SO HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE HAALAND?

WHEN the time comes to pull together the video footage and work out the game plan, it might be advisable for Scotland manager Steve Clarke to omit the statistics in his presentation on how you solve a problem like Erling Haaland.

The reason? They are, quite frankly, frightening. However you choose to splice and dice them before serving them up, each column, each account of how he has performed at every level in every competition, sends a chill down the spine.

This season alone, this 22-year-old phenomenon has netted 28 times in 26 outings in the English Premier League for Manchester City. He’s scored an astonishing 10 in six games in the Champions League. Two appearances in the FA Cup have brought two goals.

At international level, he managed six in six in the Nations League before missing out on Norway’s opening Euro 2024 double-header against Spain and Georgia with a groin problem. He’s had six hat-tricks already.

All in all, for club and country, he has breached opposing defences 48 times in 43 fixtures. And it has just turned April.

Clarke has just over two months to figure out how to put a dent in Haaland’s ratio of over a goal a game and give his side the best chance possible of emerging from a high-stakes visit to Oslo on June 17 with the result — whether a draw or, even better, a victory — that would effectively put one foot in the European Championship finals in Germany.

Key to that, no doubt, will be Callum McGregor. The Celtic captain, in typically resilient fashion, was the only midfielder to play all 180 minutes of the Group A wins over Cyprus and Spain.

Deployed as one of two sitting midfielders, his positional awareness and work rate was important in shutting out threats. His use of the ball and retrieval of possession is vital in controlling stages of games. As is his temperament when the heat is on.

Unlike many of his England-based team-mates in the Scotland camp, McGregor has never faced Haaland (right). He accepts the towering centreforward will require special attention.

However, he does not believe that fear of the former Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund forward should be the defining narrative ahead of this mouthwatering summertime megamatch in the Ullevaal Stadium.

Indeed, in the wake of that stirring win over Spain that established a five-point gap between Scotland and their Scandinavian rivals, McGregor believes Stale Solbakken and his players ought to be having sleepless nights over facing us.

‘He (Haaland) is obviously sensational,’ said the 51-timescapped 29-year-old. ‘He is breaking all sorts of records in the Premier League.

‘It feels like every time he plays, he scores a hat-trick, so, when we play him, we will have to be really aware of him, try to pick him up in the box obviously, try to deny him space and try to deny him as many touches as possible.

‘We will have a game plan for him. We will do the video stuff. The guys behind the scenes will put that together and, obviously, it is important we don’t just focus on one player because there are 10 others out there who are all good players. If you just fixate on one, then someone else might hit you.

‘It is important we treat it as another game, though. We are a good nation, we are making good strides and I think, when the game comes around, they will be worried about playing us as well.’

Of course, a number of Clarke’s squad have knowledge of Haaland from the English Premier League. McGregor says they will have a conversation on how best to negate the prolific hitman before June — as well as touching on the influence of Kieran Tierney’s Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard.

Like McGregor, Odegaard has a lovely left foot. Like McGregor, he has grown into a real guiding influence on the field. The admiration from the Celtic man is clear, although Odegaard’s is another reputation that will not be permitted to create apprehension when they collide in the centre of the field in June.

‘He is a top player. He is a technician,’ said McGregor. ‘He is at Arsenal and he is their captain, so he has obviously grown into a big leader as well. He is another one you need to focus on. I have not really asked Kieran about him, but, probably come the summer, we will.’

Yet, Scotland will enter that clash in Oslo with justifiable confidence — with McGregor clear that it will be the Norwegians, with just one point to show from their opening double-header, that will be under most stress after a draw in Georgia in which Odegaard missed a sitter.

‘Yeah, their result will hump a bit of pressure onto them,’ he said.

‘The next two games are really important in the group. If we go there (to Norway) and get a positive result, it will stand us in really good stead for the rest of the campaign.’

An unavoidable element of Clarke’s near-four-year reign as Scotland boss has been disappointments in big games.

Yet, they did handle the visit of Spain and more. From McGregor’s standpoint, the fact the squad has now been together for a lengthy period of time inspires confidence in their ability to go to Norway and build on a positive start to this latest campaign rather than have questions asked about their mentality again.

Asked about how best to instil the consistency and relentless attitude he is known to demand at Celtic, McGregor replied: ‘International football is a little bit different in that you don’t work together every day, so it is hard to keep driving that message.

‘But I think when you get a result like Spain, it gives everybody belief that you are doing the right thing. So, when you come back in the summer, you remember that feeling, you remember how it felt in there on Tuesday, how it felt on the pitch and you have to trust each other and commit 100 per cent.

‘That is the way to get that consistency — with everybody trusting each other to go as hard as we can to try and get maximum points.

‘The more big games you play, the more normal it becomes.’

For McGregor, it makes for a hugely exciting end to the season. Still chasing a domestic Treble with Celtic, the prospect of two games that could put Scotland on the verge of another major finals after that is manna from heaven for a man who gives the impression he could play every day of the year and never run out of gas.

‘That is modernday football. That is what you enjoy about it, the relentlessness of it, the big games,’ he grinned.

‘You want to play in games of consequence and the Spain game proved it. What a night for everyone: to play in it, to be part of it, to be in the stadium. What a night for football. It’s what it’s all about.’