Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper had an idea just how good Erling Haaland would become when he first experienced him five years ago.<\/p>\n
Cooper was head coach of the England Under-17s when they faced Haaland\u2019s Norway at the 2017 European Championship in Croatia.<\/p>\n
The Young Lions won their Group D clash that night, but Haaland\u2019s route to the top was clearly mapped out.<\/p>\n
Cooper will get a taste of just how much the 22-year-old has improved when his Forest side head to face Manchester City on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were aware of him even then. To qualify for a European Championship at under-17s you know you\u2019re going to come up against a good team over a generation,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cThey had a few who were good at that stage and Haaland was one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did our analysis and watched the qualification games and could see he was a good player.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had players in our team too with good reputations, like Phil Foden, (Jadon) Sancho and (Marc) Guehi.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you play in those games you know there\u2019s always going to be one or two players that will have a chance of going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe obvious quality is his goalscoring ability and his ruthlessness in wanting to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor all of the good things he\u2019s got in his game, that\u2019s the real obvious one that makes all the difference. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been analysing as much as anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haaland has already proved he belongs in the Premier League, with six goals in his first four games, with his scoring power rescuing City in games against Newcastle and Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
That is making Pep Guardiola\u2019s side an even bigger threat this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a really good athlete, a really powerful player who gets into the box,\u201d Cooper added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time there\u2019s so many parts to City\u2019s game that you can look at and think it\u2019s such a high level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve 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\u2019s the games we want to be part of.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has definitely added to that attacking strength, that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper had an idea just how good Erling Haaland would become when he first experienced him five years ago. Cooper was head coach of the England Under-17s when they faced Haaland\u2019s Norway at the 2017 European Championship in Croatia. The Young Lions won their Group D clash that night, but Haaland\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n