In Liverpool on Tuesday evening, the contract conditions of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk will grasp within the Anfield sky – however there will likely be another high-profile soon-to-be-out-of-contract determine trying to impress.
Jonathan David might already be within the store window however a giant efficiency for Lille in opposition to the Reds within the Champions League will get everybody speaking about him.
As this window has proven, a centre ahead is among the most troublesome positions to purchase a participant, however this can be a striker in his prime years, coming into the ultimate six months of his profession – and within the type of his profession.
The final calendar yr was an distinctive one for the Canadian striker, with solely three gamers – Salah, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe – getting extra targets and assists than David, who turned 25 on January 14.
Averaging a objective involvement each 86 minutes, David possesses an obsession for getting the ball behind the online. It’s his important attribute, in accordance with one in all his former bosses.
“Since I’ve been a coach, and I’ve been one since 2008, he’s the player who has impressed me the most. He’s incredible,” former Lille supervisor Jocelyn Gourvennec informed Sky Sports activities.
“He is all the time centered on his job, on his sport, scoring targets. No person can disturb that. He is all the time centered, very quiet, very concentrated.
“He likes football, he loves to train.” That was evident throughout Gourvennec’s season answerable for reigning French champions Lille within the 2021-22 marketing campaign.
David was the talisman within the group, with 22 targets that season. However, regardless of his standing, he refused to take a break day.
A day after enjoying 90 minutes of a Ligue 1 sport that time period, the striker was informed to endure a restoration session with solely gamers who have been on the bench or not concerned within the match as a result of prepare.
However there was David together with his boots, on the coaching area, able to go. The rationale? A need to attain.
“He turned up and said: ‘I want to train’,” Gourvennec added.
“I let the staff speak with him and there was some trouble as he was not agreeing with the decision that he played 90 minutes yesterday so he couldn’t train that morning.
“It was as a result of in 4 days, we had one other sport. And he mentioned: ‘I do not perceive it. I am match, I used to be match yesterday. And I’ve to coach as a result of I’ve to attain targets’. It is unbelievable for a coach to have a participant like that.”
Since Gourvennec’s season at Lille working with David, the Canadian forward has struck 26 goals in each of his two full seasons with Lille.
With 17 goals in 30 games so far this term, he is likely to reach, or even surpass, that tally again.
Most of his goals come from inside the penalty area – the area of the pitch where he thrives. And there is a sense of right place, right time with David, especially on the biggest stage.
A number of David’s targets come from photographs within the penalty space
His 4 Champions League targets have come in opposition to Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Actual Madrid.
“He’s very good in front of the goal in the penalty area to keep calm and to place it, not always going for power,” mentioned Gourvennec about David’s ending expertise.
“The goals from a metre out at the back post. Yes, even I can score them it’s easy. But the case with Jonathan is he’s always alone in these situations – then the ball gets to him like a magnet. In the penalty area, he always finds those spaces. It’s like a science of the game.”
However scoring targets just isn’t the one aspect of David’s sport. Three seasons in the past, the ahead didn’t register a single help within the 2021-22 marketing campaign.
However since then, he has registered 20 assists within the final two-and-a-half seasons.
“He is always playing for the team, he likes to score but he’s always happy when he can give an assist for a team-mate,” Gourvennec mentioned.
“He hits 12 kilometres every game, those numbers are like a midfielder. He has high-intensity efforts, always.
“Each three or 4 days, when it’s a must to play two video games in every week, it isn’t an issue for him as a result of he has a excessive degree of restoration.”
David ranked fourth for objective involvements in 2024
Judging by all these expertise – and the targets which have adopted – it beggars perception why David has not been picked up sooner.
In spite of everything, his abilities have been well-documented for a while. It has been 4 years since he guided Lille to the Ligue 1 title in 2021.
However there may be curiosity from all throughout Europe. Not less than 4 Premier League golf equipment are understood to be eager on a 2025 transfer for the striker, with Chelsea and West Ham’s curiosity final summer season made public.
“He didn’t want to stay this long, but the club didn’t open the door for him,” added Gourvennec. “Now he’s in a good position where he can make his choice.
“The membership did not need him to go away, it was not his resolution however he revered that and the opposite gamers within the group.”
And when David heads to Anfield on Tuesday night, it may not be his last action in a Premier League stadium. “I do not know if I can discover myself wherever apart from the Premier League,” mentioned the striker in 2022.
English crowds might should get used to David taking over defences.
