Best CB in the league on current form this season.
Virgil van Dijk | Performances
- Thread starter Samid
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This is the reason i come here. Am a member of a few Liverpool forums but none come close to beating this one. Love the mix of fans all around the world. Best forum out there .
Keep up the good work
not sure what people are on about right now VVD is the best CB in the league, just because we say that does not mean we are saying he is better then Maldini. if hes not then let me no who is. Smalling is a very good defender but he needs someone beside him, infact the 2 would prob make quite a good partnership at the back.
I think that's because he doesn't play for Tottenham.
Quality defending there. World class.
Second time in a week he’s turned his arse and Liverpool have conceded goals. I thought he was supposed to be a ‘colossus’? It’s easy to look good nodding down long balls when your opponent is a foot smaller than you. In the pure basics of defending, van Dijk looks painfully average.
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He could do with losing some of his bulk. He and Smalling are the same height but VVD must be a stone at least heavier and you can see he has moments when he looks quite sluggish in his initial movements. Lovely passer of a ball to the right.
This is the exact reason he was disregarded as a younger player, he has always had these issues only it was more prominent back then. Even though he has proved those who doubted him wrong he hasn't gotten rid of those faults completely, and its something a lot of people either don't know or refuse to acknowledge. It is ok to make a mistake every now and then, but the way he switches off is ridiculous at times and a let down for those who wan't him to be great and not just good. He is good enough for Liverpool and certainly worth whatever they paid to get him, but if they want a real defender, he ain't that.
He has a wobble nearly every game but he commands the area and is a leader. Hard to argue that he hasn’t improved Liverpool defensively.
What's a real defender? LOL
He is excellent for the most part, but the second goal was a ricochet off him, a bit unlucky.
Even sides with great CBs are going to concede once in a while. Especially up against an attack worth like 500 million.
A real defender? Mention like 5 so I will know what you're really talking about.
The one where he tried to tackle with the outside of his right foot? Unlucky? Well he gambled and missed, i don't think that constitutes unlucky as it wasn't really a necessity to stick his foot out in a manner that made him lose control of his body. I would rather call it lucky if he managed to pull it off.
Stam, Terry, Vidic, Chiellini, Silva, Ramos, Nesta. I could have put the word worldclass in there to make it more clear what i mean but it doesn't matter. Van Djik has a lot going for him other than being great at defending. Why take offence by the opinion tho, its just a point of view. I rate Smalling as a better defender, but i wouldn't put him above him in a general sense. Van Djik is a great footballer allover tho, and pretty good defender.
He is good at other things than defending, while lacking in some pretty important areas of what makes a defender great, imo.
I also think him being a leader is vastly overstated at this point.
He's not a real defender, yet he's worth the world record fee LFC paid for him....
Edit: see you clarified above, so disregard.
Wasn’t any better than an average premier league defender there. I was about to start rating him but I am back to not being convinced by him. Liverpool will concede plenty this season.
It's like a Liverpool forum this place sometimes. He's a good defender, end of. Move on! 27 pages ffs
These 2 for a start should not be mentioned in the same breath as a Nesta hes easily a level at least above them and would go as far to say over the rest on your list as well apart from maybe Stam.
in defence of Liverpool with how open they play they will always are going to concede goals. since VVD has arrived they have looked massively better. the keeper is a massive upgrade as well. still think they could have done with another CB even with Gomez doing well so far.
Those crossfield passes though. 
Especially Ramos, not exactly a beacon of flawlessness with his 35 red cards per season.
Yeah because we're going to play sides every week who have an attacking trio as good as PSG.
PSG has one of the best attacking trios on paper but they didn’t show up for the game. Neymar especially was way off pace.
Yeah but he scores goals or something.
It's amazing how many teams play like shite against us or completely switch off. It's almost as if it has something to do with our own ability to make other teams look poor.
Based on what exactly? There is literally no indication this will happen. After van Dijk joined, Liverpool conceded a joint-lowest 10 goals (xG: 12.17, second lowest) last season. This season they have conceded two (xG: 2.94). Both are the lowest in the league.
Sometimes I would agree with you, but not last night. It wasn’t Liverpool's press, it was that PSG were woeful, and their front players had no tendency to do any work off of the ball. Credit to Liverpool for the win, and they could easily have won by three or four.
The PL makes teams stronger because they have to perform every single week to get a result, that’s not the same in the French league.
