Right after the end of the international break, the English Premier League had witnessed one of the most waited-for games every season between Pep Guardiola‘s Manchester City and Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool, in which the home side is only one point ahead, leading the title race.
A draw in the Etihad Stadium was the end result.
However, the game had one of the finest battles between Erling Haaland and Virgil Van Dijk, as both are well known for being one of the best in their positions worldwide, if not the best.
So, in this Van Dijk tactical analysis, we’ll provide an analysis of how Van Dijk’s intelligence and awareness limited Haaland’s threat during the Citizen box-attacking.
Haaland’s Movements Inside The Box
The Norwegian striker has a variety of moves inside the box while the ball is on either flanks or half-spaces; one of his most used ways of invading the box is through the back post.
In this example, during the Chelsea and Manchester City game, the ball is with Phil Foden, ready to play it widely for the overlapping Julián Álvarez.
Meanwhile, Haaland is moving towards the far post in the blind spot of the opposition’s defender, Axel Disasi.
Álvarez’s cross easily turned to the net by Haaland as Disasi couldn’t anticipate the ball thanks to Erling’s movement behind him.
And against Manchester United, we can see the same overload City has on the left side with Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva against Bruno Fernandes; Haaland is scanning the box, ready for this favourite movement.
As Silva is going to provide the cross, Haaland moves towards the far post once again.
Rodri dragged Jonny Evans, and Haaland had aches of space to score his second goal in the Manchester Derby.
Furthermore, in the Bramall Lane against Sheffield United, Haaland with John Egan waiting for the right moment to be in his blind spot.
Grealish is crossing the ball, and Haaland is already out of Egan’s vision.
And he successfully scored the opener.
Identically, in the last season against Everton, City’s second goal shows how he always preferred to be on the back post out of the defender’s sight.
Again, Haaland, with the space behind James Tarkowski, finds the net.
Moving on to the Tottenham Hotspur game, when City when one goal behind, Rodri chipped the ball behind the defensive line for Ryad Mahrez; meanwhile, Cristian Romero was marking Erling.
Haaland’s movement towards the back post allowed him to be in Romero’s blind spot, turning Mahrez’s flick into the equalizer.
Moreover, against Borussia Dortmund, Haaland is again on the same line behind Nico Schlotterbeck, who, in that position, can’t see both the striker and the ball.
Additionally, his opener against Aston Villa.
His movement on the far post behind Ezri Konsa made the English defender unaware of his positioning.
Lastly, we can notice how he positions himself behind his marker, Raphaël Varane and almost in the same line waiting for Kevin De Bruyne’s early cross.
Once again, he scored from the far post.
Utilising the far post area is not only his box-attacking feature but also his remarkable near post and cut-back movements that allow him to be quite unpredictable and challenging to mark in the box.
Near post movements
In game week four this season, during the Man City and Fulham game, we can see below Haaland positioning near the penalty spot with Fulham’s Antonee Robinson and starting his usual movement towards the far post.
He dragged Robinson towards the back post, and the American defender focused entirely on the ball.
Haaland knew well how to make the best out of this situation.
After moving towards the back post in the first place, he switched to a cut-back position, making it again thanks to his presence in Robinson’s blind spot.
And he turned Sergio Gómez’s cross into the net.
Getting back to the Manchester derby last season, De Bruyne is playing the ball towards Gómez on the left side while Haaland is positioned almost behind Lisandro Martínez.
Erling typically first moves towards the far post, so he is behind Martínez now.
All that the Argentinian can see is the ball.
Haaland then makes his movement towards the centre, and Martínez finds Halaand scoring out of the blue.
Precisely the same against Southampton and scoring from the near post.
How Van Dijk limited Haaland’s movement
Guardiola’s side relied more on their left side, with Silva usually escaping Liverpool‘s midfield line of pressing and able to receive in between the lines, overloading that side with Jérémy Doku.
This means Halaand’s favourite far post would be now in a challenge with Virgil.
In addition, Joël Matip was more focused on stepping out of his position to press Silva or Covering Trent Alexander-Arnold, which led to the Dutch defender being most of the time in a 1v1 with Haaland in a massive space.
