It was the second striking shootout between superstars in the space of a few days. After Lionel Messi 2 Kylian Mbappe 3 came Erling Haaland 1 Mohamed Salah 1; the 3-2 this time referred to their respective sides’ scores. It was the immediate reminder the World Cup did not feature some of the planet’s finest forwards. Such can be the fate of players from smaller or less successful footballing nations and if this may be the last World Cup for quite some time which does not feature Haaland, Salah, affected by injury in 2018, may never play in one at his physical peak. Even the younger man is unlikely to join Messi and Mbappe in the ranks of those who have earned the most prestigious prize in the international game.
They may be more reliant on their clubs for succour, solace and status. Between them, they have 39 goals before Christmas in a season where they have had a five-week hiatus. The World Cup-winning striker, though, was Julian Alvarez, who sat out Manchester City’s enthralling Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool. And yet, while Salah seems likely to cede his Premier League Golden Boot to Haaland, the Egyptian is not the luckless individual burdened with most comparisons to him.
Go back almost four months and, in a tale of striking signings and different debuts, Haaland’s was the quiet affair of a newcomer on a separate wavelength from his new colleagues. Darwin Nunez’s was explosive and excellent, a match-winning Community Shield cameo where he looked a natural fit capped by his first Liverpool goal. A first rematch in October came with Nunez benched and Haaland drawing another blank. A second brought a further shift in fortunes.
The buy from Borussia Dortmund began with 23 in 16 games against everyone else, none in two against Liverpool. It was statistically improbable that anyone would keep Haaland quiet in three consecutive games and Liverpool certainly did not.
He is not a player defined by quantity of touches, but quality. He had 16 in his first game against Liverpool, 15 in the third: he should have scored with one inside 20 seconds, did find the net with another after 10 minutes and, but for a remarkably bad finish from Cole Palmer, could have had another. He was a marauding menace.
So, in a different way, was Nunez. The difference lay in the end product. In a season when he has nine goals to Haaland’s 24, perhaps that was fitting. Nunez had four shots, three of them excellent chances, all dragged past the far post. Most were close, but it Haaland directs a higher percentage of his shots on target; 51-41 in the Premier League. They are different kinds of guarantees: Haaland of goals, Nunez of entertainment. He can offer a magnetism and an erraticism. He has an eye-catching inconsistency.
He also set up Salah’s goal. “We had chances especially using Darwin in behind where we had spaces,” Jurgen Klopp said, and it was a blistering piece of acceleration from Nunez to sprint in behind Aymeric Laporte. It showed a threat and continued a trend: his three assists for Liverpool have all been for Salah. If that burgeoning understanding bodes well, Liverpool have a need for creativity from a player whose most obvious attributes involve physicality, even if that gives him the chance to get into terrific positions.
Because while no one else has had a pair of full-backs as capable of making goals, a fundamental difference between Liverpool and City has come in midfield. Klopp has not had a Kevin de Bruyne; given Liverpool’s success in recent years, he has not always needed one. But the Belgian’s two sumptuous crosses proved the difference. If missing the World Cup may have provided a motivation for Salah and Haaland, exiting it early and ignominiously might have given De Bruyne still more drive. For him, like them, ambitions can only be realised in the club game.
“He just has to find the right fire inside of himself, just to be a little bit, I would say grumpy or upset to play his best,” Pep Guardiola said.
Jan Vertonghen may have felt De Bruyne was too grumpy, disputing his analysis that Belgium were too old to win the World Cup. The Victor Meldrew of Belgian football was vindicated but City benefited from his grumpiness.
“That is his energy inside of him,” Guardiola said. “When this happens, what a player - run, assist, score a goal – he is more than a player. I know it is not easy to find every three days this consistency but today he has something inside that says, ‘I am going to it, I want to fight.’
“When this happens it is Mr Kevin de Bruyne: for eight years he has done everything for this club, an absolute legend, he will be remembered forever as one of the greatest, greatest, greatest players of this club.”
A few months suggest legendary status beckons for Haaland, too, especially if he continue to benefit from De Bruyne’s passing and crossing.
