“He is such a great guy. He is down to earth,” Jorgen Strand Larsen tells Sky Sports activities. “And he is just a monster.” He’s speaking, in fact, about his fellow Norwegian striker Erling Haaland. The 2 males will face one another at Molineux on Sunday.
They’ve identified one another since Larsen was 16. “We are good friends in the national team.” So, did they focus on the sport? “Of course. I tried to scare him a little bit about coming to Molineux. He wasn’t really scared. I am still trying to get in his head.”
Larsen, who signed for Wolves in the summertime, is in awe of Haaland’s report. “It is insane.” He’s making an attempt to study from him however admits no one actually compares. Any recommendation for the Wolves defenders? “They probably know his strengths already. He is a machine.”
However Larsen is a powerful determine himself, a 6ft 4in striker who would probably be main the road for Norway in one other period. He scored 13 targets in LaLiga for Celta Vigo final season and has discovered the web twice for Wolves with instinctive first-time finishes.
Sadly, each had been in defeats – there have been six in seven video games thus far, with Wolves nonetheless searching for their first win. “We are not where we want to be. I believe so much in this team, so I think that is going to turn, but it needs to happen very soon.”
Individually, nevertheless, there are encouraging indicators that Larsen brings one thing that Wolves had been missing final season. He’s the pure quantity 9 that they wished, giving Gary O’Neil extra choices within the build-up. His sturdy hold-up play has been promising.
Certainly, no participant within the Premier League has held the ball up as many instances as Larsen this season – he’s doing so 50 per cent greater than anybody else, in truth. “It is a good statistic to see!” The thought is that this provides Wolves a platform within the opposition half.
“Sometimes you cannot always play out as a team,” Larsen explains. “And you need a big striker to be strong. I am a tall guy. I need to be able to hold the ball up, so I think that is really important for me as well, and I even want to improve it even more.”
He understands why he has been introduced in. “I am a different number nine to what had been here last season, where they were playing with more of a 10 as the striker.” He believes he does his finest work contained in the field. “That is where I like to be,” he explains.
“I am a hard-working striker. I think that I always compete for every ball like it is the last ball, and I think that is what my team-mates also know. I am quite fast, quite strong, so I have many different attributes to bring. But the most important thing is to score goals.
“Within the first seven video games, I’m already understanding a bit how I ought to play to attain extra. I’ve bought my first few targets and a few purpose involvements, that’s actually vital for a striker. However it’s simpler when a workforce begins to win, then it is usually simpler for a striker.”
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Highlights from the Premier League match between Brentford and Wolves
There was nothing simple about main the road for Wolves thus far this season. His first purpose got here in a 6-2 defeat, his second in a 5-3 reverse. At the least they’re scoring, Larsen even serving to to arrange a purpose towards Liverpool after besting Ibrahima Konate.
Going through Konate and Virgil van Dijk forward of one other take a look at towards the likes of Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji this weekend, sums up the size of the Premier League problem for one contemporary to the competitors. His introduction was towards William Saliba and Gabriel.
Larsen has confronted a bunch of prime centre-backs already
“Some good defenders already! Of course, some are better than others. But I had a big chance against Arsenal and a half-assist against Liverpool so I am not scared of them. You come here to compete and I am going to work hard to punish them even more.”
It’s a step up however Larsen is accustomed to that. He left Norway on the age of simply 17 to pursue a chance at AC Milan. “My mum was not happy, moving all the way to Italy alone.” However he was following his soccer dream, Zlatan Ibrahimovic having been a hero.
“I was always good, a big talent as a kid and I had a lot of interest from club academies when I was growing up. Milan came knocking at the door and I felt like I had to just jump in and do it. It was a new culture, a new world actually, because no one spoke English.”
He realized Italian inside six months and went on to take lots from the expertise, returning to Norway earlier than shifting on to FC Groningen within the Netherlands after which Celta Vigo. “Every step that I have made since that first one, it has been easier,” he says.
“That is why I feel really comfortable already now, so I think that has helped me a lot. I take it with me also when things are tough like in this situation right now. I know that it is going to turn and it is only about sticking together and working hard as a whole team.”
That was his expertise in Vigo, the place the workforce’s poor type left them in hassle within the spring earlier than clambering to the relative consolation of thirteenth – due to Larsen scoring targets within the remaining 15 video games. “We fought relegation but I really enjoyed my time there.”
Fernando Torres, like Ibrahimovic, had been one other hero of Larsen’s when he was youthful – even naming his cat after the striker. Working with Torres’ former Liverpool supervisor Rafa Benitez whereas at Celta Vigo was an vital step in his growth.
He credit the affect of Benitez in serving to him to seek out the area to free himself of defenders. “Those details, he taught me a lot of movements inside the box. It is why I scored so many goals.” And he sees a equally detail-led method from O’Neil.
Larsen is working arduous to enhance his recreation beneath Gary O’Neil
“He has been helping me a lot. The things that I am already doing well, we’re trying to make it world class. That is where I want to be. I want to be as good as I can be for the team and for myself, so him helping me on the side has been really important.”
What kind of work? “A few times when I am controlling the ball, it feels like I have more time than I actually have. I think the finishing comes with time as well. I need to get used to the league. I am getting there, but it all happens quicker. We work on those things.”
The impression is of a participant who’s having fun with a lot about this expertise. He talks of feeling “really at home here” and his language expertise – Larsen can also be fluent in English and Spanish – imply that he has settled in shortly amongst his new Wolves team-mates.
Larsen celebrates a purpose with Wolves team-mate Matheus Cunha
“I feel really welcomed, I feel like this is a good place for me to be. But you have to be patient as well. I cannot expect to come in here and score in every match and be the hero every time, so I am going to have to take it step by step and try to change it in time.”
However that’s the crux of it. With Wolves backside, issues do have to alter and Larsen wants to assist change it. He admits double figures is a benchmark for a striker however the precedence now’s profitable. “You cannot say we have been unlucky every game,” he says.
“We have been unlucky in some situations and not good enough in others. I think it is small details. That is the good thing. We have been creating chances, scoring goals, and that is easier to continue with. Then it is about closing it a little bit more at the back.
Sunday twentieth October 1:00pm
Kick off 2:00pm
“It is not about the defenders doing it wrong, it is about the whole team. We have to stay together more, be compact. I think that the small details will change it all. But when you are in the kind of zone that we are in now, everything goes a little bit against you.”
There can be no higher time to alter that than towards Manchester Metropolis on Sunday. “It would be a very good time,” agrees Larsen. Standing of their approach, nevertheless, is the person, the machine, the monster, who he is aware of so nicely. “Hopefully, we can stop him.”
Watch Wolves vs Man Metropolis on Sky Sports activities Premier League this Sunday from 1pm; kick-off 2pm
