Leo Østigård on how Coventry City can stop Erling Haaland: ‘If you make him angry, you’re f***ed!’

Let’s have a look... oh bloody hell, it’s away to Manchester City next. After a lacklustre showing in the Community Shield defeat to Arsenal, City have kicked into gear with back-to-back wins. At Selhurst Park on Friday night, they ripped Crystal Palace apart with a 4-1 victory. Erling Haaland bagged a brace.

For Frank Lampard, the big question is: how on earth do you stop Haaland? This is a man, lest we forget, who has scored 114 goals in 134 Premier League games.

Sometimes, you need a little inside help.

Leo Østigård is in a unique position to offer some insight. He is a teammate of Haaland for the Norwegian national side and they played together not just at this summer’s World Cup, but throughout the youth levels for their country.

Østigård, of course, also played for Coventry City during a memorable season-long loan in 2020/21. He has been a club and international teammate of Haaland and the pair are good friends - as evidenced by Haaland once being photographed in one of Østigård’s Coventry shirts.

‘Yeah, that was my shirt,’ Østigård confirms to The Phoenix. ‘I always give him shirts and he gives me shirts from the clubs we've played for.’

The Phoenix picked up the phone to Østigård and asked the simple question: how do you stop Erling Haaland?

Østigård and Haaland go way back, having first encountered each other as teenagers. Østigård, who is eight months older than Haaland, recalls the ‘tall and skinny’ youngster he first met when the pair were both at Norwegian side Molde, then managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

‘He came from his hometown to Molde,’ Østigård recalls. ‘That was the first time I met him actually. He was tall but he was skinny. After one year he went up ten kilos in weight. So it was like, “What the fuck is happening here?”’

What was happening was Haaland was developing into one of the most imposing strikers on the planet. The pair would leave Molde before long - Østigård in 2018 with a move to Brighton and Haaland the following year for Red Bull Salzburg. Their paths would continue to cross, however, as they represented Norway at multiple youth levels and, eventually, the senior national team.

As youngsters, they often found themselves battling against each other on the training ground.

‘As young players, we were fighting a lot on the pitch,’ Østigård says. ‘I was tackling him and he was so angry because I was blocking a ball and then he just took me and threw me on the pitch.

‘So we had some fights, but he was always so hungry to score goals and he still is so hungry.’

By the time Østigård arrived at Coventry in 2020 - well, we say Coventry, but home games that season were played in Birmingham - Haaland was already establishing himself as one of Europe's hottest young strikers. He has since scored a frightening number of goals wherever he has been.

So, returning to the question: how can Coventry’s backline do what so many others have failed to do? How do you stop Erling Haaland?

For Østigård, it isn’t as simple as putting one man, or even two, on him for 90 minutes.

‘Sometimes some teams want to mark him with one player or two players and it doesn’t always help,’ he says. ‘I think he's an animal in the box and he really knows exactly where to stay.

‘If you mark him too close, he has the power to just go away from you and then he will be first on the ball if it's coming across.’

Instead of sticking to him like glue throughout the match, Østigård thinks Coventry’s best bet is to cut off the supply into the areas where Haaland is at his most dangerous.

‘It's really hard to stop him when he has the ball,’ he admits. ‘It's more about trying to stop the ball getting in the area where he is and where he can hurt you.

‘It will be very difficult, of course, against teams like City. You can be good for 80 minutes and then one ball in the right area and, bang!’

Shepherding Haaland away from the areas where he can hurt you will be key, although Østigård admits that is easier said than done.

‘I don't think you need a big plan to man-mark him. I think you have to just try to use your body and get him away from the danger zone.

‘It's hard to do that and to know exactly how to defend against him. You have to be smart, but he's so powerful and he has so many things he can play on, so it's really a difficult task.’

It’s a difficult task but the defender does offer one particularly important piece of advice.

‘The biggest thing I can say maybe is: don't make him angry. If you make him angry, you are fucked.’

More than that, Østigård says the Sky Blues defence will be coming up against a well-oiled goalscoring machine; a man consumed by hitting the back of the net.

‘When we have some crossing practice after training [with Norway], people will be crossing to me and him,’ the 26-year-old says. ‘In that moment he's still the young boy that he was when he was 17. He just wants to score every time and he's so pumped up when he makes a good header or a volley or something like this.

‘He's still a kid in his mind, in front of goal. He just wants to smash it in all the time.’

The problem, of course, is that even if Aurèle Amenda and co do manage to keep Haaland quiet, Manchester City possess an array of other attacking options capable of pouncing on even a moment of weakness.

It poses a big question for Frank Lampard ahead of the trip to the Etihad on 5 September.

Does Ethan Pinnock come in to offer more experience alongside Amenda? Or does he stick with Bobby Thomas who, in fairness, has hardly put a foot wrong in the opening two league matches - nor did he during his 45 minutes against Plymouth in the cup.

There could certainly be a case for adding Pinnock to a back three, which in all honesty would operate as a back five. Given how well Hull used that exact system at the CBS, it's certainly worth a look.

One thing is for sure: the Sky Blues cannot leave themselves exposed in the manner they did against Hull. The Tigers found themselves able to break and hurt Coventry on a couple of occasions, with one of those attacks eventually delivering the fatal blow.

It gives Lampard plenty to ponder. But please, Frank, just don’t make Erling Haaland angry.

We won’t like him when he’s angry.

Like what you've read? A full feature on Leo will be coming soon for The Phoenix subscribers.