 0-0 draw. 

[todd]

5 hours ago, Whelky75 said:

You were abusive in several of the ways you referred to him - which I won’t quote - not in the misspelling of his name.

 

To be fair to Ramy, you do seem to be a bit of an annoying scrotum who just appeared out of the woodwork to bring us all down after the Spain game!  Any chance you could dissappear back under your scrot rock and give us peace?

[scotlad]

It is a worry, right enough. Norway played pretty well against Spain and created a few chances that you would have expected Haaland, had he been playing, to have taken.

June's game is massive for Norway. They wouldn't have expected to take anything from Spain but they might have hoped to pick up more points in Georgia, where they were seemingly unlucky not to win. Two games in though and they're already playing catch-up to us.

How do we nullify the threat of Haaland?  Well, he's least effective for Man City when they're playing ponderous football and not getting the ball to him quickly enough. I don't expect Norway to play this way but unlike when we played Spain I would fancy our chances of winning the battle in midfield.

I think Caledonian Craig might be right here: cut-off Haaland's supplies as much as possible and force him to go deeper where he's less dangerous.

Edited April 1, 2023 by scotlad

[Big Ramy 1314]

20 minutes ago, scotlad said:

It is a worry, right enough. Norway played pretty well against Spain and created a few chances that you would have expected Haaland, had he been playing, to have taken.

June's game is massive for Norway. They wouldn't have expected to take anything from Spain but they might have hoped to pick up more points in Georgia, where they were seemingly unlucky not to win. Two games in though and they're already playing catch-up to us.

How do we nullify the threat of Haaland?  Well, he's least effective for Man City when they're playing ponderous football and not getting the ball to him quickly enough. I don't expect Norway to play this way but unlike when we played Spain I would fancy our chances of winning the battle in midfield.

I think Caledonian Craig might be right here: cut-off Haaland's supplies as much as possible and force him to go deeper where he's less dangerous.

Good shout that. So this game against Norway is massive for multiple reasons. Haalland is awesome, but human. Would you have Porteous mark him as a couple other posters have mentioned? It's a very tall order marking that big fella....

[ParisInAKilt]

11 hours ago, Whelky75 said:

I was more concerned by the use of ‘full backs’, when presumably they meant ‘centre backs’!

I didn’t even notice the misspelling of the name. Misspelling someone’s name frustrates me even more than misspelling a word, because I think it’s completely disrespectful to that person.

 No bother Whelcy75

[Whelky75]

19 minutes ago, ParisInAKilt said:

 No bother Whelcy75

Surprisingly enough, my name isn’t Whelky.

[Big Ramy 1314]

1 hour ago, ParisInAKilt said:

 No bother Whelcy75

🤣🤣

[mccaughey85]

13 hours ago, Whelky75 said:

I was more concerned by the use of ‘full backs’, when presumably they meant ‘centre backs’!

I didn’t even notice the misspelling of the name. Misspelling someone’s name frustrates me even more than misspelling a word, because I think it’s completely disrespectful to that person.

Sounds like you get frustrated easily.

[Whelky75]

5 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Sounds like you get frustrated easily.

I think the phrase ‘Doesn’t suffer fools gladly’ applies.

[Third Lanark]

Back on topic, I wonder if it might be an idea to play Dykes against Haaland? Dykes was asked to press up on Rodri and he did it well. If Haaland gets past him then he has Porteous and Hanley to deal with. Although I think Adams is clearly first choice.

[Whelky75]

1 hour ago, Third Lanark said:

Back on topic, I wonder if it might be an idea to play Dykes against Haaland? Dykes was asked to press up on Rodri and he did it well. If Haaland gets past him then he has Porteous and Hanley to deal with. Although I think Adams is clearly first choice.

I don’t think Steve Clarke’s job is at risk from you for now, with tactical suggestions like that!

Play Lyndon Dykes as a defensive midfielder, is that what you’re saying?

[Third Lanark]

1 minute ago, Whelky75 said:

I don’t think Steve Clarke’s job is at risk from you for now, with tactical suggestions like that!

