Welcome to The Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a blend of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know stories from up and down the Premier League. This week:
💨 Did Villa provide the Haaland blueprint?
🔴 Has criticism of Van Dijk been overblown?
🔍 A player to watch this weekend
How do you stop Haaland?
On Sunday at the Etihad Stadium, Liverpool will try to do something only two out of 17 sides have managed this season: stop Erling Haaland from scoring. His goal tally for club and country already stands at 27. And there are six months of the campaign left to play.
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Jamie Carragher explains why Haaland is Arsenal’s biggest title threat
The numbers are ludicrous, even by his standards. Haaland is averaging nearly two goals per 90 minutes. He is in the form of his life. Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola feels he is performing at the level of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Haaland himself rejected the comparison before Manchester City’s Champions League meeting with Borussia Dortmund. “No one can get close to them two,” he said. But another starring performance followed, his former club becoming his latest victim.
Guardiola accepts Manchester City’s reliance on Haaland is an issue. His tally of 13 goals in the Premier League represents 65 per cent of their total. City would be seven points worse off without them. None of his team-mates have scored more than one.
Right now, though, they are enjoying the fruits of his efforts. Jamie Carragher called Haaland the biggest threat to Arsenal’s title hopes this week. He is undoubtedly the biggest threat to Liverpool’s chances of getting a result at the Etihad Stadium too.
Liverpool will take encouragement from previous encounters.
Haaland has only scored three times in eight games against the Reds in his career, and only once in four games in the Premier League. He was injured for the last meeting in February, but Liverpool limited him to only three shots across the two before that.
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Haaland reacts to comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi
Virgil van Dijk has had the better of recent battles, summed up by their one-on-one showdown in the first half at Anfield in March last year, when the centre-back kept his composure to form a barrier between the rampaging Haaland and his goalkeeper Alisson.
You have to go back to November 2023 for Haaland’s last goal against Liverpool. Only Aston Villa – one of the two sides to have stopped him from scoring this season along with Spurs – and Newcastle have restricted Haaland more effectively.
Whether Liverpool can repeat the success of those previous encounters on Sunday is another question. They go into the game in resurgent form having kept out Real Madrid at Anfield. But this iteration of Haaland presents an even tougher test.
Manchester City are playing to his strengths this season, with less focus on dominating possession and more emphasis on engineering opportunities for the striker to run into space, as he did to such devastating effect against Bournemouth last weekend.
Haaland is contributing more to the side’s all-round play and yet at the same time getting more touches in the opposition box. This Manchester City side are not perfect but they are certainly succeeding in extracting the maximum from their striker.
Arne Slot and his staff can of course refer to Liverpool’s past meetings with Manchester City. But Aston Villa may have provided the blueprint for stopping Haaland in his current form.
Unai Emery started by mentioning the importance of his goalkeeper when asked how they did it after their 1-0 win at Villa Park. Villa needed Emiliano Martinez to make a one-on-one save in the first half from one of three Haaland shots.
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A look at how Haaland’s record compares to Messi’s at the same age
But the Villa boss touched on other factors too, including man-to-man duels, holding the line and ensuring covering support. “We needed everything to stop him,” he added.
One feature of Aston Villa’s performance, and that of Ezri Konsa in particular, was how little room they gave Haaland. GeniusIQ data shows he received the ball in just 2.8 metres of space on average, down from 4.0 metres on average in City’s other games.
Ezri Konsa presses Haaland after he receives a square pass from Savinho with five Aston Villa players positioned to provide cover
Closely marshalled by Konsa, Haaland also had considerably fewer touches than usual, both overall and, crucially, inside the opposition box. He had fewer shots and also received his lowest number of passes in a Premier League game this season, with 10.
It is vital to limit Haaland’s supply line as well as the space he has to work in, something Van Dijk mentioned after Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Manchester City back in October 2022.
“Everybody from the outside world wanted to put everything on the one-vs-one battle, but it was all about doing it together and stopping the service,” he said.
Previously, that service mostly came from Kevin de Bruyne. But new avenues have opened up since the Belgian’s departure in June.
Sunday 9th November 4:00pm
Kick off 4:30pm
The player with the most passes to Haaland in the Premier League this season is Phil Foden, with 16. Liverpool will also need to be wary of Rayan Cherki, who set up both his goals against Bournemouth.
Of course, even the best-laid plans can go out the window against Haaland. Thomas Frank, the only other manager, along with Emery, to have succeeded in stopping him this season has described the task as “close to impossible”. But it could be the difference on Sunday.
Van Dijk makes his point
If any one player can stop Haaland, it is surely Van Dijk.
It was absorbing to watch his exchange with Wayne Rooney after Liverpool’s Champions League win over Real Madrid. Rooney had questioned his body language and leadership earlier in the campaign. Van Dijk was justified in taking issue with the criticism.
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Jamie O’Hara gives his opinion on Wayne Rooney’s criticism of Virgil van Dijk
“I think it would be good for ex-players that played at the highest level and dealt with difficult moments to put things in perspective,” he said, standing alongside a slightly sheepish-looking Rooney.
Van Dijk has had some comparatively poor games this season, without doubt. But before helping Liverpool keep clean sheets in their last two games, it is worth remembering he carried his centre-back partner Ibrahima Konate at times earlier in the campaign.
At 34, he is of course reaching a point in his career where a drop-off may start to materialise. But there is little evidence of his dominance waning in the numbers this season.
In fact, his duel success rate of 77.2 per cent is higher than in any of his previous eight campaigns at the club. Maybe, as he suggested to Rooney, the criticism has been overblown. Helping to keep out Haaland again would hammer home his point.
Player Radar: Who else to keep an eye on
Thursday brought a trip to Selhurst Park, where Ismaila Sarr provided another reminder of his underrated attacking threat with two goals against AZ Alkmaar. Crystal Palace will hope for more of the same from him against Brighton on Sunday.
Live Radar: What’s on Sky this weekend?
Saturday brings a double-header, with Sunderland facing Arsenal at 5.30pm before Chelsea’s meeting with Wolves at 8pm. Both games are live on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event from 5pm.
It’s a multi-view extravaganza on Sunday, with Aston Villa vs Bournemouth, Brentford vs Newcastle, Crystal Palace vs Brighton and Nottingham Forest vs Leeds to be shown on Sky Sports at 2pm.
Then it’s the big one: Manchester City’s meeting with Liverpool is available to watch on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event from 4pm ahead of the 4.30pm kick-off.
Read the last Radar column
Did The Radar jinx Nick Woltemade? Sorry, Newcastle fans. Last week’s column looked at his excellent start in the Premier League, only for him to be taken off at half-time against West Ham.
