Virgil VAN DIJK: 2022/23

Like many others been a tough old season for Virg but congrats to the big man on this 1…small personal consolation prize if you will.

Although I’m not so sure about him being the only CB…

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To be fair for his performances last season he deserves it to come back the way he did.

He is getting there.

I hope he is but I get the feeling he will never be as good as he was before the Prickford assassination, getting older does not help either.

That on Saturday was one of the worst I’ve seen him play in our shirt. Defensively wasn’t good enough in a lot of Bournemouth’s actions and offensively he arguably had our best chance to score.

Agree, although Salah had a pretty good chance too … :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

And he was defensively poor as well :kissing_heart:

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Another subpar performance against the French. He wasn’t bad per se, in fact he was amongst the few Dutch who weren’t a total disaster. He certainly wasn’t at fault for any of the goals.

At the same time though, he didn’t do much to prevent them. He just stood and watched with the same passivity he does at Liverpool. Granted, it wasn’t much he could have done in the first place considering the type of chances they gave up and it’s harsh to expect from anyone to do better. Still, there was a time his mere presence alone would increase the odds of escaping similar dangerous situations exponentially.

Nowadays he just doesn’t make a difference, his influence seems to have become nonexistent.

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Watched the highlights, lots of standing in space not really marking anyone or anything.

Seems to have developed a “throw my hands up in the air looking at teammates” whenever anything goes wrong.

Very subpar

Van Dijk needs some proper competition, personally I think his standards have slipped massively.

As above far far too much passive defending and then throwing up his arms… He is meant to be a leader, that sort of stuff is so demotivating to your team.

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Oddly enough I’d rather he do this than show up for his national team game which I can think is the case with one player.

A no mark manager is now calling him a wimp. Gullit and Van Basten believe he’s arrogant. Wish he would do his talking on the pitch and ram their words down their throats but his response doesn’t feel very encouraging.

The Dutch turning on themselves? Unpossible!

shocked the princess bride GIF

Ask @Dutch about our Cody…

Why don’t we experiment with moving Virgil to RCB. I mean he is right footed and it could help Trent abit more?

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I agree if we get a LCB, when he is forced to play the ball out with his left foot it is normally just a hopeful punt and the opposition is now forcing him onto his left side.

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I’m just going to broach this tentatively because it’s not something I’m set on by any means… but we’re going to need cash this summer to fund our revamp. VVD is looking a shadow of the player he was, but at 31/32 could still fetch a decent fee. Konate was the far more impressive CB today and has been for a while.

Would we consider parting with him for the right price…? Or has he built up too much credit and am I overlooking more intangible factors like his presence and organisational skills?

Showed a reaction in the second half, but first half again wasn’t good enough. He’s recently showing low stuff that I’ve never seen before. The odd weak game, but he’s also someone who needs to look at himself this summer and improve.

He’s not been anywhere near his normal standard this season, but he’s not alone in that.

Personally, I’d sell him if the right offer came in (PSG? Newcastle?) and put the money towards Ibou’s long-term partner, ideally Gvardiol.

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Jesus is one of the few players I can think of that has consistently had good games against Virgil over a period of time. Made him look foolish again numerous times today. He improved as the game went on but unfortunately the damage was already done.