A reunion with Manchester City brings bad memories for the RB Leipzig defender Maxime Esteve. He scored two own goals at the Etihad Stadium last year. Not that he has advertised this to his new teammates. “Maybe they don’t even know,” he jokes.
It is an amusing statistic that this time last year, indeed until the final days of November, a dozen games into the Premier League season, Esteve had found the net for City more times than everyone bar Erling Haaland. “This is a secret. You don’t have to say!”
The 24-year-old French centre-back left Burnley for Leipzig in the summer and the truth is that he is aching to face City again. He has been on the bench for their opening two Champions League games and is desperate to make his debut in the competition.
“Five years ago, when I was a young kid at Montpellier, my former club, I would have killed to be in this situation now, even if sometimes you do not have the playing time that you want,” he explains. “It was always a dream to play for a Champions League club.”
Unlucky own goals aside – “and I remember the second was really, really unlucky”, Esteve insists – he was brilliant for Burnley. Even in that game against City, his manager Scott Parker made a point of highlighting all his good work in the analysis afterwards.
“I had a meeting on the Monday with him. He told me, ‘Max, this is nothing. This is really, really nothing.’ Instead, he showed me the good things that I did in the game. Just for the confidence, it was good. It was a bad memory for me at the time but this is football.”
Phil Foden and Erling Haaland celebrate an own goal by Burnley’s Esteve
Will there be more bad memories after coming up against Haaland again? Esteve acknowledges that Harry Kane has just been honoured with the Ballon d’Or but in his view nobody is better than Haaland. “The best striker I have played against,” he says.
“I played just two games against him, but you can see that he is, I think, maybe the best striker in the world. For years, I think he will still be in this position. He is so powerful, so good at heading, so quick. All of the qualities to be a beast.” So, how do you stop that?
It is not easy because the temptation is to get tight. “I remember when I played against him, he played with other players, maybe with Rayan Cherki, for example, in the small spaces, so we tried to stay around him.” And yet, in a physical battle, it is just as tough.
“You can see as well the habit to sometimes just chip it to the back post and he comes really, really aggressive on you with a big header. He is really good in this box position against the defender, every time in a good position to just finish really good.
“I think he adapts his football against the opponent he is going to play. He did not really touch the ball during the game. He is not that active with the ball. But every time you have to be focused 100 per cent because you know that in one second he can score.”
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Erling Haaland was spotted dancing on the pitch after Man City’s shoot-out win over Brighton
Esteve is unusually thoughtful and you sense that he welcomes detail in his coaching. For example, his video work on opposition strikers extends far beyond their shooting habits. He is fascinating when discussing how their speed dictates his movement.
“It helps you just for the confidence to say, OK, this guy is running at 36 kilometres [per hour] or is he running at 34 [kilometres per hour]? It is quite important because you might have to manage the line a little bit higher or this kind of thing. It is small details.”
Maybe it is a product of working with a City legend in Vincent Kompany. The now Bayern Munich coach was in charge at Burnley during Esteve’s first season in England. He sees similarities with his current coach, another former City defender in Martin Demichelis.
“It is quite funny. They still want to stay really fit. They play in training. You can see they are quite competitive. They don’t want to lose. You can see it. It is still really important for them. They are quite young coaches so they have the new idea of football.”
He adds: “We do not play the same football [as Kompany at Leipzig], but in terms of energy, time, work and professionalism, I am going to say they are quite similar. In terms of meetings, they are really perfectionists. They arrive early and they leave really late.”
Esteve has enjoyed a promising start to his career at RB Leipzig
That time-keeping is a feature of life in Germany. “They do not accept anyone being late!” But Esteve is having no problem adjusting. “The facilities, the food, the organisation, everything.” The demands are something of a step up after relegation.
“The objective here is to qualify for the Champions League every season.” For now, he just wants to play in it. “If I get this opportunity to play, I will be the most happy in the world, to be honest, because you want to realise your dream when you are a kid.
“It is time to integrate myself in the new league, in a new club, new culture as well. For sure, in terms of playing time, I would like to play more, but that is [true] for every player, to be honest. But it is a time for integration and I am here for a long time, I hope.
“I am really happy and really patient. When you come to a bigger club, there is more competition in your position and I totally get that. I just have to wait for my time.” That time looks set to come against Man City, of all teams. Just no own goals, please…
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
