Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk has recalled his impressions of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland from July’s Community Shield match.
Van Dijk played against Haaland and kept him off the scoresheet as Liverpool won 3-1 that day. And speaking to TV2, an outlet from the City man’s homeland of Norway, Virgil looked back on that game.
“I remember after the Community Shield where a lot of people have been writing him off,” said the 31-year-old. “I remember I was saying, ‘listen, this guy is going to cause so many defenders nightmares’. He’s shown it, he’s been showing a consistent level and obviously in a team like City where chances will always come.”
The goalless showing at the King Power Stadium has proven to be an anomaly in Haaland’s City career so far. In the 12 games since, the 22-year-old has smashed in 20 goals. Liverpool up next on Sunday. Gulp.
Liverpool vs Man City, not Van Dijk vs Haaland
Van Dijk also looked ahead to Liverpool’s big clash with City on Sunday afternoon. The Dutchman admitted that stopping Haaland could be key to a Liverpool win, but there are other things to be wary of, too.
“We have to try to stop the balls going to him [Haaland], defend at the highest level, and be at our best, and that’s what we always have to be against City and that’s not going to be any different on Sunday,” he said.
“It’s something we should look forward to, it’s definitely not me against him, it’s all of us versus all of them. It’s the outside world that creates battles, one versus one and all this stuff. We want to stop them scoring, regardless of who it is on the pitch. But we know he’s quite good.”
Quite good is a wee bit of an understatement from Van Dijk. But when put to him whether Haaland is currently the best player in the world, the centre-back wouldn’t be drawn.
“Wow, I know for a fact he’s scoring a lot of goals for fun and that’s very important to win games and that’s been showing,” he said. “He’s a very good goalscorer, let’s keep it that way, and hopefully we can stop him from scoring on Sunday, we need to be at our very best to do that, but like I said, it’s all of us versus all of them.”
Clash of the titans, but not this year
As a result of Liverpool’s disappointing start to the season, this game isn’t being billed as highly as it might have been.
Over the past few years, Liverpool against City has been the biggest game of the Premier League calendar. With Haaland in the form he is, his battle with Van Dijk would have been a big narrative to peg the match on.
Instead, Liverpool have fallen away from a title challenge already. They’re in poor form, and Van Dijk has been too.
But perhaps this game comes at the perfect time for Jurgen Klopp’s team. It’s still early enough in the season that they can turn their season around. It would be a booming statement of intent to hand City their first defeat of the campaign.
Stop Haaland, and they’ll stand a chance of doing that.
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