Jamie Carragher has told Liverpool to focus on stopping Kevin De Bruyne in Sunday’s clash against Manchester City, which he believes would cut the supply to Erling Haaland.
Jurgen Klopp’s side welcome City to Anfield after a disappointing start to their Premier League campaign, sitting 13 points behind their opponents following a defeat to Arsenal last week.
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Stopping City from extending that gap will be tough, particularly with Haaland in such incredible goalscoring form. The former Borussia Dortmund has already scored 15 league goals, only eight fewer than the 23 managed by Golden Boot winners Son Heung-min and Mohamed Salah last season.
While that may encourage Liverpool to pay special attention to the 22-year-old, former Reds defender Carragher believes the key factor will be limiting De Bruyne’s influence on the game.
“I’d almost be more focused on De Bruyne rather than Haaland in this game,” he told Sky Sports’ Essential Football podcast.
“If you stop De Bruyne, you take 50 per cent away from Haaland as well as the connection the two have got is there already. And for me, De Bruyne is the best midfielder in the world.
10 – In five appearances this season, Erling Haaland has scored as many Premier League goals at the Etihad as the entire Manchester City squad during the 2006-07 campaign (10). Frightening. pic.twitter.com/D4EqigbTty
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 8, 2022
“Yes, Haaland has been an absolute sensation in the Premier League but he needs servicing and you can’t get anyone better than De Bruyne.
“When you’ve got the best passer of the ball that the Premier League has ever seen, it certainly helps when you have Haaland up front.
“If Haaland was playing for Liverpool right now, there’s no way he would have scored the number of goals he has now as he wouldn’t have had that quality behind him, plus the way Liverpool are playing right now.”
City’s creator in chief
The data supports Carragher’s argument. De Bruyne has created a league-leading 30 goalscoring chances for team-mates this season, four clear of second-ranked Salah, while Ilkay Gundogan (16) is the team-mate closest to his total in that regard.
Of those opportunities, 11 class as “big chances”, where a player would reasonably be expected to score. That is again a league high, with Haaland next on six.
From his nine league appearances, De Bruyne has assisted nine goals, five more than any other player. His expected assists (xA) value of 3.9 has been greatly exceeded, however, showing the players that have finished off those chances have outperformed what would be expected of them, based on the quality of the opportunities De Bruyne has crafted.
On average, De Bruyne creates 3.9 chances and 0.5 xA per 90 minutes. Essentially, he is providing an opportunity worthy of an assist every two matches.
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