Manchester City took a point against Liverpool on Sunday in the Premier League – and an interesting statistic has emerged from the game.
Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp locked horns for the final time as Premier League managers, with the German leaving his post at the end of the season.
John Stones gave City the lead in the first-half after a well worked corner routine, but Alexis Mac Allister equalised from the penalty spot after Ederson had fouled Darwin Nunez.
Stefan Ortega came on for City after Ederson couldn’t continue following his challenge on Nunez, and the City number two gave a solid account of himself.
Ortega was praised by Joleon Lescott, who said he was ‘composed’.
One man who didn’t have a particularly good afternoon at Anfield was Erling Haaland – and a statistic has emerged that doesn’t reflect well on the Norwegian or City…
Erling Haaland managed 11 fewer touches than Stefan Ortega for Manchester City against Liverpool
City fans were hoping to see an Erling Haaland masterclass on Sunday, especially after he had responded to the comments made by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
But unfortunately, the 23-year-old was extremely quiet against the Reds, with the centre-backs, Virgil van Dijk and Jarell Quansah, both pretty solid.
They didn’t give him too much, but City also didn’t really involve him much.
Haaland can have these kinds of games where he doesn’t have very many touches, but his final statistic on Sunday was pretty alarming.
According to Sofascore data, Haaland only had 22 touches in the game. This was the fewest of any player who started the match. Damningly, this was actually 10 fewer than City’s sub goalkeeper Ortega, who entered the game on 56 minutes.
A day to forget for Haaland
Haaland only really had one big moment in the game, and it was when he was driving at van Dijk in the first-half before getting an early shot away.
That aside, he was virtually anonymous for City which was frustrating, but credit has to go to the Liverpool centre-halves.
Kevin De Bruyne going off when he did also didn’t help the number nine’s cause.
We’ve seen Haaland have very quiet games for City, but if anything that only increases the likelihood of him scoring in the next game, such is his determination and insatiable appetite for goals.
