Exclusive: Ally McCoist's insights on Man City's Rodri absence, Haaland's sci-fi class over Shearer and Lineker, and the underrated talent of Havertz - Jacob Hansen, Senior Correspondent

McCoist acknowledges Pep as one of the greatest coaches of all time. This upcoming challenge will truly assess his skills and adaptability. Even though he is known for his ability to make adjustments, losing Rodri will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the team's strength.

“If you’re asking me whether Man City can win the Premier League without Rodri, I’d say yes, they can. But it'll be hell of a lot more difficult. Out of all the players in their squad the one they wouldn't want to lose was Rodri, I think, which is a bit of statement when they've got Ederson, Ruben Dias, Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and what not,” says Ally McCoist following the news that serial winner Rodri might be sidelined for the rest of the season.AdvertisementAdvertisement

Tribalfootball catches up with the Scottish legend for an exclusive conversation the day after a fishing trip into the depth of Scotland celebrating his birthday. Turning 62, the hair is thinning a bit and he claims the Loch Ness monster got away from his hook once again, but he had time over the weekend to watch the top game from Etihad. Once again, he came away in awe of the monster that is Erling Haaland. 

“We are not up there yet when comparing to (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi, but dear me, he's probably off to a better start than the pair of them had at similar stages in their career. It's phenomenal what we are witnessing right now. Absolutely phenomenal. Again, compared to Messi and Ronaldo, he's still got a long way to go, but at this moment in time, he is an absolute machine,” states a clearly impressed McCoist who knows a bit about scoring himself. He managed 251 goals in 418 appearances for Rangers FC, but fails to compare Haaland to anyone from his era.

“We’ve had fabulous goalscorers like Jimmy Greaves, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, obviously, but they all kind of had a special talent. Haaland is like one of these sci-fi, futuristic specimens. He's in fantastic condition, he's very, very quick, he scores tap-ins, he scores headers, he scores little dinks over the goalkeeper. He just looks the real deal, and I think it's almost impossible to compare him with anybody of the past.”

Havertz a very intelligent footballer

On Sunday, Man City played an opponent who persists in playing without an out-and-out striker, and  McCoist finds Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal project fascinating to follow.

“I'm not saying for a minute they couldn't do with a forward, because I think they could, and I think they should have signed one. But I understand Arteta not doing it for his own reasons, and in Kai Havertz they have an extremely clever, intelligent footballer.

“Even at Chelsea, he could play. He's a very, very intelligent football player, who can play any position. He's one of these guys that just knows the game and he knows how to pose a problem for his opposition player whether it's in midfield, whether it's wide or whether it's in a centre-forward position. He plays the role completely differently to an out-and-out forward but he’s effective.”

Speaking of effective; the Scottish representative in the Champions League got off to a flying start with a 5-1 hammering of Slovan Bratislava. McCoist wasn’t too impressed with the Slovaks, stating on talkSPORT that, “had Slovan played in my back garden, I would have drawn the curtains”.

“I had my tongue firmly in cheek when I said that, but listen; that was a fantastic result. Brendan Rodgers and the Celtic lads and the Celtic fans could not have wished for a better start to the campaign,” McCoist acknowledges without hesitating but sounds a slight warning as well. 

“Although it's a brilliant start, what probably comes with that is a little bit of pressure. The supporters start thinking, 'oh, well, we'll beat that mob with five, maybe we can...' and you start looking at the table, you start looking at the games, you start counting up imaginary points you can pick up here and there. I've done it myself as a fan.

"We all know it doesn't work like that, but I’ll say this; if Celtic qualifies from that tournament automatically that would be as big an achievement as Celtic have had in years and years and years and I genuinely mean that. They've got some tough games ahead.”

Ally McCoist was talking to Tribalfootball on behalf of talkSPORT BET