Liverpool look to counter Haaland’s boot
LIVERPOOL manager Jurgen Klopp admits he cannot afford to focus too heavily on in-form striker Erling Haaland in tomorrow’s clash against Manchester City as the champions have too many threats elsewhere.
The Norway international has scored 20 times this season, including 15 Premier League goals, and will pose a huge threat at Anfield.
City and Liverpool have been the dominant forces in the English top flight in recent seasons, but Klopp’s side have started the current campaign slowly, winning just two of their first eight league games.
The Anfield side are languishing in 10th spot in the table, already 13 points behind second-placed City, who have smashed in 33 goals in just nine Premier League games.
“Like always when you play against the best striker in the world, you have to make sure he doesn’t get that many balls,” Klopp said at his pre-match press conference yesterday.
“That is what you have to defend before you come into the challenge with him so that is what we will try.
“But against City the problem is if you close Haaland down with too many players then you open up gaps for all the other world-class players so that will not make life easier.”
“It’s a challenge, a football problem but we try and find solutions.”
Liverpool came up against Haaland twice in the Champions League in 2019, when he was a raw 19-year-old playing for Red Bull Salzburg, and he scored in one of the games.
Klopp said his potential at even that tender age was “insane”.
“Physically he sets new standards, the combination of being really physical and technical. His orientation on the pitch is exceptional – he knows always where the decisive gaps are and is barely offside – so many things for making a striker.”
Man City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, said Liverpool are their “biggest challengers” for the Premier League title, despite the Merseyside team trailing his side by 13 points ahead of tomorrow’s game.
“I know the quality they have, they know the quality we have. If this was with three games left, I would say they could not catch top of the league, but with so long left plus a World Cup, anything can happen,” Guardiola told reporters yesterday.
“It’s always difficult in the years since we have arrived here together, it will be a tough game and I don’t expect anything else. The game will be dictated on the pitch, not by the table, because we are in front of them or behind, not because of those kind of things.”
City have been one of the most consistent teams in world football this season, with the team yet to lose a game in any competition.
Guardiola said that Kyle Walker (groin), Kalvin Phillips (shoulder) and John Stones (thigh) are still sidelined and he does not know if they would be fit to play for England at the World Cup. He added that Haaland will play in tomorrow’s game after he was an unused substitute in their Champions League match in midweek. | AFP and Reuters