Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper was all praise for Manchester City striker Erling Haaland ahead of his team’s visit to the Etihad. This is Forest’s first trip to City in 13 years.
The Premier League champions will host the promoted side on Wednesday (August 31) as they look to continue their unbeaten start to their season.
Cooper is aware of the threat Haaland could pose, having seen him at the UEFA Euro U-17 Championship in 2017 when he was the England manager.
Speaking at a press conference, Cooper said (via Manchester Evening News):
“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. They had a few who were good at that stage and Haaland was one of them.”
He continued:
“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.”
Cooper highlighted the Norwegian ace’s ruthless goalscoring instincts, saying:
“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, who made a £51 million transfer from Borussia Dortmund this summer, has already taken English football by storm, netting six goals in four games across competitions. His impressive tally includes a hat-trick against Crystal Palace last weekend as the 21-year-old bagged his first treble for City.
Cooper expects ‘massive test’ against Manchester City
Nottingham Forest, who will play Manchester City for the first time since January 2009, have made a decent return to the top flight after 23 years. However, Cooper expects a tough game at the Etihad, especially with Haaland leading the charge.
He added:
“He’s a really good athlete, a really powerful player who gets into the box. But at the same time, there are so many parts to Manchester 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.”
Manchester City trail league leaders Arsenal by two points after four games.