I think its just a mature player looking at the bigger picture.
The problem with VvD career is he was a late bloomer. Turns 30 in two months time. He cant risk a set back. He knows he has about 4 maybe seasons left of top tier football.
We have all seen players 90% fit, breaking down in major tournaments. Happens every euros/world cup. VvD is taking a safety-first approach and I fully applaud that. Given the dutch team is second rate currently with little chance of winning it’s sensible.
Maybe he was shown a video of a clearly not fit Michael Owen trying to get himself through a tournanent and having his knee go ‘ping’.
Yep thats the injury that ended his career. Whilst he had lost half a yard of pace beforehand, after that he didnt even run.
He could probably hope that he gets to the World Cup in 2022 and set back and another year out could jeopardise that. Evidently he wouldn’t have been fit this seems obvious so he has made the right decision. A fair few have made the wrong one in the past and never got back.
Because of his laid back, unfazed running style a lot still don’t seem to understand just how fast he is but he’s proper fucking rapid. Glad to see a compilation finally to show it;
First time I noticed it was Mane’s first season with us. Mane pushed the ball past him then realized he was going to get outsprinted and just gave up. To make someone as hard headed as Mane not even try was an indication to me that not only did he think in that case he couldnt win, but that he’d been outpaced by Virgil in training many time before.
I remember that, I think it was the game I started to think he might be one of the best defenders in the league. Didn’t watch him much at Celtic, maybe a CL game or two, and not that often for Southampton either. So that game - and that moment in particular - was kind of an eye opener for me. Hadn’t thought about how complete of a player he was before that game, had no idea he was that fast.
Yeah, that was the exactly my response to that one specific moment as well.
Impressive, I just hope he’s as quick, when he returns from the ‘Pickford’ inflicted injury.
Rio Ferdinand has backed Virgil van Dijk as the only defender in world football who could deal with Romelu Lukaku’s stength:
"I don’t see any defender, apart from van Dijk, physically who could be able to deal with that.”
[BBC]
Still a cunt.
He’s talking shite though isn’t he.
Van Dijk’s strength is one of his many attributes, but he could only pocket Lukaku due to a combination of all his strengths - his reading of the game, his positioning, his pace.
Heck, Nat Philip is strong enough to deal with Lukaku’s strength.
There are plenty of others out there in world football that can deal with his strength too. Dias, Maguire, Koulibaly.
Ferdinand is always one for making statements as the above.
Any defender with a couple of packets of wotsits on them can deal with Lukaku.
Completely disagree with that Lukaku is a monster these days. Dias is overrated and shrugged off quite often by weaker attackers, Maguire fits into the Skrtel mould in that he looks hard, has a reputation for it but in reality is just average. Koulibaly vs Lukaku would be interesting. Phillips is so over rated sometimes its criminal.
(oh shit: my body again 
)
I could deal with Lukaku physically, it’d take him half an hour to run round me let alone run rings round me! 
Yeah but strength is what we are taking about, and all are capable of battling hard with Lukaku and containing him. I know Maguire is average overall, but he’s still a unit of a man.
Essentially, what Rio is saying is that Lukaku is so strong, that in world football, he’s only being stopped by Virgil. That’s horseshit. If he’s so strong, how did he only score 24 last season in the Serie A?
He may be a big monster of a man, but he’s still not scoring more than 25 a season in a PL team.
Also, Halaand is probably stronger - how does any CB deal with that guy? We better call RIo.
And Konate obviously.
He looks a bit lean. Not sure if it’s good or bad.