Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admits he cannot afford to focus too heavily on in-form striker Erling Haaland in Sunday's clash against Manchester City as the champions have too many threats elsewhere.
The Norway international has scored 20 times this season,
including 15 Premier League goals, and will pose a huge threat at Anfield.
City and Liverpool have been the dominant forces in the English
top flight in recent seasons but Klopp's side have started the current campaign
slowly, winning just two of their first eight league games.
The Anfield side are languishing in 10th spot in the table,
already 13 points behind second-placed City, who have smashed in 33 goals in
just nine Premier League games.
Liverpool kept Haaland quiet in the FA Community Shield, the
curtain-raiser to the new season, but the 22-year-old has since scored in every
game for City in all competitions except one.
"Like always when you play against the best striker in
the world, you have to make sure he doesn't get that many balls," Klopp
said at his pre-match press conference on Friday.
"That is what you have to defend before you come into
the challenge with him so that is what we will try.
"But against City the problem is if you close Haaland
down with too many players then you open up gaps for all the other world-class
players so that will not make life easier.
"It's a challenge, a football problem but we try and
find solutions."
Liverpool came up against Haaland twice in the Champions
League in 2019, when he was a raw 19-year-old playing for Red Bull Salzburg,
and he scored in one of the games.
Klopp said his potential at even that tender age was
"insane".
"Physically he sets new standards, the combination of
being really physical and technical. His orientation on the pitch is
exceptional -- he knows always where the decisive gaps are and is barely
offside -- so many things for making a striker.
"(He has) some of the best players around him in the
world in setting up goals and finding the right moments for the passes: Kevin
De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, (Riyad) Mahrez -- they
are all really good at that so it's a perfect fit, no doubt about that."
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