I wasn't necessarily referring to last night either. Too many times the likes of Brighton are called game-raisers on here but they really aren't, it's just down to United's current inability to take the opponent by their balls that hurts you, small teams are starting to think they have a chance right now and just go for it. Scoring early, and better yet in quick succession, makes sure their belief goes down and you are able to come away with the three points more often than not, and that's something Liverpool does a lot better than United at the moment. Our high pressing, high tempo and quick counters simply make sure other teams are shitting themselves and don't know what to do with the ball. More often than not, that's the cause for them looking/playing like shit.
As for last night, PSG were below average and we took advantage, that happens.
Would be interested to hear from Liverpool fans on who they think is better in their respective position.
Andy Robertson or VvD. I think Robertson is a better left back than VvD is a cb, but I think Van Dijk is comfortably in the top 3/5 cb's in the league.
Andy Robertson or VvD. I think Robertson is a better left back than VvD is a cb, but I think Van Dijk is comfortably in the top 3/5 cb's in the league.
People are actually nitpicking his attempt to stop Neymar running at him 1on1 inside box? 
Best CB in the world on current form
Best CB in the world on current form
People are actually nitpicking his attempt to stop Neymar running at him 1on1 inside box?
Best CB in the world on current form
People get far too forensic when looking at players these days. However, there is absoubtly no basis to say he’s the best CB in the world. Furthermore, if you have to caveat your statement with “on current form” it’s even worse.
Anyone would be regarded the best CB in the world if you just ignored their flaws as easily as you have done here. It isn't a big deal, nitpicking would be to drive the discussion further about his weak attempt to tackle.People are actually nitpicking his attempt to stop Neymar running at him 1on1 inside box?
Best CB in the world on current form
It's interesting because in 6 games so far they've conceded 4 goals, of which two were down to dumb individual mistakes and one was offside and should not have stood. 6 teams and all have barely managed to create any sort of chances against them
People are actually nitpicking his attempt to stop Neymar running at him 1on1 inside box?
Yeah. While not exactly the best piece of defending you'll ever see, United fans will be in for a long season if this is what they base their hopes of defensive weaknesses from Liverpool on.
His weak attempt to tackle was a result of him backing up to face neymar, realizing neymar's touch had been a bit too heavy and overextending to try and nick the ball away
Maybe a mistake, but a minor one in a situation of extreme emergency
I've seen Nesta being mentioned here, yes Nesta obviously was on a different level but he's made plenty of similar "mistakes" in his career
If you look at all the PL games in 2018, Liverpool actually have the most clean sheets. The old "Liverpool concede lots of goals" thing is a bit of a myth nowadays. It applied for a while when they were using Mignolet as their goalkeeper but it's unfortunately stopped since they finally got rid of him as first choice. Sad times.
Uh? He's the best CB in the world right now. As in, he's been the best performing CB over this first month of the season. What's the problem with that?
You would think there was teams that never conceded the way people are talking on this thread
Even all top-class CBs make mistakes and top teams concede, you can always blame someone on a goal but the truth is they outscored their opponent this term and that's what matters. They play way more attacking style than us, if they played pragmatically like us I'd be asking questions why they concede so much but Liverpool sacrifice a bit of their defensive cohesion to more entertaining and aggressive attacking style. It would be so much easier to be deployed next to Nemanja Vidic sit back and play counterattacking style. I think VVD is top class CB and Liverpool did well to spend the money on him.
BTW the defensive line up is interesting: TAA and Gomez they are both 19 and 21, while Robertson is 24 and before last season he played for Hull, they have a new top tier keeper granted it's a good thing it is on the other hand a completely new defensive line-up...
What's more other top class and way more established CB Thiago Silva just conceded 3 goals, he must be shite right? Two goals against Neymar, Mbappe, Cavani is definitely okay considering they managed to score three
BTW the defensive line up is interesting: TAA and Gomez they are both 19 and 21, while Robertson is 24 and before last season he played for Hull, they have a new top tier keeper granted it's a good thing it is on the other hand a completely new defensive line-up...
What's more other top class and way more established CB Thiago Silva just conceded 3 goals, he must be shite right? Two goals against Neymar, Mbappe, Cavani is definitely okay considering they managed to score three
Sensible comments.
Anyone can see Virgil is a top class defender who has steadied us at the back. We have hardly conceded at home. I doubt any defence is going to keep out the PSG front three, even when they are playing poorly, because it only takes one moment of brilliance from them to score.
Based on my eyes and having watched VVD before he joined Liverpool. He's a bit old school in the sense that he dominates aerially. But his reading of the game can be very slow at times and with a young defense around him, those stats aren't going to last for an entire season.