Glasgow rumour - Virgil van Dijk

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So given that he's good on the ball and can bring it forwards you can kind of understand why LVG likes him! But doesn't sound like he's good enough defensively. Sounds like jumping out of the frying pan with Blind (who defensively so far has looked excellent much to our surprise) and in to the fire!
 
Rich_H_1989 said:
So given that he's good on the ball and can bring it forwards you can kind of understand why LVG likes him! But doesn't sound like he's good enough defensively. Sounds like jumping out of the frying pan with Blind (who defensively so far has looked excellent much to our surprise) and in to the fire!
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He's not awful in a defensive sense. I personally feel his physicality is often better used in an offensive sense from corners etc. In Europe he's never really stood out like the likes of Wanayama, Forster and Ki have done in the past. In the league he generally looks good but the SPL is no way to gauge a players actual ability. I would definitely say his ability on the ball is better than his defensive abilities. Against the mighty Rosenberg and Berget of Malmo, he was made to look like a donkey.

He's come on leaps and bounds since signing for Celtic and his partnership with Denayer last season was genuinely top notch. It's a testament that he's been noticed at national level whilst playing in the SPL.
 
Robbie Boy said:
He's not awful in a defensive sense. I personally feel his physicality is often better used in an offensive sense from corners etc. In Europe he's never really stood out like the likes of Wanayama, Forster and Ki have done in the past. In the league he generally looks good but the SPL is no way to gauge a players actual ability. I would definitely say his ability on the ball is better than his defensive abilities. Against the mighty Rosenberg and Berget of Malmo, he was made to look like a donkey.

He's come on leaps and bounds since signing for Celtic and his partnership with Denayer last season was genuinely top notch. It's a testament that he's been noticed at national level whilst playing in the SPL.
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See basically from what you've said he's not good enough and we shouldn't sign him... He has been made to look average / poor in the Europa League. Plus he's not stood out in the SPL which has awful quality. They being the case he's no better than a squad player for us and I'd actually much rather we get Blackett back at the end of this season.
 
Rich_H_1989 said:
See basically from what you've said he's not good enough and we shouldn't sign him... He has been made to look average / poor in the Europa League. Plus he's not stood out in the SPL which has awful quality. They being the case he's no better than a squad player for us and I'd actually much rather we get Blackett back at the end of this season.
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Nope I certainly wouldn't take him here at all. He looks about Southamptons' level and even at that, it's not a banker that he would excel there. He would be worth a punt for them for around the £8m mark. And no, I wouldn't want Blackett back. No offence to the lad and I hope he does well at Celtic, but my oh my do I not rate the chap.
 
We may as well have kept Jonny if this clown is his replacement.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Nope I certainly wouldn't take him here at all. He looks about Southamptons' level and even at that, it's not a banker that he would excel there. He would be worth a punt for them for around the £8m mark. And no, I wouldn't want Blackett back. No offence to the lad and I hope he does well at Celtic, but my oh my do I not rate the chap.
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OK let's let Southampton have him then (as if this is a conversation that Woodward will chip in on and agree with)! See I don't know why people have an issue with Blackett. I thought he did really well when he came in early last season. He's good on the ball and has pace to recover situations. I personally think he's better than McNair. But hey LVG doesn't think so and he knows better than I do.
 
Rich_H_1989 said:
OK let's let Southampton have him then (as if this is a conversation that Woodward will chip in on and agree with)! See I don't know why people have an issue with Blackett. I thought he did really well when he came in early last season. He's good on the ball and has pace to recover situations. I personally think he's better than McNair. But hey LVG doesn't think so and he knows better than I do.
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I 100% can't see us bidding for him to be honest. The 'source' seems non-existent and the story stems from us doing business with Celtic over Blackett. Lets not forget they also signed Janko earlier in the summer and signed Boyata and Denayer on loan last season. Obviously they look at reserve / fringe players from top PL clubs. It's a nothing story.

Yeah I don't rate Blackett, nothing against him, I just think he's poor. His so called 'ability' on the ball is massively overstated on here, too. That's just my opinion and a topic for a different thread.
 
Although I am in agreement that he would be a questionable signing i wonder how many of his immediate naysayers have ever even watched a full Celtic game?
 
It's amazing, because most of the pros when they talk about him say he is a far better option than stones as he won't cost a million billion pounds and isn't a million miles away in terms of ability.

But some guys on the caf who have watched him play once say he shite, so do not want.
 
Ducklegs said:
It's amazing, because most of the pros when they talk about him say he is a far better option than stones as he won't cost a million billion pounds and isn't a million miles away in terms of ability.

But some guys on the caf who have watched him play once say he shite, so do not want.
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Anyone who says he's "shite" clearly hasn't watched him. There's actually some good points in this thread if you bother reading it.
 
Van Gaal didn't even pick him for the World Cup last year especially as Holland are hardly blessed in the CB position.

