Steve Cooper has warned Nottingham Forest cannot tie themselves “up in knots” thinking about how to stop Erling Haaland.
The Reds boss is well aware the Norwegian isn’t the only one his team will need to try to keep quiet when they travel to Manchester City tomorrow night. And he also wants his players to have an impact on the game themselves.
Haaland has certainly caught the eye so far this season, however. He has notched six goals in four Premier League games since his big-money move from Borussia Dortmund, including a hat-trick in Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Crystal Palace. Forest will come up against him just a few days after a Harry Kane brace saw them beaten 2-0 by Tottenham Hotspur at the City Ground on Sunday.
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“The obvious quality is his goalscoring ability and his ruthlessness in wanting to do that,” said Cooper, whose England side faced a young Haaland at the Under-17 European Championship in 2017. “For all of the good things he’s got in his game, that’s the real obvious one that makes the difference. That’s the bit we’re analysing, as much as anything else.
“He’s a really good athlete, a really powerful player who gets into the box. But at the same time, there’s so many parts to City’s game that you can look at and think it’s at such a high level. Haaland is obviously one, but they’ve also got players like Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden.
“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 massive test but it’s the games we want to be part of.
“He (Haaland) has definitely added to that attacking strength, that’s for sure. City have others in the team who can be equally as threatening. We just have to be as mindful as we can of it, but back us to be the best we can be as well.
“We don’t want to tie ourselves up in knots. We want to manage him and others as best we can, while trying to have an impact as well.
“I want to be very clear, this is as tough as it gets in terms of an opponent in world club football. But at the same time, we can’t completely detract from how we play and how we work, because otherwise why would the players believe in what we do? We’ve got to get the balance right.”
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