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As the manager who brought Virgil van Dijk to Britain and was later in charge of the first British club to face Erling Haaland,\u00a0Neil Lennon has a unique insight into the battle between the Premier League\u2019s best striker and defender.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019ll be a Clash of the Titans,\u2019 he says succinctly. \u2018Knowing Virg, he has that cold confidence about him, but then again so does Haaland. It\u2019s going to be a fascinating watch.\u2019<\/p>\n
Part of the intrigue is that Haaland has exploded into English football like no one before. He has 20 goals in 13 matches, figures that haven\u2019t been reached since the 1920s.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Van Dijk \u2014 a Ballon d\u2019Or nominee not long ago \u2014 has looked uncharacteristically vulnerable in a Liverpool team that shipped three goals lately against Brighton and Arsenal.<\/p>\n
Lennon took the Dutchman to Celtic from Groningen for \u00a32.6million in 2013, surely one of the bargains of the century.<\/p>\n
He knows Van Dijk as a character as well as a player and interestingly says a duel with the mighty Haaland is probably what the 31-year-old needs right now.<\/p>\n
\u2018Virgil will look forward to it. He will want to prove he\u2019s still the top dog,\u2019 says Lennon, now manager of Omonia Nicosia. \u2018He has been a bit off for his levels this season but he can go through the gears when he really wants to. From what I\u2019ve seen, he is still capable of turning on the burners and be a proper defender.<\/p>\n
\u2018He is a real physical specimen and so is Haaland. Virgil will fancy it I think. He\u2019ll go \u201cRight, come on, let\u2019s see what you\u2019ve got\u201d. When world-class players like him get criticism, they\u2019ll come back for more. They won\u2019t shirk responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was amazed a big club didn\u2019t take him from Celtic because he was awesome, not just in the Scottish League but Champions League also. A couple of managers asked me about him and I said \u201cWhat are you waiting on?!\u201d This kid was a Rio Ferdinand. But they weren\u2019t sure, so he went to Southampton and the rest is history.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve followed his career with admiration and he\u2019s a lovely boy as well. I am not surprised he has set such a high standard. When you dip, people start questioning you but he\u2019s still got it. The problem is Haaland is unbelievable as well!\u2019<\/p>\n
Lennon also had an early glimpse of Haaland \u2014 who ididn\u2019t score against Van Dijk in City\u2019s Community Shield defeat by Liverpool. The Norwegian was 18 when he scored twice against Lennon\u2019s Hibs in the Europa League in 2018.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the manager who brought Virgil van Dijk to Britain and was later in charge of the first British club to face Erling Haaland,\u00a0Neil Lennon has a unique insight into the battle between the Premier League\u2019s best striker and defender. \u2018It\u2019ll be a Clash of the Titans,\u2019 he says succinctly. \u2018Knowing Virg, he has that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":183002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183001"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183003,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183001\/revisions\/183003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}