The best striker in the Premier League versus the best defender in the Premier League in a one-on-one showdown with hundreds of thousands of individuals watching throughout the world?
Liverpool vs Manchester City had far greater issues at stake on Sunday (it completed 1-1 for these of you who reside on Mars) however these few seconds when Erling Haaland took on Virgil van Dijk have been explosive and thrilling.
Two masters of their artwork had nearly 3,500 sq. metres of hallowed Anfield turf to themselves.
Haaland thundered in the direction of objective, dancing round the ball with protracted step-overs and feints, determined to tempt a problem from the sport’s most unflappable centre-half. But the Dutchman resisted, back-tracking in the direction of his personal objective, and although he finally couldn’t cease Haaland from slipping away and taking on the shot, it was an effort comfortably collected by his goalkeeper.
Fantastic defending, or a slice of luck? The Athletic breaks it down, with the assist of former Premier League strikers and centre-backs.
The Premier League title race on The Athletic…
So, the ball breaks, and also you’re staring down a single defender, with the freedom of the pitch to work with. What goes via your head?
“Well, you’re weighing up who you’re up against”, the Premier League’s all-time prime goalscorer Alan Shearer tells The Athletic. “If, for argument’s sake, you’re up against a guy who you know is not as quick, then the obvious thing you’re going to do is knock it and run it.”
“But he knows he isn’t going to do that to Virgil, because the Liverpool defender is one of the few people who can keep up with Haaland — even running backwards.”
The resolution is to unsettle Van Dijk, to throw him off steadiness with a collection of twisting dummies and drives. During a five-second stampede, the Norwegian throws in three physique feints, two modifications of route and one devastating burst of tempo to lastly break free from his defender’s grasp.
Haaland’s first transfer is to dart onto his proper foot; that is throughout the defender’s physique and away from the place Van Dijk is attempting to indicate him, however onto his weaker foot.
Note Van Dijk’s physique form — side-on and crouched low, in a position to shift his physique weight if required. That stance, in response to former Ivory Coast centre-back Sol Bamba, is essential to the battle.
“Usually, if I was coaching a young defender, I would not tell them to turn their back to the ball so much. But Van Dijk never loses sight of where Haaland is — he is low on his knees and side-on, which means he is prepared to spring in any direction to follow his run.”
Seconds later, and Haaland has modified tack as soon as once more.
“What he’s trying to do is go left, go right, go left, go right, and then try to get Virgil off balance to gain control of the duel. But the defender doesn’t dive in, he stands up the whole way,” says Shearer.
It is a transfer for which Van Dijk has turn out to be famend throughout his imperious spell at the coronary heart of Liverpool’s defence, famously warding Tottenham’s Moussa Sissoko onto his left foot throughout an analogous break again in 2019.
Statistically, that exhibits via with the ‘true’ tackles metric, which mixes tackles gained and misplaced, in addition to fouls dedicated whereas trying a sort out, to measure how usually a participant appears to “stick a foot in”. Over the final 5 seasons, Van Dijk averages simply 2.2 sort out makes an attempt per sport, however crucially, his success price is up at a really excessive 61 per cent.
“He never dives in and that’s an art”, says Bamba. “It is so easy to be tempted to go in for the tackle, but if you dive in, someone like Haaland is just going to push the ball past you and beat you.”
“If it was me, I probably would have committed,” Bamba continues, “Neil Warnock used to say to us, ‘If the ball passes, the striker doesn’t!’.”
“But it takes real discipline to back off like that. Van Dijk is clever, plays with his head and reads the game really well.”
The relentless Haaland continues to twist and switch at the same time as the areas proceed to be shut down.
Having already turned Van Dijk round twice, the striker crops his proper foot as if he’s about to pull the ball over along with his left, however as a substitute geese to the reverse aspect and continues onto his stronger foot.
Here we are able to see the refined transfer in three frames, as Haaland nudges the ball beneath Van Dijk’s trailing boot and powers in the direction of the penalty space.
The ensuing shot, nevertheless, is weak, and Shearer places that all the way down to the defensive stress.
“Because he hadn’t had much joy in going left and right, Haaland is thinking, ‘Right, I’m going to run out of time in a minute, so I have to get my shot away pretty quickly’.”
“In reality, he would have preferred to be another three or four yards closer, so that’s part of Van Dijk doing his job and making the forward’s mind up to take the shot where he has done”
Having saved near Haaland all the manner via, the defender even manages to lean into the striker simply as he’s lining up his shot.
Off steadiness, compelled large, and along with his angles narrowed down, affected person defensive play and fixed consideration to the ball have minimised the likelihood of the world’s most deadly striker getting a clear shot away, an effort valued at 0.10 anticipated objectives by Opta, primarily suggesting a median participant would have a ten per cent likelihood of scoring. Not a foul consequence from an intimidating one-v-one.
“He makes it so uncomfortable for him,” says Bamba, “He is so close to him for 40 metres, and forces him into a difficult shot.”
“I would’ve fancied it in my heyday, yeah!” chuckled Shearer, requested if he would have loved such a showdown in a large sport comparable to this. You can’t begrudge the confidence from a person with 260 Premier League objectives.
But there aren’t many gamers in world soccer who can reliably beat Van Dijk in a one-v-one, as his newest titanic tussle confirmed.
“He would have believed in himself in that situation, Haaland, but it just didn’t happen”, stated Shearer, “and that was more through really, really good defending than it was poor attacking play.”
Let’s hope we get a re-run once more quickly.
(Top picture: Premier League)
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