As shown below, Matip is widely following Silva while Van Dijk and Haaland are in a markable space together, which is undoubtedly a disadvantage for the defender.
We can notice Van Dijk’s positioning and body shape here.
Firstly, he is positioned two steps in front of Haaland, not letting him go on his blind spot and dropping his shoulders so he is ready for a quick change of direction.
His body shape here is almost the same as Alisson Becker giving his back to his goal so he can see both the ball and the opposition at the same time.
Observe the vast space provided for Erling in the box, who started his movement towards the near post as he realised there was no chance to go for his favourable far post because of Virgil’s intelligence and also the narrow positioning for Konstantinos Tsimikas.
Immediately, Van Dijk noticed Haaland’s run and closed on him, keeping his shoulders low for any change of direction.
Besides, Doku has the ball, and Haaland is ready for his job.
Again, Van Dijk is almost giving his back to his goal, so he is able to see both Doku on the ball and Haaland while being in front of him, not at the same line as we discussed before, to control his movements.
Haaland again tried to exploit the space on the near post as Silva and Álvarez were dragging Matip and Dominik Szoboszlai while Doku is taking on Arnold and ready to cross the ball.
Van Dijk again anticipates Haaland’s movement and denies him from having the advantage of the extra step.
A dangerous cross is saved, thanks to Virgil’s anticipation.
On the replay, we noticed Virgil also scanned Haaland’s positioning twice in one second.
The ball is moving towards Doku on the left half-space, and Virgil makes his move to be in front of Erling.
And now he maintained his position in front of the Norwegian.
Over and above, Haaland tried to make his run towards the far post.
Anyway, Virgil’s position and scanning allowed him to anticipate again.
Even so, a massive clearance from Tsimikas, who was very well positioned.
Haaland is moving towards the back post.
As the second ball bounced to Silva, he made his run towards the far post.
Again, Van Dijk anticipated the run and took backward steps to maintain control of the area of Haaland.
While Haaland was ready to take the shot, Virgil was clearing the ball.
Now, arriving at the most critical moment of the game just a few seconds before Arnold scores the equaliser.
As Doku has the ball on the left side and Matip is stepping to press him, Van Dijk is ahead of Haaland and made his first scan.
A second scan from the Red’s defender to see the positioning of Haaland as well as his teammate Tsimikas.
A third scan as Doku is getting in a 1v1 against Matip: Notice how big the space Van Dijk is left with Haaland in.
A fourth scan and Haaland still to make his run decision.
A fifth scan now from Virgil.
Notice his body shape and positioning that allows him again to be aware of the ball and Haaland, who is trying to be in his blind spot.
A sixth scan from him as Haaland decided to go for the near post with an intelligent timed run.
Doku escaped Matip and was ready to cross the ball.
Van Dijk took the early step as he knew Haaland’s movement already.
An astonishing block from Klopp’s defender that also needed a save from Alisson to deny City’s second goal.
Just a few seconds instead of being two goals down, Liverpool scored from the attacking transition and earned a point owing to Virgil’s ability to deny Erling’s threat.
During the last example, Van Dijk had six scans inside five seconds to be aware of the opposition’s striker movement in front of him.
Moreover, Haaland again with the same movement.
And Virgil with the same position and shape.
Lowering his shoulder to be ready for any movement from Haaland.
As the ball returned to Rodri, Van Dijk moved to get Haaland onside, but the Spanish midfielder picked the free Doku on the flank with a chip pass, and Virgil immediately position straight away.
He returned to be in front of the striker and scanned again.
Haaland once more tries to be on Virgil’s blind side but can’t.
The number four defender can see both the ball and the striker at the same time.
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Conclusion
Due to Liverpool’s defensive approach and tactics, the current Premier League champions couldn’t play as many crosses as they used to. Haaland was unable to get himself in advantageous positions, so he and Van Dijk didn’t get in many duels in the game.
That’s exactly why understanding the good defenders’ performances is so complex and usually goes unnoticed; the great individual ones are avoiding the threat with intelligent positioning and body shape, not just the tackles, blocks and clearances.
As there is no threat, no one will observe the brilliance behind that, in contrast to the offensive players and their moments in the game.
