Before you misunderstand and think I’m trying to make the suggestion that Chris Wood is a better goal scorer than Erling Haaland, I’m not. I said all round number 9.
Some might say that it’s easy or easier to say this as the Kiwi is in the form of his life right now. With Nottingham Forest sitting 3rd in the Premier League, Wood (33) has netted 12 times in 20 games so far this season.
With a fantastic first half of the season, the all white is well on his way to his most prolific scoring season in his career so far. With 12 in 20 so far this campaign, and his highest scoring season being 14, surely he will beat his best. Now one thing I’m really not going to compare is Chris Wood’s scoring record alongside Erling Haaland’s, so the goal scoring stats end there.
As we are not talking stats here, I am going to make this discussion about the players attributes. If you're going to be picky and pedantic there are probably hundreds of small slight attributes that make up the number 9 position. Over the years we have seen many different number 9s. You've got a small number 9 like Jermaine Defoe that is more likely to rely on his pace, agility and the ball on the floor most of the time. You have Alan Shearer, a bit of a bigger and stronger physique who could play well with his back to goal. He could use his strength to physically come up against centre halves and shrug them off and spin in behind. Being a bit taller he didn't mind a cross into the box to get his head on the end of. Maybe less pace but his positioning, decision making and well timed runs never went unnoticed. Then we have the g.o.a.t of the number 9 position, Brazilian Ronaldo. (Any one who thinks Ronaldo isn't the greatest 9 of all time, leave us your answer in the comments. And we're talking out and out 9s. So no wingers, FYI Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Maradona are not in this category.) Ronaldo had everything as a player and I don't have enough time or space on the blog to list the attributes his man excelled in. He had everything, unfortunately he also had the injury prone attribute in his locker.
Now that we have cleared that up, I reckon I will cover 8 attributes to compare these two strikers.
First off first touch and ball control are essential for basically any position on the pitch. In this position, the first touch is important when you are in front of goal so they both obviously have a good first touch. However, I am talking about when they have have their back to goal or they are a bit outside the box and away from goal. This would be when they are in a link up play situation or about to hold the ball up to play with team mates. In these instances, when you think about it when was the last time you saw Erling Haaland be involved in a decent build up to a goal that was more than a 1-2 or a passing sequence that was more than 3 passes. For a player of his talent it highly frustrates me seeing how poor his link up and build up play is. On the other hand, the amount of times is see Chris Wood holding the ball up and keeping his opposing centre half off and away from the ball while he waits for a team mate to be in a position to pass to. And then lays off successfully to start and attack for his team, either on the counter attack or just on the end of long ball. Even if his team isn't on the counter/quick attack or played a long ball, I feel Wood's link up play either with his wingers, midfielders or the 10 is very good. Some would say "great touch for a big man." For me the Kiwi takes both attributes. 2-0.
The next attribute I would say essential for a number 9 is positioning and decision making. This could include whilst in and out of possession. At the time of writing, the New Zealander always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Obviously he is have an exceptional season for Forest, he's scoring loads of goals so yeah he's in the right place to score the goals for his team. Obviously. But I mean away from goal too. He has made some important clearances in his own box this season. Whether from a corner, deep set piece or from open play. Defensively he hasn't looked out of place. Also, along with decision making, the Kiwi drops deep to help out with build up play in the second third of the pitch. Now, I'm trying not to be too harshly critical. Remember who we are talking about. Haaland seems to drop deep and do nothing for his team. For any one who understands the game, a lot of the time when he drops deep all he seems to do is take up needed space in the middle third of the pitch. Plus, it is not just him. Because he is who he is, he will take a defender or two with him everywhere he goes. In addition, the amount of times a cross comes into the box and he's not in the area that the ball goes into. You watch it and think it's lucky City get chance after chance after chance in most games they play. At the moment both are going to the Kiwi. 4-0.
Confidence. To me confidence is the bread and butter of any striker or forward. Whether they are a number 9 or not. I feel it is swings and round abouts. They could be going through a drought, fans against them and not looking like they've ever played the game at that level before. We've all seen it. Then all of a sudden one goes in off their backside or a lucky deflected goal and everything changes. They turn into King Midas. Everything they touch turns to gold. As this is such an up and down attribute it could go either way depending on the time.