I'd rather sign Vlaar on a free.
 
Wtf we need world class players man how are we gonna compete with city and chelseawith players like this.

Greizmann or muller or bale is what we need and lewandowski too
 
GE said:
Wtf we need world class players man how are we gonna compete with city and chelseawith players like this.

Greizmann or muller or bale is what we need and lewandowski too
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Create a petition saying we should not sign him please.
 
Bojan11 said:
Van Gaal didn't even pick him for the World Cup last year especially as Holland are hardly blessed in the CB position.

I'd rather sign Vlaar on a free.
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Being at a club like Celtic makes it extremely hard to get international recognition from the bigger nations. That's to be expected really.

As for Vlaar, no thanks. He's out for like 4 months minimum and was awful last season.
 
Jason Denayer seems to be quite highly rated, and based on the two of them playing next to each other last season, Virgil van Dijk looks comfortably better than him.

Hard to say if he's good enough for the Premier League, let alone a Top 4 club, but he's definitely far too good for the SPL just now. Strolls through games, never loses a physical battle. He's enormous, but quite mobile as well. With Smalling and Van Dijk at the back, we'd win every aerial ball that comes into our half.

He also scored 10 goals last season, and 6 assists. Decent numbers for a defender.
 
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Robbie Boy said:
Being at a club like Celtic makes it extremely hard to get international recognition from the bigger nations. That's to be expected really.

As for Vlaar, no thanks. He's out for like 4 months minimum and was awful last season.
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Holland were lacking quality CBs in the last World Cup. Hence why Van Gaal played 5 at the back. So I am sure he had a look at him.
 
When people look at targets like Ramos, Hummels, Otamendi etc, a name like this is not going to get you excited but from what I have seen of him, he looks a defender with promise. How that translates into the Premier League, who knows but I remember when we signed Vidic, I was far from impressed. Not saying he will be the next Vidic but far better players have come and failed, some players just need the stage.
 
It's very hard to accurately assess a defende from Scotland since the level of competition they are up against domestically is ridiculously bad compared to what they'd endure in top leagues plus Celtic have hardly had the chance to play big European games over the last year.

I'm not going to write him off because he plays for Celtic though. Wanyama came to Premier League from the same club and has been very good for Southampton, not really much worse than the player we bought for £24m and no one blinked an eye. Van Dijk could have top potential for all I know and I think at the minute we are probably in for a defender since we are left with only four of them (Smalling, Jones, Blind and Rojo) and two are quite injury prone. Given how well our current duo have done and the fact that Jones and Rojo aren't terrible either I think we will be in for back up player who will play 20-25 games at most rather than first choice, so who knows. A promising £8m defender could fit the bill.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Anyone who says he's "shite" clearly hasn't watched him. There's actually some good points in this thread if you bother reading it.
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I haven't said he's shite.

I am perfectly capable of finding the diamonds in the rough myself thank you.
 
He will probably join Southampton before the window closes though.
 
McGeady10 said:
Rumour going around Glasgow that Virgil van Dijk is signing for United and it was during the negotiations for that deal that Blackett ended up at Celtic Park on loan.

£8m up front plus Blackett on a 12 month loan.

If United get Champions Legaue next year there's a £3m fee due to Celtic which would cover making Blackett's move permanent.

Van Dijk is a classy player with a lot of attributes but isn't a natural defender. Will be interesting to see how he does.
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Source?
 
I hope we aren't in for him he looks a pretty average defender. I think it's fair to judge his performance against Malmo as Europe is the only time they get tested. Can't believe LVG watched that and think this is a good idea.
 
Van Gaal's World Cup tactics revolved around the fact that he did not rate his defensive options highly. For this dude to be unable to get into that squad, is surely indicative of the fact that LVG does not rate him.
 
Ducklegs said:
I haven't said he's shite.

I am perfectly capable of finding the diamonds in the rough myself thank you.
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I never said you said he's shite. Your post indicated that everyone in here said he's "shite" when that's not the case at all if you read the posts.
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Jason Denayer seems to be quite highly rated, and based on the two of them playing next to each other last season, Virgil van Dijk looks comfortably better than him.

Hard to say if he's good enough for the Premier League, let alone a Top 4 club, but he's definitely far too good for the SPL just now. Strolls through games, never loses a physical battle. He's enormous, but quite mobile as well. With Smalling and Van Dijk at the back, we'd win every aerial ball that comes into our half.

He also scored 10 goals last season, and 6 assists. Decent numbers for a defender.
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Don't know if Van Dijk was "comfortably better". Both made the team of the year but Denayer also won the YPOTY and has now been capped 3 times by an impressive Belgium side. I had never heard of Denayer before he arrived but he was absolutely outstanding last season for a player playing his first full season in professional football.
 
I haven't heard this whatsoever. The consensus up here is it's definitely Southampton he's off too.
 
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