Play Lyndon Dykes as a defensive midfielder, is that what you’re saying?

Of course not. Did you watch Dykes' role in the Spain match? Haaland is a special player; he needs special measures.

[Whelky75]

5 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

Of course not. Did you watch Dykes' role in the Spain match? Haaland is a special player; he needs special measures.

I don’t understand what you’re suggesting then. Surely Dykes and Haaland will be at opposite ends of the pitch to each other?

[Third Lanark]

5 minutes ago, Whelky75 said:

I don’t understand what you’re suggesting then. Surely Dykes and Haaland will be at opposite ends of the pitch to each other?

The game is fluid nowadays. We may essentially be sacrificing his CF skills but we need to nullify this phenomenon.

[Whelky75]

7 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

The game is fluid nowadays. We may essentially be sacrificing his CF skills but we need to nullify this phenomenon.

So, playing Dykes as a defensive midfielder?

[Texas Pete]

Interestingly Haaland has been eligible for 17 international squads in total and has withdrawn from (or wasn’t selected due to injury) 7 of them so there is a 40% chance he won’t even play against us. Clearly wishful thinking on my part since he has never missed a June squad and the games in June are critical for Norway. 

He averages just under a goal per game but this is slightly inflated by a couple of hat-tricks against Gibraltar and Romania. He has scored in 13 games of the 23 he has played in so theoretically at least he has around a 56% chance of scoring against us. 

He has failed to score in games against Serbia (twice), Slovenia, Greece, Montenegro, Turkey, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Sweden and Malta. Some of these teams are pretty average to say the least so hopefully Clarke has a good look
at these games to see what they did to nullify him. 

[TDYER63]

5 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

Interestingly Haaland has been eligible for 17 international squads in total and has withdrawn from (or wasn’t selected due to injury) 7 of them so there is a 40% chance he won’t even play against us. Clearly wishful thinking on my part since he has never missed a June squad and the games in June are critical for Norway. 

He averages just under a goal per game but this is slightly inflated by a couple of hat-tricks against Gibraltar and Romania. He has scored in 13 games of the 23 he has played in so theoretically at least he has around a 56% chance of scoring against us. 

He has failed to score in games against Serbia (twice), Slovenia, Greece, Montenegro, Turkey, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Sweden and Malta. Some of these teams are pretty average to say the least so hopefully Clarke has a good look
at these games to see what they did to nullify him. 

When you put it like that the prospect of him playing does seem a bit less scary. Just a bit 🙂

[todd]

5 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

Interestingly Haaland has been eligible for 17 international squads in total and has withdrawn from (or wasn’t selected due to injury) 7 of them so there is a 40% chance he won’t even play against us. Clearly wishful thinking on my part since he has never missed a June squad and the games in June are critical for Norway. 

He averages just under a goal per game but this is slightly inflated by a couple of hat-tricks against Gibraltar and Romania. He has scored in 13 games of the 23 he has played in so theoretically at least he has around a 56% chance of scoring against us. 

He has failed to score in games against Serbia (twice), Slovenia, Greece, Montenegro, Turkey, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Sweden and Malta. Some of these teams are pretty average to say the least so hopefully Clarke has a good look
at these games to see what they did to nullify him. 

Good point.  Also worth pointing out that, in real terms, we really aren't 5 points ahead of Norway.  Given the games they've played I reckon we'd probably have a similar return.  And, from their perspective, given our games, they'd likely have a return of 3 points, so I'd say we are, realistically, 3 points ahead of them.  And that could be wiped out with a defeat to them in June.  Fine lines and all that but if we avoid defeat in Norway that will be massive.

[mccaughey85]

1 minute ago, todd said:

Good point.  Also worth pointing out that, in real terms, we really aren't 5 points ahead of Norway.  Given the games they've played I reckon we'd probably have a similar return.  And, from their perspective, given our games, they'd likely have a return of 3 points, so I'd say we are, realistically, 3 points ahead of them.  And that could be wiped out with a defeat to them in June.  Fine lines and all that but if we avoid defeat in Norway that will be massive.

