Liverpool welcome Manchester City on Sunday in the Premier League and all eyes will be on how Klopp sets up his defence to stop Erling Haaland.
Haaland has been on fire since joining Man City and so far, he’s scored 15 goals in just nine league games. The Norwegian has been scoring for fun this season so if Liverpool can somehow manage to stop him then they will have won half of their battle.
Van Dijk was asked this very same question about having a potential strategy to stop Erling Haaland to which the centre-back has revealed that they will first need to cut out the service.
“We have to try to stop the balls going to him, 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,” Van Dijk has said(h/t Fotmob).
“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.”
Back to training, complete focus on the Premier League now 🔵 #mancity pic.twitter.com/pdMUu5AGdY
— Erling Haaland (@ErlingHaaland) October 12, 2022
Can Liverpool stop Erling Haaland from scoring?
If Liverpool’s only plan to stop Erling Haaland is to devoid him of services from midfield then the home side could struggle to do so because they have a long list of injuries.
Players like Naby Keita, Arthur and Oxlade-Chamberlain are all ruled out on Sunday due to various injuries while Curtis Jones has just returned to training one week ago.
With so many midfielders out injured, Jurgen Klopp has very limited options at his disposal and those who are available might not be good enough to keep a check on players like De Bruyne and Silva.
If Curtis Jones is not available to start then Hendo, Thiago and Fabinho will start in midfield and neither of them is blessed with great pace.
People like Thiago and Henderson are great when Liverpool are controlling games and are on the front foot but we don’t think they will be too effective in a more balanced game.
Also, Erling Haaland is the type of player who only needs one chance to put the ball in the back of the net so even one or two good balls into the box during the 90 minutes could be enough for him to put his name on the scoresheet.