Another important attribute for a number 9 is acceleration and speed (pace). Now I did say earlier that some great past players that were incredible in the position didn't always rely on their pace. Maybe they didn't have bundles of it like some did so it is not essential yet still important. When you think of a striker using his pace down the middle you think of Erling Haaland in the Bundesliga. Scoring time after time for either RB Salzburg or Borussia Dortmund respectively. I haven't done it but maybe someone should do it but I wonder how many times the young Norwegian was in behind a team 1 on 1 with the keeper and the percentage of times it resulted in a goal. Surely it's a number quite close to 100. Before joining Manchester City, a lot of goals were scored by him either on the counter attack or from a pass played through or in behind into an acre of space for him to run onto. It was his bread and butter. It would so often finish with a dink/chip over the keeper, a powerful shot or a side footed finessed Thierry Henry type finish. I reckon if you put Chris Wood on the high street in your city and he was holding a 50 meter foot race, he might beat most people. However, in the game and at the level he plays at I would expect him to be well in the bottom half of top speed stats. Not many of his goals come from him stretching his legs and beating a defender with out and out pace. Enough said, Erling takes this one. 4-1.
One of, if not the most important attribute of a number 9 is shooting and finishing. Surely if you're playing number 9 for a team in the Premier League and international level your shooting and finishing is top notch. So even though I'm saying Haaland is better at shooting and finishing, in no way shape or form am I saying that Chris Wood is poor at these two aspects of his game. Clearly amazing. What I am saying is that how many players in the game right now would you say trumps the City man at shooting and finishing? I don't think there's much more to express in this topic. Haaland has proven with his astonishing stats that he is one of the greatest around right now at scoring goals for whatever team he is playing for. He has done it for years now and proved that he can do it in the best league in the world right now. He could smash Alan Shearer's Premier League all time top goal scorer record. I have no doubt that he could sustain scoring 25-30 goals a season, and wouldn't surprise me if he had a season where he scores a 38 goals a season averaging a goal a game for the first time ever. When you think of the calibre of strikers that have graced the Premier League, I think he has the potential to go down as the best 9 ever in the Prem. However, I can see him doing a similar thing to Harry Kane. He could get sort of close to it, and in the next 3-5 years feels the pull of one of the giants of the game e.g Real Madrid, Barcelona. 4-3.
In conclusion, you can see the numbers for yourself. Choose which numbers you want to read. Do you want to go off stats? Do you want to go off what you see, how you watch a game, the feel or analyse a game? Some people will only go off the stats and won't even entertain this idea. They might be of a certain age or generation where watching a full game and knowing the elements of a game isn't fashionable any more. Only clips of goals and events of the game are what they see on certain social media platforms. There's nothing wrong with that. But can you actual get the feel and make actual opinions on how a game is played from watching reels or videos that are only 30 seconds long or less. Even when I watch the games that I was unable to watch live on programmes like Match of the Day, I never feel like I saw how the game actually went for the full 90 minutes. When you go into detail of these two players, in my opinion, Chris Wood is one of the most suited number 9s in the Premier League for Nottingham Forest. He compliments the players around him and them to him. Maybe it is one of the reasons they have gone from a relegation battle to being in a Champions League spot in the Premier League. In comparison, when looking at Erling Haaland, not much about him as a player at this time shows me that he is a Manchester City or Pep Guardiola number 9. How often do you see him involved in any build up play? He is not exactly a tika-taka player. I can be watching a City game, at half time they come up with a stat that he has touched the ball 6 times in the whole of the first half. Yet City have scored 3 goals in the first half and Haaland has 2 of them. 2 of his 6 touches, one third of his touches were shots that resulted in goals. How many players in the world regularly have stats like that from the first half of a game. I could go on for a very long time about how I don't think City suits Haaland and Haaland doesn't suit City. Then all you have to look at is that last 5 completed seasons for the attacker. 20/21 season 27 goals in 28, 21/22 season 22 goals in 24 games, 22/23 season 36 in 35 games and 23/24 season 27 in 31 goals. In this time he moved from Dortmund to Manchester City and won the domestic treble.
After all these incredible stats, for a player who still hasn't won the Balon D'or you may be reading this thinking why am I even trying to suggest that Chris Wood is even being compared to a player like this. I have to say, if I was an owner of any football club in the world and was given the choice of signing either of these players and finances are not a problem, I wouldn't think twice and would be doing all I could to sign Erling Haaland. Even if they were the same age and at similar stages of their career. If I was creating a World XI right now or from the last 5 years, Chris Wood wouldn't be anywhere near the discussion. I hope after all this you are still not confused on what I'm trying to get at.
If you like this type of read there's more to come from Across the Touchline. The plan at the moment is to publish one topic a week. Also, once a week nearer the weekends I will try to post a Across the "digital" Touchline, which will cover everything Fantasy Premier League. Hope you enjoyed it, see you in the next one!
No comments:
Post a Comment