Our game against them in june is huge for norway. They lose or even draw and its effectively over for them imo. Thats alot of pressure for them to take.

[todd]

32 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Our game against them in june is huge for norway. They lose or even draw and its effectively over for them imo. Thats alot of pressure for them to take.

Ikr, we want to have this done and dusted before Norway come to hampden.  Imagine going into that game needing a win!  My heart would probably just give out 🙃

[Texas Pete]

2 hours ago, todd said:

Good point.  Also worth pointing out that, in real terms, we really aren't 5 points ahead of Norway.  Given the games they've played I reckon we'd probably have a similar return.  And, from their perspective, given our games, they'd likely have a return of 3 points, so I'd say we are, realistically, 3 points ahead of them.  And that could be wiped out with a defeat to them in June.  Fine lines and all that but if we avoid defeat in Norway that will be massive.

Yeah the table looks amazing for us right now but it could change very quickly. Assuming Spain beat Norway again though (a dangerous assumption in fairness) we only need to match Norway’s other results and share the points in our 2 games to finish above them. 

A draw would be a great result in Norway but a loss wouldn’t be a complete disaster as long as we beat them in Glasgow and take at least a point in Georgia. 3 points at home against  Georgia in June is an absolute must. 

There is no way we are doing this the easy way. We never do. I have a feeling we will be going into our final game needing a win to qualify. I think we’d all have taken that situation when the draw was made but it would be lovely if we had already qualified before then. 

[Texas Pete]

2 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

When you put it like that the prospect of him playing does seem a bit less scary. Just a bit 🙂

He’s an incredible player obviously but he has been playing for Norway for 4 years and they haven’t qualified for anything in that time. It takes more than a brilliant striker to form a winning team. If he scores 2 then we need to score 3. Simple as that. 

[Whelky75]

1 hour ago, Texas Pete said:

He’s an incredible player obviously but he has been playing for Norway for 4 years and they haven’t qualified for anything in that time. It takes more than a brilliant striker to form a winning team. If he scores 2 then we need to score 3. Simple as that. 

In Haaland’s defence here…..

He hasn’t even been playing for the Norway senior team for four years yet, that’s not true.

In the Euro 2020 qualifiers, he played for a total of 80 minutes, across Norway’s 10 group matches - plus the playoff match against Serbia. I’m not sure that’s quite enough time to be judged on whether he made a significant difference to Norway’s qualification chances overall!

In the World Cup 2022 qualifiers, Haaland played in Norway’s first 6 matches, scoring 5 goals, and at that point the team were level on points with the Netherlands at the top of the group. He then missed the final four matches with injury.

He also plays for an international team who, like us, haven’t had a successful qualification campaign for a major tournament this century. So, I’m not sure he’s quite as ineffective as you’re trying to make him sound, given that Norway weren’t qualifying for major tournaments before he came along either!

[Caledonian Craig]

10 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

He’s an incredible player obviously but he has been playing for Norway for 4 years and they haven’t qualified for anything in that time. It takes more than a brilliant striker to form a winning team. If he scores 2 then we need to score 3. Simple as that. 

Yes I said as much earlier that for all they have the best striker in the world it has not resulted in qualification for them. Also it lazy to look at his club form this year and assume he will have the same returns for Norway. Manchester City's midfield is laced with world class midfielders and defence of the scale that Norway are way below. They do not have the ultra skillful midfield who can lay chances on a plate for him.

[Bzzzz]

On 4/1/2023 at 10:32 AM, Big Ramy 1314 said:

How do we set up against him. Do we play 4 at the back? Let Tierney deal with him? Mark him tight? Interesting question. I have not seen a player dominate fullbacks like this in years. You give this man an inch, and he will destroy you. He is their main threat, how do you try and stop him !!!!  Thoughts...🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Set Ryan Porteous on him. Man mark him to death.