Balloon D'Or 2020
1. Van Dijk
2. Martial
3. Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira
Believe.
1. Van Dijk
2. Martial
3. Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira
Believe.
Virgil van Dijk | Performances
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
He's a top defender but understandably a bit overrated by Liverpool fans.
I think that he's a bit too laid-back for a CB. On the one hand, this makes him look very composed and cool. But I'm not sure he can be a proper leader. Think he lacks the competitive edge of Ramos, Chellini, Vidic and even Laporte.
I think that he's a bit too laid-back for a CB. On the one hand, this makes him look very composed and cool. But I'm not sure he can be a proper leader. Think he lacks the competitive edge of Ramos, Chellini, Vidic and even Laporte.
Can’t stand Liverpool but Van Dijk is a good player. The comments of “Smalling’s level” are laughable.
He’s bettter than any defender we have got and would easily walk into our defence as we are severely lacking a CB like him. He had a poor game last night but he doesn’t have that many compared to ours. Also was up against the likes of Neymar, Mbappe & Cavani plus his cb partner last night was Dejan fecking Lovren. Our defence would get ripped apart by that front 3.
He’s bettter than any defender we have got and would easily walk into our defence as we are severely lacking a CB like him. He had a poor game last night but he doesn’t have that many compared to ours. Also was up against the likes of Neymar, Mbappe & Cavani plus his cb partner last night was Dejan fecking Lovren. Our defence would get ripped apart by that front 3.
Pretty sure @ShadesOfTomato said something about him winning it in a few years.
He's been banging on that if Varane can be touted for the top 3 of the Ballon d'Or then so can Van Dijk because Dijk is already better than Varane.
I think he has improved liverpool’s stability a lot. One of the best CB in PL in my opinion and plays a dominant role.
To everybody who thinks Smalling is only good defensively, there are not many CB who score more goals than him. So even if he is not that good with his feet, he contributes to the attack. 4 PL goals last season, compared to Sanchez 2 goals, Mata 3 goals, Pogba 6 goals. Not too bad.
To everybody who thinks Smalling is only good defensively, there are not many CB who score more goals than him. So even if he is not that good with his feet, he contributes to the attack. 4 PL goals last season, compared to Sanchez 2 goals, Mata 3 goals, Pogba 6 goals. Not too bad.
Not so sure, I think Smalling and Lindelof did a decent job against Juve trio: Ronaldo, Dyabala, Cuadrado.
But agree that van Dijk is a higher level than those two.
What does this have to do with consistent defensive cardinal sins? For some reason when defending a player theres always deflections onto how his teammates are bad when elite players dont need that excuse, they infact do the opposite they raise the level of other players.
Van Dyke failed to make a standard ball clearance and then barely moved to react to Bernat. This has absolutely nothing to do with a DM (the same DM that he has no problem with in the league) and everything to do with him consistently losing concemtration and not having awareness of his surroundings.
Van Dyke is far too easy to get a run on in his blindside for me to consider him an elite defender. Its been a feature of his since his Southampton days and its not a surprise he looks amazing in the PL and suspect in europe whers better players can take advantage of chinks in his armour.
Van Dijk is comfortably better than Smalling and even Caf favourite Varane. I think there was a stat which showed Real conceding thrice the amount of goals with him in the team. He is not having a good season.
That's absolute bullshit. Whenever he does make a mistake, you lot brush it under the table like it hadn't happened. Same thing when his complete slice of a clearance landed at the feet or a striker in the 6 yard box against Huddersfield, or when he put in a shocking displace against Red Star.
Stop that now, you have to praise Liverpool and everything Liverpool related otherwise they get upset.
Varane is pretty awful this season, but all his Ballon D‘Or talk was based on his performances in last season‘s CL and during the world cup, where he had a level which Van Dijk is not even anywhere close to.
Van Dijk‘s level is pretty similar to what Hummels had during his peak (2011-2014), but Varane exceeded that big time when you talk about it purely in a defensive sense. Obviously both are better ball players than Varane, but it is not a weakness of his.
