At Liverpool on Tuesday night, the contract situations of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk will hang in the Anfield sky – but there will be another high-profile figure soon to be out of contract. to impress.
Jonathan David may already be in the shop window, but a big performance for Lille against the Reds in the Champions League will have everyone talking about him.
As this window has shown, a centre-forward is one of the most difficult positions to buy a player, but this is a striker in his prime, entering the final six months of his career – and in career form his.
The past calendar year was a standout year for the Canadian striker, with only three players – Salah, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe – getting more goals and assists than David, who turned 25 on January 14.
With an average involvement in a goal every 86 minutes, David has an obsession with getting the ball in the net. It is his main attribute, according to one of his former bosses.
“Since I have been a coach since 2008, he is the player who has impressed me the most. He is outstanding,” said former Lille manager Jocelyn Gourvennec. Sky Sports.
He is always focused on his work, on his game, scoring goals. No one can disturb that. He is always focused, very calm, very concentrated.
He likes football, he likes training.” This was evident during Gourvennec’s season in charge of reigning French champions Lille in the 2021-22 season.
David was the talisman in the team, with 22 goals that season. But despite his status, he refused to take a day off.
A day after playing 90 minutes in a Ligue 1 match that season, the forward was told to undergo a recovery session with only players who were on the bench or not involved in the match due to training.
But there was David in his boots, on the training pitch, ready to go. The reason? The desire to score.
“He came out and said, ‘I want to train,'” added Gourvennec.
“I let the staff talk to him and there was some trouble as he didn’t agree with the decision that he played 90 minutes yesterday so he couldn’t train that morning.
“It was because in four days, we had another game. And he said: “I don’t understand. I’m fit, I was fit yesterday. And I have to train because I have to score goals”. It is unbelievable that a coach has such a player”.
Since Gourvennec’s season at Lille working with David, the Canadian striker has scored 26 goals in each of his two full seasons with Lille.
With 17 goals in 30 games so far this season, he is likely to reach, or even surpass, that mark again.
Most of his goals come from inside the penalty area – the area of the pitch where he thrives. And there’s a sense of right place, right time with David, especially on the biggest stage.
Many of David’s goals come from kicks in the penalty area
His four Champions League goals have come against Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Real Madrid.
“He’s very good in front of goal in the penalty area to keep calm and set it up, not always for power,” Gourvennec said of David’s finishing skills.
“Goals from a meter to the back post. Yes, I can score them too is easy. But the thing with Jonathan is that he is always alone in these situations – then the ball goes to him like a magnet. In the area penalty, he always finds those spaces it’s like a science of the game.
But scoring goals is not the only aspect of David’s game. Three seasons ago, the forward failed to register a single assist in the 2021-22 season.
But since then, he has recorded 20 assists in the last two and a half seasons.
“He always plays for the team, he likes to score, but he is always happy when he can give an assist to a teammate,” said Gourvennec.
“He hits 12 kilometers in every game, those numbers are like a midfielder. He has high-intensity efforts, always.
“Every three or four days, when you have to play two games a week, it’s not a problem for him because he has a high level of recovery.”
David ranked fourth for goal scoring in 2024
Judging by all these skills – and the goals that followed – it beggars belief why David wasn’t taken sooner.
After all, his talents have been well-documented for some time. It has been four years since he led Lille to the Ligue 1 title in 2021.
But there is interest from all over Europe. At least four Premier League clubs are thought to be keen on a move for the striker in 2025, with interest from Chelsea and West Ham made public last summer.
“He didn’t want to stay that long, but the club didn’t open the door for him,” added Gourvennec. “Now he is in a good position where he can make his choice.
“The club didn’t want him to leave, it wasn’t his decision, but he respected him and the other players in the team.”
And when David heads to Anfield on Tuesday night, it may not be his last action at a Premier League stadium. “I don’t know if I can find myself anywhere other than the Premier League,” the striker said in 2022.
English crowds may have to get used to David taking on the defensive.
