Kolo Toure on 'monster' Haaland and City's player development under Pep

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Kolo Toure on 'monster' Haaland and City's player development under Pep  13/12/2025 embargoed from 12/12/  CFGA, manchester, UK

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00:00As a player and now as a coach, have you seen anybody quite like Erling Haaland in that time?

00:08I would say he's right among the top, like the Thierry Henry, the Allen Shearers.

00:15And what I really like with Erling, he's a number guy.

00:19He's an incredible, incredible person.

00:23And, you know, he still has a big room for improvement as well.

00:31And he's open to listen to advices, you know, and he's so humble.

00:37And for what he has achieved already, he scared me, I have to be honest,

00:41because, you know, when you have a top player like that, you know,

00:45normally, you know, the head can grow very big very quickly.

00:48But for Erling, he's down to earth, you know.

00:51And this is incredible.

00:54This is incredible.

00:55And I think the future will be even better, in my opinion,

00:59because he's such a top player, but a top human as well.

01:03You were a centre-half back in the day.

01:04How would you have marked him?

01:06How would you have stopped him?

01:09I won't tell you, for sure.

01:12I won't tell you, but I know, like I always say to him,

01:16I had that feeling, you know, every time I had to play against a top striker,

01:23it was always hard to sleep at night.

01:25And I said to Erling, every time we played a team, I said,

01:28Erling, you know, a lot of them are not sleeping at the moment,

01:32you know, because it's always hard to play against a top striker.

01:34Hi, Kolo.

01:38You know, another good week for Nico O'Reilly.

01:40At the start of your career, you were a midfielder

01:42and changed position to centre-back.

01:44And now you've been coaching young players recently.

01:46Can you tell me how difficult it is to change position, you know,

01:50as a professional, to learn that and how well Nico is doing it?

01:57He's a credible young player, honestly.

01:58For me, his best position is his left back, for sure,

02:04because he's aggressive.

02:07He wins, like, 50-50 ball all the time.

02:11Technically, he's very, very good.

02:13And, of course, I think the key things for him was

02:18when you work in Mount City Academy,

02:21they teach you to play different positions

02:23because the learning that they have there

02:27is to allow them to get in the team.

02:30And if the manager needs to use you in different positions,

02:33you'll be able to do it.

02:35And I think that's down to the academy, in my opinion,

02:38to coach the players to be able to play different positions.

02:41We see that with Rico.

02:42He can play on the middle.

02:43He can play right back as well.

02:44And that's fantastic.

02:46And what Nico O'Reilly is doing now is incredible

02:49and so proud of him.

02:51And his future is really, really bright.

02:54And you were saying before you've been speaking to Erling

02:57about what defenders don't like.

02:59Have you been speaking to the defence, you know,

03:00not being perfect this season,

03:02about what strikers don't like

03:03and are you working with them closely?

03:05Absolutely.

03:06As an ex-defender for me,

03:08I work very close to all the defenders, of course,

03:11you know, try to help them

03:12and to make sure they can get better, of course.

03:16And Ruben Giaz is a fantastic defender

03:20with huge experience.

03:21He leads the team really, really well as well.

03:24And, of course, you know, our manager, Pep Linders,

03:27they have big experience in that.

03:28We all try to work with everyone, of course.

03:34Hi, Kolo.

03:35You mentioned that the fight and the aggression

03:37was maybe missing a bit last season.

03:39How do you go about improving that this season?

03:42What have you been doing?

03:43Is it training?

03:44Is it sort of mentality?

03:47No, I think I'm not saying, like,

03:49it was missing from last season.

03:51I said, this is the difference probably for me.

03:54You know, when you look at the games,

03:56like the Real Madrid games,

03:58you could see that there's a moment

04:01where the game was,

04:03none of the team were having control of the game,

04:06but we were able to just keep fighting,

04:09keep winning the 50-50 balls.

04:13And I think that's something that with Man City,

04:19we haven't saw a lot, you know,

04:21because the team always had big, big control

04:24of the ball all the time.

04:27But this is something that you need to do as well,

04:29you know, because in the game,

04:31there's moments where the game is very,

04:34the game is really intense,

04:36and then you play against a team

04:38who have quality as well,

04:40and you need to be able to fight as well.

04:42You know, but we still have the base of Man City,

04:46which is position team game.

04:48And Pep has talked quite a bit this season

04:50about what a young team it is

04:51and a new team, really.

04:54What does it do when you are kind of a new team

04:56to be able to go and win at the Bernabeu

04:58for the rest of your season and your ambitions?

05:03I think it's very important for sure,

05:07and our players deserve the win.

05:11and it gives you some trust and belief

05:17that you can go anywhere and win any game.

05:20That's my opinion.

05:23Great. Thank you, everyone.

05:25Thank you, guys.

05:26Sorry again, just...

05:27No problem.

05:29No problem.

05:30No problem.

05:34No problem.

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