Other defenders who won the Ballon D‘Or: Beckenbauer, Sammer, Cannavaro
I can comfortably say that Van Dijk does not belong in this category
Van Dijk‘s level is pretty similar to what Hummels had during his peak (2011-2014), but Varane exceeded that big time when you talk about it purely in a defensive sense. Obviously both are better ball players than Varane, but it is not a weakness of his.
Other defenders who won the Ballon D‘Or: Beckenbauer, Sammer, Cannavaro
I can comfortably say that Van Dijk does not belong in this category
Of course he doesn't. He's not better than Varane either just because he's been better this season. Only a few defenders currently playing come close to the level Varane reached last year (imo Chiellini and Godin although they do benefit from their set-up and overall quality of the entire Juventus/Atlético defense).Varane is pretty awful this season, but all his Ballon D‘Or talk was based on his performances in last season‘s CL and during the world cup, where he had a level which Van Dijk is not even anywhere close to.
Van Dijk‘s level is pretty similar to what Hummels had during his peak (2011-2014), but Varane exceeded that big time when you talk about it purely in a defensive sense. Obviously both are better ball players than Varane, but it is not a weakness of his.
Other defenders who won the Ballon D‘Or: Beckenbauer, Sammer, Cannavaro
I can comfortably say that Van Dijk does not belong in this category
I have to say you know a thing or two about football. A lot of revisionism has been going on about Varane in the last few months, whereas it is not unusual to fall into a bit of a slump after the success he had. Hummels hated playing football after his career peak at the 2014 world cup and Cannavaro lost his form as well after 2006.
watched their match last night and thought PSG ran him ragged- I blamed him for that first goal
That tackle on Neymar, I think it was a penalty
I don't think the Smalling comparisons are as stupid as they're being made to be. He doesn't come close currently but he had that period where he was playing out of his skin under van Gaal and was a bit of a physical monster.
Of course van Dijk has the added advantages of being able to organise the defence around him and play the ball out well which make him better, but if you look strictly at their defensive traits there isn't/wasn't that much in it.
Of course van Dijk has the added advantages of being able to organise the defence around him and play the ball out well which make him better, but if you look strictly at their defensive traits there isn't/wasn't that much in it.
The lengths people will go to criticise him are ridiculous.
If he gets a lengthy injury everyone will see just how good and how important he is for Liverpool.
Either he is massively overrated by the liverpool fans and the media or he is massively underrated by some United fans. He is no smalling. Smalling has been at Manchester United for almost 9 years and yet he has never looked commanding. I would take VVD over smalling any second let alone any day. However, he is also not a Vidic or Ferdinand or Terry or puyol. When put under pressure he has been prone to mistakes and looks uncertain.
He is a bit overrated but, still, who is of the quality of Ferdinand or Vidic anymore? The PL has been very underwhelming in terms of quality center backs in the last number of years, there's nobody in it even close to them. I think VVD is comfortably up there with the best CB's in the PL but nowhere close to the PL's great defenders like some Pool fans seem to think.
This place is so reactionary its unreal. So he's apparently shit now? Swear everyone on here was calling him world class a week ago. Maybe just maybe, he's a great defender but doesn't quite deserve the ridiculous overhyping?
Thought he was excellent again last night, so was their goalie, this place is weird, this thread gets bumped if he so much as misplaces a pass. 
That midfield however will cost them again and again, not enough defensive nous or quality going forward. They miss Chamberlain hugely.
That midfield however will cost them again and again, not enough defensive nous or quality going forward. They miss Chamberlain hugely.Yes one great season out of 9 for a club like Manchester United is poor and then we wonder why we are mediocre. He is a decent to good defender but a decent to good defender would not take Manchester United to the top. Anyways don't want to make this a smalling thread.
It was clearly
Yeah but you can't rate defenders by the goals the defenses they are a part of concede. Or something. It's called The Ramos Rule™
And lo! The examples I've given are utterly ignored once again.
Okay, you don't need to invent points to argue against.
They don't make him a bad defender though do they? Out of the current crop he's no worse than anyone else out there.
