Antonio Rudiger, a player for Real Madrid, talked about how only two defenders can really stop Erling Haaland. These defenders are Virgil van Dijk from Liverpool and William Saliba from Arsenal.
Haaland has already scored 10 goals in this season’s Premier League. Since he joined his team, he has scored an amazing 101 goals in 107 matches.
Rudiger has played against Haaland four times while with Real Madrid and found it tough to play against him. But he noticed that Van Dijk and Saliba have done well when facing Haaland.
“I like being a defender who enjoys the challenge with strong and quick players like Haaland. He is very powerful,” Rudiger said in an interview.
“I don’t know what he eats or how he trains, but his strength is incredible.
“When he scores goals, if there’s a high pass to him, he nearly always gets it. It’s very hard to stop him. If he wants to, he can overpower you easily.
“He’s really tough to play against, it’s unbelievable. Yes, he didn’t score against us at Real Madrid but came close by hitting the crossbar, so we had some luck.
“How do I get ready to play against someone like him? It’s difficult, but you need to be ready to use your strength and stay close to him so he doesn’t have room to move quickly.
“If you try to run with him, it’s difficult because he can push you away with his strength.
“There are not many players who can match him physically. From what I have seen in the past few years, Virgil van Dijk is tall and strong like him and does well. Saliba has also done a good job too.”