Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper had an concept simply how good Erling Haaland would change into when he first skilled him 5 years in the past.
Cooper was head coach of the England Under-17s after they confronted Haaland’s Norway on the 2017 European Championship in Croatia.
The Young Lions gained their Group D conflict that night time, however Haaland’s path to the highest was clearly mapped out.
Cooper will get a style of simply how a lot the 22-year-old has improved when his Forest facet head to face Manchester City on Wednesday night time.
“We were aware of him even then. To qualify for a European Championship at under-17s you know you’re going to come up against a good team over a generation,” Cooper mentioned. “They had a few who were good at that stage and Haaland was one of them.
“We did our analysis and watched the qualification games and could see he was a good player.
“We had players in our team too with good reputations, like Phil Foden, (Jadon) Sancho and (Marc) Guehi.
“When you play in those games you know there’s always going to be one or two players that will have a chance of going on.
“The obvious quality is his goalscoring ability and his ruthlessness in wanting to do that.
“For all of the good things he’s got in his game, that’s the real obvious one that makes all the difference. That’s what we’ve been analysing as much as anything else.”
Haaland has already proved he belongs within the Premier League, with six objectives in his first 4 video games, together with his scoring energy rescuing City in video games in opposition to Newcastle and Crystal Palace.
That is making Pep Guardiola’s facet an excellent larger menace this 12 months.
“He’s a really good athlete, a really powerful player who gets into the box,” Cooper added.
“But at the same time there’s so many parts to City’s game that you can look at and think it’s such a high level.
“What we’ve got to do is just continue to believe in how we work and how we analyse, and take each game for what it is. This is obviously a a massive test but it’s the games we want to be part of.
“He has definitely added to that attacking strength, that’s for sure. We just have to be as mindful as we can of it but back us to be the best we can be as well.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk