Leeds United face the near-impossible task of stopping prolific forward Erling Haaland as they look to pull off an upset against Manchester City.
Erling Haaland has a long connection with Leeds through his dad, Alf-Inge Haaland, who featured for the club in the 1990s under George Graham.
However, the Norwegian goal machine is looking to score a landmark goal against Leeds United, as he comes into the game having scored 99 Premier League goals.
Pep Guardiola backed under-fire Leeds manager Daniel Farke on the verge of the game, as the Whites desperately attempt to arrest their slide down the table.
Although Haaland is the most obvious threat, Leeds cannot afford to focus all of their attention on Haaland and neglect the threat caused by one of City’s other danger men.
Prediction time for Leeds v Man City
Daniel Farke greets Pep Guardiola.
Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Leeds United cannot neglect threat of key Manchester City forward
The Manchester City goalscoring charts for the season to date have a strange look, as Haaland dominates the attack under Guardiola.
Heading into the game against Leeds, Haaland has a total of 14 goals to his name, while no other City player has scored more than one in the Premier League.
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However, this could give a false impression, which suggests that Haaland is City’s only threat, and may lead Leeds to neglect their galaxy of other stars.
The Leeds defence could be in for a long afternoon if they fail to pick up winger Jeremy Doku, whose output can go under the radar in a team that is built to feed Haaland.
Jeremy Doku for Manchester City in the PL Total
Goals 1
Assists 3
Chances Created 27
Big Chances Created 6
Successful Dribbles per 90 4.8
Although Doku only has one Premier League goal to his name so far this season, he remains a potent threat in the City attack, having laid on three assists. Doku has also created 27 chances, six big chances and completed an average of 4.8 dribbles per match, according to FotMob.
The danger with defending against Haaland is that the back four becomes so obsessed with preventing the centre forward that it creates the space for a player like Doku to do what he does best.
Erling Haaland Applauds fans after Manchester City v Everton - Premier League
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images
Daniel Farke is wary of the all-round threat from Manchester City
Speaking in his weekly press conference ahead of the trip to the Etihad Stadium, Farke echoed the risk of focusing all of Leeds’ attention on Haaland.
According to Farke, the most effective way to restrict the striker is to cut off the supply of chances that he has to feed off, which may be a challenge for Leeds’ leaky left-hand side.
Farke said: “We spoke in the meeting room, on the training pitch, worked on it, on how to stop him. But it’s not just him, it’s more like we have to make sure that he doesn’t get the passes, the crosses, the through passes, the finishing passes, that he then can finish.
Daniel Farke’s pre-Man City press conference
“At the moment, he’s probably the best striker in the world and the most effective striker and has unbelievable skills. If we just try to concentrate on taking him one against one out of the game, I would say we have no chance. He’s too good for that.
“Even better sides than ours have had no chance to do this. We have to make sure that the setup for him, the assists, the finishing passes, the through passes, the crosses, that we try to handle this.
“We need to make sure that he doesn’t get into many situations, and then we have a chance. Just concentrating on him won’t be enough.”
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