Former Manchester City striker Shaun Goater believes Virgil Van Dijk will up his game when the Citizens visit Anfield on Sunday.
The Netherlands captain will face Premier League top scorer Erling Haaland, who has 15 goals in nine league games for his new team.
The Reds, meanwhile, are 13 points behind Pep Guardiola’s team, albeit with one game in hand, and urgently need to find some form if they want to move up the table.
Goater called the clash between the two teams a ‘beautiful match’ and is looking forward to seeing our No. 4 take on City’s Norwegian striker.
“Virgil van Dijk is not at his best right now, but if you love the game, you want to see the two best players going head-to-head,” Goater told Manchester City’s official website (via the Liverpool Echo). “You want to see the big teams meet when they are both fit.
“But I think it’s one of those games where Virgil van Dijk himself, no matter what form he’s in, wants to raise the bar back to his best to say, ‘Haaland isn’t scoring today. City is not scoring. He will be ready for it. But at the same time, Haaland will be thinking, ‘It’s about time they knew about me, in terms of if they don’t know yet, they will.’
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“So I think it’s a beautiful game to watch and see who comes out on top. I think Haaland himself has said that Virgil van Dijk is one of the toughest defenders he has ever played against. The two will try to get the best out of each other.”
Many have claimed that the former Southampton defender is a meter off the pace this season with Liverpool struggling for consistency and regularly leaking goals this term.
The Reds conceded four at Napoli, three at home to Brighton and three again at the Emirates on Sunday and with Guardiola’s men having world-class quality in attack, many fear the Sky Blues could wreak havoc at the weekend.
However, we all know what Klopp’s men are capable of, and if the atmosphere inside Anfield is electric, then there’s no reason why we can’t beat the Premier League champions.
Another defeat would seriously damage our hopes of a taste of league success this season, as three points for the visitors would see them 16 points ahead of us.
Our thrashing of Rangers at Ibrox yesterday provides a huge confidence boost and with the likes of Darwin Nunez, Bobby Firmino and Mo Salah on the scoreboard, let’s hope for more of the same against City.
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