Do you really think that a slice of a ball against Huddersfield means that he's not as good as everyone's saying?
Yup, it's pathetic how childish some of our posters are.Thought he was excellent again last night, so was their goalie, this place is weird, this thread gets bumped if he so much as misplaces a pass.
And yes their goalie is looking very impressive - it's a shame coz it's always been the area we could show off about!!
No one said he was a bad defender. Care to point out the offender of this nonsense?
No, I, like many others, think he's overrated. I mean, you've said that other than one bad performance and one penalty he's been 'faultless'. And when it's been pointed out to you that this is, in fact, a complete fallacy, you've got uppity about it.
He didn't even have a bad game last night and has been clearly Liverpool's best player this season. The reason we're hanging onto City's coat tails is VVD.
I think you'll find even the best defenders will play in defences which concede goals now and again, where some of the blame will be apportioned to them. You can't never concede.
PSG away is one of the toughest fixtures in Europe. Some are now bringing up Thiago Silva - why don't you reference his performance at Anfield earlier this season where he looked like a rabbit in the headlights?
I think you'll find even the best defenders will play in defences which concede goals now and again, where some of the blame will be apportioned to them. You can't never concede.
PSG away is one of the toughest fixtures in Europe. Some are now bringing up Thiago Silva - why don't you reference his performance at Anfield earlier this season where he looked like a rabbit in the headlights?
But this again comes back to the point that a miss-kick against Huddersfield doesn't make him over rated. You're using one or two examples but our defensive stats speak for themselves.
Without him we'd still be the same defensive mess we always were. There aren't many CB's out there that we could've signed who would've had the same impact on our back line. That's why I and others rate him so highly.
It's embarrassing that you will bump this thread every time Liverpool concede even though it wasn't VVD's fault. He is clearly a world class CB. Gomez is pretty good too.
I'm using one or two examples that's sprung to mind. I have the memory of 90 year old dementia patient, so I'm positive there has been plenty more. What it certainly shows though, that he isn't faultless bar two mistakes, which you seem to beleive. And when those examples have been given, you've outright ignored them. Paints a pretty vivid picture.
Brilliant. Our defensive stats were excellent last season, too, does that mean Smalling was a brilliant defender up until this season? Or do you think perhaps theres other nuances that need to be addressed? Like a complete reversal in your offence fortunes compared to last season?
Other than having a new 70m goalkeeper, settled fullbacks which do not include Moreno, a very, very good defensive partner in Gomes, with the noticable absense of Lovren and Karius. Again, no one is saying he is a shit defender, despite your efforts to have us believe so, but he isn't some unbelievable talent either.
Your fellow supporter seems to think so.
Of course they do, and VVD certainly doesn't count among the best. He's claimed him to be faultless other than on two instances, I've pointed out examples of this not being the case, and now you guys are getting upset about it.
VVD was pretty poor in 3 out of 5 CL games (Napoli, Red Star away, yesterday) and they are on the verge of getting eliminated.
He played in a defense with Karius and Lovren featuring regularly last season.
He's clearly one of the best defenders out there right now, and has played a huge part in reducing our defensive woes over the last 12 months. Suggesting other wise would be daft.
I don't think our offensive play has much to do with how Van Dijk's performed for us. He's been very good in an attacking side at the back end of last season, and very good this season where we've not been as gung-ho going forward.
Van Dijk, Gomez and Alisson were all pretty good against Napoli.
He did. And the additions of those players have all contributed to the development of a solid back line. Again, no one is saying he is a bad defender, of course he’s going to be a big improvement on the likes of Lovren and Klavan, but that doesn’t mean he’s been basically flawless - hence why people think he’s overrated?
So you think there is absolutely no correlation between your tighter defender this year and your less effective attack? None whatsoever? That the defensive improvement you’ve seen is solely down to VVD? You’re happy to use statistical evidence to support your views but pass them off when they are contrary to your opinion.
He's a fecking brilliant defender. One of the best in the world. Thought he was brilliant last night. His coolness on the ball was really impressive, especially when most of his team mates around him were panicking most of the match.