How Haaland Changes Our View of Messi and Ronaldo (Conclusion)

This post is a continuation and a conclusion to this post

Mulan

Poor Halland

The matter is much worse with Haaland, not only because his skills are not of the visually pleasing style, not even of the kind that the public generally considered skilful in the first place, but because his movement technique also makes Kante look like Ronaldinho in comparison.

Part of the matter is due to his frantic search for efficiency in the first place, and his willful disregard for elegance in return, and another part is due to the unusual proportions of his body.

His long limbs, even relative to his height, give us the impression of losing control of his body while running, especially when he swings his arms left and right while trying to get the player marking him off, and even when he meets a ground cross with a subtle, measured touch, his early arrival in a relaxed position feels like the shot would have been nicer and more interesting had his legs been a few centimetres shorter.

All of this combines to rob him of his legitimate right to recognize his other skills, his skills in their initial raw definition, those in which no one on the scene currently matches him, such as the accuracy of his touch of the ball during the finish, his calculated timing, his smart movements, and most importantly his extraordinary audacity, which is his rarest advantage. Undisputed in the current era of football.

https://twitter.com/ESPNUK/status/1579834206934310912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1579834206934310912%7Ctwgr%5E122ee35405e4a6892356555f2559e33fd7f18954%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F1-a1072.azureedge.net%2Fmidan%2Fmiscellaneous%2Fsports%2F2022%2F10%2F18%2Fd985d8a7d8b0d8a7-d984d988-d8add8b7d985-d8a3d8b1d982d8a7d985d987d985d8a7-d983d98ad981-d98ad8bad98ad8b1-d987d8a7d984d8a7d986d8af

Try to remember the last goal scorer you saw who was not afraid to meet crosses at the near post, and you will find yourself returning to names like Nistelrooy, Crespo and Drogba in the early millennium, with a few exceptions including the likes of Suarez and Aguero after that.

From that moment on, with the entry of the opposite wings on the scoring lines, the first concern of most of them became to avoid confrontations with the defenders from the start, so you will find many goals for Sterling, Neymar, Mane, Salah, Mbappe and even Ronaldo, in which they meet crosses on the far post in the empty goal, after breaking through the crowd and it comes out clean on the other side.

Everyone tries to shorten the scoring process in these situations to its easiest form, relying on the team's skills in preparation, emptying spaces, attracting opponent defenders and dispersing their positioning. Everyone except Haaland, simply because his confidence in his ability to convert the ball with precision and power - as required by crosses on the near post - is unmatched, and it has nothing to do with his height and ability to excel in the aerials easily because the left-footed Norwegian has more goals with his head than his right foot.

This characteristic specifically reflects the usual equation, instead of the scorer taking care of the easiest part of the process, which is moving in the blind side of the defender, and waiting for easy goals in front of the empty goal, relying on the skill of his colleagues in dismantling crowds, Haaland gives the full-backs, wings and game makers an opportunity to accumulate almost guaranteed statistics on his calculation, because he goes out to the near post when the situation calls for it, and his ability to anticipate defenders with his deceptive movements, length of limbs and accuracy of his touch, makes their crosses and decisive passes as easy as possible.

Back to the Past

Most of all that's said here, the exaggerated concern about his ability to equal Messi and Ronaldo’s record numbers, and perhaps exceed them, does not change our view of the duo, nor does it threaten their inclusivity and their ability to play multiple roles and score in a variety of stages in their career, but, paradoxically, it changes their our view of those who have this concern.

The reason is clear. Between this crowd of linguistic and expressive confusion, the most difficult confusion of all is the reality between what Haaland is doing on the one hand, and what Messi is doing and what Ronaldo did in the early stages of his career on the other hand.

Simply, it is difficult to imagine that someone will come in 2040 to ask if Haaland is a better player than Messi, Ronaldo or Ronaldinho because this would mean that he did not watch a single match for any of them, and this is what puts us before the reality of this concern. He is mainly concerned with the digital legacy of the duo, not with the inclusiveness of their roles on the field, contrary to what he claims to be paradoxical.

https://twitter.com/WhoScored/status/1579839234973863941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1579839234973863941%7Ctwgr%5E122ee35405e4a6892356555f2559e33fd7f18954%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F1-a1072.azureedge.net%2Fmidan%2Fmiscellaneous%2Fsports%2F2022%2F10%2F18%2Fd985d8a7d8b0d8a7-d984d988-d8add8b7d985-d8a3d8b1d982d8a7d985d987d985d8a7-d983d98ad981-d98ad8bad98ad8b1-d987d8a7d984d8a7d986d8af

This is the only aspect of their career that Haaland might threaten; That, if he had a little luck and was able to avoid injuries and choose his next steps carefully, he might retire having accumulated a goal tally that outperformed the duo, which he has already accomplished so far if we compare him to any of them at the age of twenty-two, and with an amazing numerical difference.

In fact, one of the most important advantages of what Haaland is currently achieving in terms of continuously breaking records with remarkable ease is drawing attention to everything else, and from this angle, what he has achieved so far seems clear evidence that the diversity of the amazing duo in their beginnings may not be repeated in the near future.

Haaland will not turn into Messi or Ronaldo often, and we do not think that he wanted that at any point in his career, and this does not mean that he is a robot programmed to score goals or a Viking grinding the stadiums of England with his hammer. These are expressions that appear to be praise but inwardly are actually vilification, because they limit the concept of skill to a very narrow, private and relative space.

If he had ended his career with 2,000 goals, that would not have changed the reality of his "skilled" ancestors. However, it may prompt us to review our view of football itself.



0
0
0.000
4 comments
avatar

Congratulations @amirtheawesome1! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You have been a buzzy bee and published a post every day of the week.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out our last posts:

Our Hive Power Delegations to the January PUM Winners
Feedback from the February Hive Power Up Day
Hive Power Up Month Challenge - January 2023 Winners List
The Hive Gamification Proposal
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
0
0
0.000
avatar

His long limbs, even relative to his height, give us the impression of losing control of his body while running, especially when he swings his arms left and right while trying to get the player marking him off

So true I really didn't think of it like this. The thing though is that it probably makes him even more harder to mark because he's just awkward to read

0
0
0.000
avatar

The idea isn't whether it is actually useful, harder, or easier in application but the way he looks. I think I wrote this entire two-parter because the Messi-Cristiano debate didn't move an inch after after the WC. That left a bitter taste in my mouth.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's more about the way it looks than its efficiency. It's just about the argument that Haaland will be the best once he has better numbers, when the CR7/Messi showed us that all the accomplishments wouldn't change 5% of the opinions.

0
0
0.000