Maxime Esteve has a secret he would rather his new RB Leipzig teammates never found out: this time last year, he had scored more goals for Manchester City than anyone except Erling Haaland.
Both of them were own goals, scored for Burnley at the Etihad Stadium. The 24-year-old French centre-back left Burnley for Leipzig in the summer, and on Wednesday night he could come face to face with City again when Enzo Maresca’s side visit the Red Bull Arena in the Champions League.
“Maybe they don’t even know,” Esteve joked when he told Sky Sports about those two own goals. “This is a secret. You don’t have to say!”
The joke hides a serious ambition. Esteve has sat on the bench for Leipzig’s opening two Champions League games, and he badly wants his first minutes in the competition. City, of all teams, are next.
Why Maxime Esteve can laugh about the Etihad now
Own goals aside, Esteve was one of Burnley’s best players, and his manager at the time, Scott Parker, made sure he knew it. Esteve still remembers the meeting on the Monday after the City game.
“He told me, ‘Max, this is nothing. This is really, really nothing,'” Esteve said. “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.” He still insists the second one was “really, really unlucky”.
“The best striker I have played against”
Harry Kane may have just won the Ballon d’Or, but Esteve does not rate anyone above Erling Haaland. “I played just two games against him, but you can see that he is, I think, maybe the best striker in the world,” he said. “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 him? Esteve’s answer is that you have to defend two ways at once. When Haaland drops in to combine with players such as Rayan Cherki in tight spaces, Burnley tried to stay close to him. Then there is the aerial threat.
“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 explained. “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.”
That fits what Maresca said on Tuesday, when he told City’s other attackers they cannot rely on Erling for every goal. If Leipzig crowd Haaland the way Esteve describes, the space will be there for someone else.
Down to 34 or 36 kilometres an hour
Esteve’s homework on strikers goes well beyond where they like to shoot. He studies their top speed, because it decides how high he can hold the line. “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? 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.”
Two former City defenders in his corner
There is a City thread through his whole career in England. Vincent Kompany, now in charge of Bayern Munich, was the Burnley manager in Esteve’s first season, and his current boss at Leipzig is another former City defender, Martín Demichelis, who has already put his own job on the line this season.
“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,” Esteve said. “We do not play the same football, 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.”
Life in Germany suits him, timekeeping included (“They do not accept anyone being late!”), and so does the target at RB Leipzig: “The objective here is to qualify for the Champions League every season.”
Will Esteve play against Man City?
That is still open. Esteve has been listed as a doubt with a knock this week, and he admits he would like more minutes than he has had since the move. “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,” he said. “If I get this opportunity to play, I will be the most happy in the world, to be honest.”
Kick-off: Wednesday 4 November, 8pm UK time
Venue: Red Bull Arena, Leipzig
City go into matchday four with six points from three games, 10th in the 36-team table, after back-to-back Premier League defeats. A win in Leipzig would push them towards the top eight.
Verdict: Haaland will enjoy seeing him again
Esteve is good company and clearly a thoughtful defender, but his own words make the case for City. By his account, Haaland hardly touched the ball against Burnley and was still the man he had to watch every second. If Demichelis hands Esteve his Champions League debut on Wednesday, City should test him early, with balls to the back post and runners around Haaland. Just no own goals this time, Max. Or maybe one.
