Defender Virgil van Dijk has admitted he is excited to test himself up against Erling Haaland once again when his Liverpool side host Manchester City in their Premier League clash on Sunday.
All eyes will be on Erling Haaland when Manchester City face Liverpool in their Premier League clash at Anfield on Sunday. Ahead of the highly-anticipated clash, the Reds' defender Virgil Van Dijk admitted he is eager to test himself against the Norwegian goal-scoring machine.
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Liverpool lost the Premier League title to Manchester City last season and had a varied start to their 2022-23 campaign. While Haaland is setting records with his goal-scoring prowess for Pep Guardiola's men, Van Dijk has looked clumsy on the field, epitomising Jurgen Klopp's troubles.
The Norwegian has now scored 20 goals and contributed three assists across all competitions, and Van Dijk acknowledged that he is not surprised at Haaland's numbers in his debut Premier League season. "He's been on fire, you can't say anything else," Van Dijk told Manchester Evening News. "I remember after the Community Shield where a lot of people have been writing him off, I remember I was saying, 'listen, this guy is going to cause so many defenders nightmares'," the Liverpool defender added.
Even though Van Dijk knows it will be challenging to stop the 22-year-old striker, the Dutchman is excited about trying to do so and has described what he will do to succeed. "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 and that's not going to be any different on Sunday," the Liverpool defender explained.
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"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," Van Dijk concluded.
Liverpool has been City's main competition in recent seasons and is the only team to have ended Guardiola's side's title monopoly since 2018. The Reds will trail the champions by a significant 13 points going into the matchup on Sunday, and Klopp acknowledges that his club faces "the biggest challenge" in football this weekend.
“When you play City, results left and right [before and after] are not really important because this game requires all your focus, all the things you know about football,” Klopp told his pre-match press conference. “I enjoy preparing for the game but it is the biggest challenge you can face in football." he added.
“With City, if you can close them down here, they are there, close down that gap, you open up that gap, so always a challenge. But it’s a home game, Anfield, us against Man City, they are at the moment the best team in the world but we will give it a try, knowing we can get help from a full Anfield and we will try to use that," the Liverpool boss concluded.
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