GRAEME SOUNESS: Van Dijk can silence the doubters by pocketing Haaland

There is a lot of talk these days about artificial intelligence and its implications for the future. Well, I have to tell you that the concept has already reached the Premier League. Erling Haaland looks like a modern robot and the question everyone will be asking themselves this weekend is how Liverpool and Virgil van Dijk can deal with him?

“With difficulty,” is the easy answer. When you’re Van Dijk, you usually think about the attacker you’re playing against and you decide: ‘I’m faster than him. I can surpass him. I am stronger than him’.

Perhaps for the first time tomorrow Van Dijk’s thoughts will be: ‘Maybe he is faster than me. He may be stronger than me. Maybe he can jump past me’. This is unknown territory for him.

But no matter how invincible an opponent seems and how few cracks there are in his armor, there is always the psychological dimension. There is always a chance for a player to take the opportunity, which is what Van Dijk must do on Sunday. Regardless of Van Dijk’s form, regardless of where Liverpool are right now, this is a game that will have him licking his lips. He’s going to play against the man they all adore. He can silence them. Put all that white noise outside. He can say to himself, ‘If I go out and have Haaland in my pocket, they won’t talk like that anymore’.

At Liverpool, I never thought about the opposition for a week. It was all about us. In the tunnel before the race I tried to wind myself up. I didn’t need anyone to do that for me.

When it came to play, I made it personal. At Wembley in the Community Shield, Haaland accidentally flattened Van Dijk with a swinging arm at one point. That would have been more than enough motivation for me.

However, I’m not sure if Van Dijk has such a character. I haven’t seen him angry yet. He sometimes looks like a movie star. I don’t think that’s conscious. I just don’t think that anger is in him and I don’t think it’s the kind of person that he is.

That image of James Milner giving him a piece of his mind during the Manchester United defeat two months ago was revealing. I’ve seen Jordan Henderson do the same with Van Dijk. If that had been a team-mate of mine screaming at me – and senior players at Liverpool certainly would, because that’s what collective responsibility looked like – I wouldn’t have taken it. My answer would have been, ‘Oh, for God’s sake yes, so you’ve done your job’, although what that teammate had said would register.

Van Dijk’s reaction seemed almost subservient. These are young men, full of testosterone, with egos that would choke a horse. It was hard to believe a player would let that pass.

The problem with Haaland is that he never stalls. He lives for everything until the whistle is blown or the ball is out of play.

And he has a quality of movement that belies his years. The karate kick goal he scored against Borussia Dortmund last month suggests he is doing more than just the normal stretching and mobility work on the training pitch. The timing and direction of his build-up run were less noticeable, but extremely clever. At 22 he plays with the same nous as Harry Kane at 29. I’ve played with Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish, Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini, but I can’t think of anyone at such a young age who would analyze a situation in a nanosecond like Haaland does.

That’s why mindset is so important tomorrow. Van Dijk’s first run with Haaland is going to be an interesting one.

In that regard, the old Bill Shankly saying that they preached to us – ‘the first six feet is in your head, son’ – is as true today as ever.

Then there’s the first time they jump for a ball together. Who surpasses who? If Van Dijk wins these first challenges, Anfield will react. In that respect it is a stadium like no other. The trouble is, the reaction of a player from Haaland’s class is, “He just beat me there. He’s not going to beat me a second time.” You have to beat him again and again.

Pep Guardiola said this week when players rest in Copenhagen that Haaland and others were tired, but I don’t believe that. I can’t see how tired a player is after 14 games, especially if the team wins every week. That’s a dangerous road for managers, where you plant a seed in their head about fatigue.

Of course, Haaland is by no means the only world-class threat. Phil Foden is on fire and will cause a problem. It won’t be easy for Joe Gomez, who could see a lot of Foden and who probably sees himself more as a central half than a right-back.

That’s why it’s all about the midfield that doesn’t allow City to look up and pick a pass.

But this is Liverpool’s chance to fool the people who doubted them.

‘The Empire crumbles’ was one of the headlines when City came to Anfield and beat us 3-1 in the winter of 1981. We got a lot of satisfaction from turning that into an infamous headline.

Ronaldo instills confidence in Manchester United and sows fear in the opposition

There was an immediate foreboding feeling when Cristiano Ronaldo took to the field against Everton last Sunday.

The fans clearly sensed the danger and so did some Everton players.

Jordan Pickford and James Tarkowski seemed more nervous in possession. That’s what this player does to you. He brings faith.

He roams around, as he has every right to do.

That gives his team a faith and an arrogance that intimidates opponents, makes some a little anxious and perhaps forgets their own work. If Ronaldo never adds to his total of 700 goals and Haaland plays until he is 37, Haaland would have to score 37 goals per season for 15 years to equal his record. Even if Haaland continues to score at his current incredible pace, he would score 613 goals.

Mind blow. I hardly need to reinforce my point that this is a player United should do everything they can to stay at the heart of their team.

I wish my great friend ‘Whip’ a speedy recovery after his stroke

I’m so happy to hear that my old Liverpool team-mate David Fairclough – the player we called ‘Whip’ – is recovering from a stroke. We lived side by side in Sandfield Park, around the corner from Melwood, and got to know each other very well.

He is remembered for the legendary night against Saint-Etienne at Anfield in 1977, when he scored a goal six minutes from time as a substitute and took the team to the European Cup final.

The ‘Supersub’ tag can be difficult for him at times. He wanted to start competitions as much as we did. But he was always ready when called upon; a goalscorer of big and important goals whose speed and directness worried defenders when he came on. I wish my old friend a speedy recovery.

Rangers played with an inferiority complex on Wednesday night

I was back at Ibrox on Wednesday night as a guest of my old club Rangers. The 7-1 win made it a great opportunity for Liverpool, but I was disappointed that Rangers looked like a side with an inferiority complex.

I accept that the way the Premier League has evolved creates a financial gap. Liverpool’s most expensive player was Darwin Nunez, who cost £85 million. Rangers’ most expensive player, Ryan Kent, cost 6.5 million pounds. But Rangers would either be flipped over by Liverpool or come in their face, and they never got around to it. They never really believed in what they were doing. I left the ground feeling that they had let their supporters down by not showing the faith that is an essential part of being a player at that great club.

Liverpool will not have been fooled by the deficit. They know that tomorrow will be a very different proposition.