Virgil van Dijk | Performances

He's not particularly great at defending and that's been obvious since he moved here from Scotland.

But he's good on the ball and it was decided he was good, therefore the regular errors leading to goals in a Southampton shirt were conveniently swept aside.

He'll get found out at Liverpool.


Are you having a laugh? He'll get found out at Liverpool? He should have won the european football player of the year at the most recent award ceremony.

I think he has dropped in form because his ego is colossal & he thinks he just has to turn up without trying very hard any more.
 
Some of the praise he was getting was ridiculously OTT these past seasons.

He almost won a Ballon D'Or from it. Would have been the biggest farce in Ballon D'Or history.
 
Think he has been the best defender in the world for some time now, but one thing strikes me. When I watch conceded goals for Liverpool, it often looks as someone else's fault, and not his. Then I watch the replay, slow motion, etc, and start to look for him, and he is quite often in a pointless position.
 
He is nowhere near active or dominant in his defending to be the bestest thing ever that walked the earth. He also leaves his partner far often isolated one on one and doesn't give him any protection whatsoever so no wonder that all defender that were partnered with him looked silly numerous times.

The stat about not getting dribbled past by in the entire season says a lot about his style of defending. I reckon his partners aren't enjoying playing that much next to him, even if he is the best defender around in the past two years or so.
 
Still an excellent CB but the chat of him being one of the best ever in the Prem was obviously ott
 
Think he has been the best defender in the world for some time now, but one thing strikes me. When I watch conceded goals for Liverpool, it often looks as someone else's fault, and not his. Then I watch the replay, slow motion, etc, and start to look for him, and he is quite often in a pointless position.


He avoids takeons or rather points to others to do the dirty work and he mops up

Most of the time you will see him pointing at others to do the tackling
 
Are you having a laugh? He'll get found out at Liverpool? He should have won the european football player of the year at the most recent award ceremony.

I think he has dropped in form because his ego is colossal & he thinks he just has to turn up without trying very hard any more.

You’re quoting a post from what is probably around three years ago. I got him wrong. So be it.
 
His strengths are and still is his aerial ability. Thats big plus for LFC as he singled handled solved their large corners/headers conceded goals.

Yet, he has an arrogance about his game now.He aggressively attacks to win the ball, yet when that fails, he doesnt run or do the recovery enough to get back. He is as bad as Gomez in such aspect of his game.
 
He is the victim of his own hype. Obviously a great defender but is way overhyped by Liverpool and the media. Now that Liverpool has lost their invincibility, people are going to start nitpicking on every detail of his game. Also seems more concerned about the aesthetics of his game these days.
 
He’s still the best CB in the league but the quality of defending has diminished. No one looks solid this season and other than Laporte, how many great defenders are there?

Thought he was especially poor against Villa but our high line was more at fault than any one individual. Our heads went in the second half. Villa exposed it really well.

Still, the reality is that without Van Dijk’s signing we wouldn’t have the trophies we’ve won under Klopp. It’s hard for me to get on his back after a couple of shaky games.
 
Are you having a laugh? He'll get found out at Liverpool? He should have won the european football player of the year at the most recent award ceremony.

I think he has dropped in form because his ego is colossal & he thinks he just has to turn up without trying very hard any more.

no, Messi deserved it over van dijk. Even VVD’s teammates like Mane will tell you that.
 
I think the posts about him being not being an active defender are valid. It seems quite a lot of people have noticed it, and not just United fans. It seems he's concerned with attackers selling him, and rather than put him in that position to actually defend the chance, he sometimes actively avoids it. There's a few times where he could easily engage the attacker but backs off or leaves it to his partner, or points to someone else to close down.

As a defender, you have to accept you are getting to get beaten, it's inevitable and part of defending. Obviously you do your best to minimise this and weigh up whether the risk v reward is worth it in terms of the teams benefit. All the greats have clips of them getting beaten ends up. Vidic, Terry, Nesta, Cannavaro etc. Everytime VVD gets beaten, there's clips all over twitter which shows a modern problem with football. One mistake and it's 'Vidic would never get beaten like this' and a clip of VVD getting beaten. It's silly and doesn't prove anything.

For me, he's still the best CB in world football and the best in the Prem by a clear mile but he's not the invincible great that some made out, and the stat about him not being dribbled past is reflective of his stand off defending approach.
 
Shaky start to the season but hey don't think there's a single defender whose had a good start yet. Played lots of football.
 
Klopp seems hell bent on destroying Liverpool's defensive system and guys like him will suffer. No idea why that's the case though.
 
Think he has been the best defender in the world for some time now, but one thing strikes me. When I watch conceded goals for Liverpool, it often looks as someone else's fault, and not his. Then I watch the replay, slow motion, etc, and start to look for him, and he is quite often in a pointless position.
Yes I also noticed this pattern. Maybe that's why he was spared from criticism.
 


Rumour has it he's done his ACL in that Pickford challenge.
 
It looked really bad. The real question is not how long will he be out for, but whether he'll be the same again.
 
No injuries for 3 years straight and then boom an ACL. Feel sorry for him but will be interesting to see how Liverpool cope without him. I don’t think they will well.
 
He strolled off. He'll be fine in two weeks.

I walked off when I did my ACL and none of the immediate tests made it an obvious ACL either. Once I had the MRI they told me which was gutting. Nasty injury, ligaments can be tricky.
 
I walked off when I did my ACL and none of the immediate tests made it an obvious ACL either. Once I had the MRI they told me which was gutting. Nasty injury, ligaments can be tricky.

Same here... I actually tore my ligaments 4 fecking times, and 4 times I walked of the pitch without help...

It looked really bad. The real question is not how long will he be out for, but whether he'll be the same again.

This is way too premature if you ask me... The ACL surgeries these days are so clean, the recovery process so well put together and perfectly suited to play football again, and the pro's are getting the best of the best treatments... Two decades ago I think you might have been right though, but nog these days... Just look at Depay recently, but also Chielini and Zlatan who tore their ACL's at a very relative high age for footballers and they recovered amazingly.
 
He strolled off. He'll be fine in two weeks.

Adrenaline often kicks in with injuries.
I walked away with a bit of a limp after doing ankle ligaments, then by the evening couldn't walk on it.
3months out.
 
It looked really bad. The real question is not how long will he be out for, but whether he'll be the same again.

Alright mate, what's your name, Mr positivity?

Let's see if it's even that bad first.
And even if it is worst case, these days players can come back from ACL in a way they wouldn't do 30 years ago
 
I'm not saying he'll be crippled or anything. But if he loses even half a step, that's huge at this level. It's one of the worst kind of injuries for a professional athlete.