England have previous when it comes to stopping the best players on planet football. It generally ends badly.
When Diego Maradona was single-handedly (no pun intended) dragging Argentina through the knockout stages of the 1986 World Cup, England were powerless to stop him.
Preventing Ronaldinho proved beyond them in 2002. In 2006 they were undone by a winking Cristiano Ronaldo.
And last time out in Qatar, Gareth Southgate’s side were so fixated on dealing with Kylian Mbappe that Antoine Griezmann ran riot and put the ball on a plate for Olivier Giroud to score the winner.
Now, another great, one born in Leeds and polished in Manchester, stands between Thomas Tuchel’s side and just a third World Cup semi-final in 36 years.
No wonder the questioning occupying the minds of so many this week is how you prevent Erling Haaland from doing what he does better than almost anyone in the history of the game.
As Brazil found on Sunday afternoon in New Jersey, it’s tough. Really, really tough.
‘He’s not even looking – then bang!’
“And I’ll tell you why,” says Erling Moe, Haaland’s former coach at Molde. “It’s because this is a player that only really comes to life in the penalty area. And he sometimes does it very few times in a match.
“You saw that against Brazil. He’s walking, he’s walking. A few seconds before he makes his run [for the first goal, when he outjumped Gabriel from an Andreas Schjelderup cross], he’s not even looking at the ball. Then bang!
“He’s a defender’s worst nightmare. You have to be switched on 100 per cent of the time. You have to be as mentally sharp as you are physically sharp.
Haaland in action for Molde, where coach Erling Moe saw first-hand how effective he could be (Photo: Getty)“You always have to know where he is, which runs he might make. But most of the time, you don’t actually have to worry about him at all. All the great players have unique qualities, that is what makes them great.
“They don’t do what everyone else does. If they did? Well, they would just be like everyone else.”
Haaland spent two seasons at Molde, scoring 14 goals in 39 matches, before making the switch to Red Bull Salzburg in Austria in January 2019. The rest is history.
And after rewriting the record books for Norway on the East Coast of the U.S. last weekend, his former national team age-group coach – ex-Oldham, Leeds and Bradford defender Gunnar Halle – believes Haaland’s experience as a young player has directly contributed to what makes him such a challenge to defend against today.
“The thing people forget now is that back then, when he was in his mid-teens, he was actually a small guy,” says Halle.
“He went through a massive growth spurt between the ages of 15 and 17.
Haland tackles Tashan Oakley Booth of England during an Under-16 friendly in 2016 (Photo: Getty)“I vividly remember watching him play at a U17 tournament over in Croatia, where our squad also played against England.
“Jorgen Strand Larsen was leading the line with him and they were up against Marc Guehi in the England defence. By that point, Erling had shot up, but his body hadn’t quite figured it all out yet.
“He was just arms and legs all over the place! He looked like a completely different player physically, just trying to coordinate this sudden, huge frame.
“So it wasn’t like you saw this guy and thought he was going to be a superstar. The lessons he learned when he was smaller, he has taken with him.
“Even when he was gangly and adjusting to his height, he always possessed that distinctive goal-scoring mentality. You can’t really teach that.
“He had an innate hunger to get into the right areas and put the ball in the net, no matter how clumsy the growth spurt made him look on the ball at times.
“You have to have a plan for neutralising him because you can’t defend against him the way you defend against anyone else.”
My message to England? Good luck
If anyone knows how to stop a player who has now scored 62 goals in just 54 matches for his country, then surely Guehi and John Stones should have more chance than most, having played and trained with him day in, day out at the Etihad.
Suggest that to Moe, though, and you’re greeted with a wide smile and a distinctive Norwegian laugh. A bit like a supervillain when you suggest that he might want to go easy because James Bond is about to turn up in his Aston Martin.
“Good luck, that’s all I’ll say,” says the Norwegian. “If you look at the players who have handled him, then I’d have to say William Saliba is the best.
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“I think that’s how you can best keep him quiet. But stop him for 90 minutes? I’m not sure if anyone can do that.
“He might only touch the ball twice in a half, but at least one of those could end up as a goal.
“And if you’re spending 100 per cent of your time worrying about Haaland, well that will suit this Norway’s team as well.”
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