Danny Mills has spotted a ‘huge worry’ for Liverpool with regards to Manchester City hitman Erling Haaland.
Although Liverpool have spent £85 million on signing Darwin Nunez, Pep Guardiola nabbing Haaland might be the biggest and most impressive deal that any Premier League club manages this summer.
Jurgen Klopp will be determined to avenge the pain of last season, with the Reds losing the Premier League title by a single point to Manchester City.
However, the lack of an out-and-out striker held Guardiola’s side back last term and considering they arguably have the best number nine in world football now, well it could be difficult for the Reds to catch their fierce rivals next time around.
And Mills has highlighted something else which should concern Liverpool.
With the World Cup happening in Qatar in November, Haaland will be revitalised for the second half of the campaign considering that Norway – his nation – haven’t qualified and Mills believes it gives the Sky Blues an advantage over everyone else in the Premier League.
He told Sky Sports: “The advantage that City will have, when they get to the World Cup break after the 12th of November, Erling Haaland’s going to get a rest as he’s not going to the World Cup. He’s going do what he’s done for the last few seasons and get a winter break. So that’ll mean he’ll be even fresher for the back end of the season which again is a huge worry for everybody else.”
The Sky pundit is right in saying that Haaland should, in theory, be a lot fresher than many other Premier League players come the second half of the 2022-23 season.
However, it’s worth pointing out that Egypt haven’t qualified for the World Cup either, meaning Mohamed Salah will be similarly as fresh as the former Borussia Dortmund hitman, going by the same logic.
No matter how good Haaland is for City, he can’t possibly be more influential than Salah is for Liverpool and therefore the ‘advantage’ is cancelled out.
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