Speaking on the Sky Sports Football Podcast, Jamie Carragher has been previewing the crunch clash between Manchester City and Liverpool this weekend.
For the first time in years, the Reds head into a game at Anfield as underdogs, and all eyes are on one man heading into this game – Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian has made the Premier League his plaything so far this season, netting 15 goals in nine games, and, understandably, there has been so much discussion ahead of this game.
However, while everyone else is focused on Haaland, Carragher says that Jurgen Klopp’s side should be more focused on stopping Kevin De Bruyne.
De Bruyne the dangerman
Carragher spoke about Liverpool needing to stop De Bruyne.
“If you stop De Bruyne you take 50 per cent away from Haaland as well, I think that connection they have you can see it already, De Bruyne is the best midfield player in the world, so I’d be more focused on De Bruyne than Haaland,” Carragher said.
“I think Kevin de Bruyne is the best midfield player in the world. I think he has been for the last four or five years. I wrote a newspaper column talking about where he ranks in terms of the best midfield players we’ve seen in the Premier League, and I think he’s close to being right at the top of that.”
Stop them all
It’s all well and good saying that Liverpool need to stop Kevin De Bruyne, but even if they nullify the Belgian, City have so many other creative attacking weapons.
Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden or Jack Grealish can all take the game by the scruff of the neck in the same way De Bruyne can, and good luck stopping all of those guys.
The reality is that City have so many threats, and Liverpool will have to be at their very best to get anything here.
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