Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk must be at the peak of his powers in order to stop Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, Reds expert David Lynch has argued.
The Merseysiders will travel to the Etihad on Sunday to play Pep Guardiola's City, and they will find it difficult to keep their opponents at bay.
Haaland has scored 13 Premier League goals in just 10 top-flight matches this campaign, as well as 18 goals in 14 matches in all competitions
Lynch highlighted Van Dijk's strong record against Haaland as the only reason to believe that the visitors can keep a clean sheet, telling Sports Mole: "City don't seem to have a lot of threat outside of Haaland. They are incredibly reliant on his goals and the good thing for Liverpool is that Van Dijk has marshalled Haaland well.
"The problem is that you can have good games against him - he's not generally been great against Liverpool - but he's still capable. He just needs one moment in a game and if you give him a chance he will put it away. You can be perfect for 89 minutes but he will get you at some point.
"The job is to stop the ball getting to him. If it does get to him, you're reliant on Van Dijk winning those duels, or Konate if he's on that side, but that's the key. If Liverpool can lock him down, if they can reduce the amount of touches he takes, they'll give themselves a good opportunity."
Haaland has only scored twice in six matches against the Reds during his time in England, with Van Dijk keeping him at bay the last time they clashed in November 2024.
David Lynch YouTube image
Should Arne Slot deploy a deep block against Pep Guardiola at the Etihad?
When Liverpool travelled to the Etihad in February, they managed to claim all three points after winning 2-0, but they deployed unusually defensive tactics.
The Reds were also reserved at times against Real Madrid on Tuesday, when they won 1-0 at Anfield, and they often found success during counter-attacks.
Speaking to Sports Mole, Lynch was in favour of Liverpool using the same tactics on Sunday that they used against Real, saying: "Slot might go with the same setup as against Real Madrid. There's a slight question about three games in a week for Robertson and what you do at left-back.
"It makes sense to go with the same setup because City will try and do exactly what Real Madrid did, which was to dominate the ball, to be patient, to try and work it around. Liverpool just sat in that low block and and looked pretty comfortable when looking for transition moments, so it really suits them.
"Wirtz played off the left and he can get the ball up the pitch, and he can get you into the box. That defensive setup, which worked exactly as it did against Real Madrid, is what you're trying to replicate against Manchester City. I see no reason for him to change it outside of a player getting a knock."
Arne Slot revealed after the win against Real Madrid that he instructed his players to defend in a low block when not pressing high, an alteration on his instructions in previous weeks.
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah pictured on October 4, 2025
Are Liverpool back in the Premier League title race?
Following Arsenal's 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Saturday, Slot will know that a win would reduce the gap to the league leaders to five points.
Though that would be by no means an insignificant deficit, the Reds were themselves five points ahead of the Gunners at one point this season, showing how quickly things can change in the Premier League.
Lynch insisted that a victory would put Liverpool back in contention for the title, when he told Sports Mole: "Definitely for me [they would be back in the race]. They probably have to win this game to stay in the title race despite the Arsenal result. You can't allow the the points gap to get any bigger than seven points.
"Any bigger and the level of points per game you have to hit to overturn a deficit like that is too much, even if Arsenal were to have a wobble. Liverpool would have to be perfect to capitalise on it, and they might go on a run, but it's tricky to imagine them doing that.
"If they do come through this with a win and they can get it to five points off the back of three performances back to back, there'll be real confidence that they've at least got a chance of chasing Arsenal down, and they'll have given themselves the opportunity to do it. If the gap gets any bigger it's it's probably too big."
It should be noted that three of Liverpool's four Premier League games after they face City come against teams in the bottom five, whereas Arsenal face Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Aston Villa in three of their next four league matches.
> Click here to listen to the full discussion on Liverpool's Premier League match against Manchester City
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