How things have changed since Liverpool and Manchester City last met, in July’s Community Shield which Jurgen Klopp’s team won 3-1. On that summer afternoon, it was Liverpool who looked set and primed on the eve of the new season while City lacked their usual panache.
That early assessment proved premature as Pep Guardiola’s team have gone on to win seven of their opening league games, scoring an astonishing 33 goals already, and drawn the other two. Liverpool, on the other hand, have experienced their worst start in a decade, winning just two of their first eight league matches.
Klopp has hinted that his 14th-placed team are out of the title race and, despite the confidence-boosting 7-1 rout over Rangers in midweek, there is still a lot for the Liverpool manager to wrestle with. Nothing highlights Liverpool and City’s divergent paths this season than the contrasting forms of Virgil van Dijk and Erling Haaland.
It was the Liverpool centre-back who got the upper hand in the Community Shield, with Haaland unable to score on his City debut. But the subsequent three months have seen the tables turn. Klopp says his team faces “the world’s best striker” on Sunday and lavished further praise on a player with 20 goals in his first 13 appearances in English football.
“When you play against the best striker in the world you have to make sure he doesn’t get too many balls,” said Klopp when outlining Liverpool’s approach on Sunday. “That is what you have to defend before you come into the challenge with him, but against City the problem is if you close down Haaland with too many players then you open up gaps for all the other world-class players they have. That will not make life easier.
“Erling combines so many things. It is rare that you have his finishing skills, that are obviously exceptional, but he moves really smart as well and that makes him tricky. Physically he sets new standards, the combination of being really physical and technical and sensational awareness, his orientation on the pitch is exceptional, he knows always where the decisive gaps are, he is barely offside, reads that really well: so many things that make him a striker. The package makes him special.
“Then you have some of the best players in the world around him at City in setting up goals and finding the right moments for the passes. Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, [Riyad] Mahrez, Phil Foden; they are all really good at that so that makes him a perfect fit.”
Liverpool have fell behind in 17 of their last 21 games
Having kept Haaland quiet already this season, Van Dijk will have his hands full at Anfield this weekend. The defender’s form is under weekly scrutiny for the first time in his Liverpool career and what was once seen as his effortless class in victory now takes the look of a lack of application in defeat.
Liverpool’s high defensive line, which was a hallmark of their success in recent seasons and the basis from which attacks were launched, is now considered by many the achilles heel which should force the defenders to retreat. Klopp’s team have kept just three clean sheets across 12 games in all competitions.
Van Dijk, like most of his team-mates, has certainly been below the irreproachable standards set in recent years. Questions have also arisen regarding the placement of full-backs and the lack of control in midfield. It has led to a formation switch (from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2) which Klopp will maintain for the visit of City and Haaland.
“It looks like we have a pitch of 106m and we talk about a battle of one-v-one between two players,” Klopp continued. “There will be moments when a defender, maybe Virgil or whoever, is in a one-versus-one situation with Erling Haaland, but it’s not like we play man-marking all over the pitch and the only player Haaland will face is Virgil.
“Haaland might choose the other centre-half, and not just run at Virgil because he wants to show the world ‘I am better than him’. It makes no sense. They played against each other and there were moments when Virgil got the better of him and I remember other moments.
“I remember the situation when Robbo [Andy Robertson] tried to get him off the ball and ran into him and it looked like he ran against a wall! Of course Haaland then kicked the ball over the goal and that probably wouldn’t have happened three weeks later when he was already scoring like crazy.”
Liverpool’s defence, who have fell behind 17 times in their past 21 matches, will hope to regather some poise in front of a packed-out Anfield this weekend. They may sit 13 points behind Sunday’s opponents but Guardiola still views Liverpool as City’s biggest obstacle.
“They always have been [our biggest threat], and they always will be,” Guardiola said. “I had the feeling always in Anfield we have played really well, but in the last two games we were a bit soft for different [reasons].
“The semi-finals of the FA Cup, it was tough to recover from the incredible effort we had done in Champions League. In the Community Shield, still we were not ready. They were one pace higher than us and without that, against that team, you cannot compete.
“You have to behave at a top level with and especially without the ball, and you have to be active with the second balls and many things. You have to win duels. When they push you, you have to push.”
The duel between Van Dijk and Haaland will be one of many come Sunday, but it will likely be the most pivotal.
