I don’t think that it was anything that Jesus did, he’s been doing the same basic mistakes for a while now.
This is his first poor season and he has a lot of credit in the bank but come summer the question about his long-term future should be posed.
You’re not alone, though it would be extremely hard for me to see him (and a few other current Liverpool players) in a different shirt. I sincerely hope his season has a lot to do with World Cup - prior to it, he looked as though he was being careful not to get injured, then he had a good World Cup (at least in my opinion), after which his form nosedived, along with the rest of the team.
If someone offered a big amount of money for him this summer, I wouldn’t be against selling him but that’s mainly because of his age, rather than a poor season. After all, this time last year, he was the best centre back in the world - again, in my opinion but I struggle to think of many who came close to him aside from Ruben Dias.
Did seem to be back for a couple of games and then got injured.
I’d give him a full summer and pre season still.
Too much to do really.
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To borrow the phrasing from English media, Carra has launched a passionate defence of Van Dijk and his form. I’m glad to see it, to be honest, I wish more former players would come out with stuff like this.
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All players decline eventually; nobody maintains their peak form forever.
The question is, are we seeing the start of Virgil’s decline or is this just a season-long blip? Given that he’s 32 this summer and may still be worth a few quid, I’d cash in if we received a good offer.
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van Dijk is a player than I would back to have a late career resurgence like Thiago Silva has done.
Virg has lost a little bit of his physical presence in his age and with injuries but I think its only a matter of him figuring out how best to use his body and adapt to his new reality. He’ll have more top class seasons.
The player we saw in 2019 has gone but he can still recover to a better level. He’s had some genuinely poor games recently, which is a little concerning, but there’s little doubt he still has the ability to play at the highest level.
Beginning to think much of this seasons issues with VvD are upstairs.
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I think that’s the case with a few of them.
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2 years left on his deal, which takes him to the age of 34.
I’d say he’s going nowhere this summer, but of course if we’re witout CL or Europe at all, there’s always a possibility for a player with not much time left willing to leave, if there’s an opportunity.
I do also believe he’s one who can easily improve his form if we can restart well this summer.
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Virgil Van Dijk vs Spurs:
- 5/5 Ariel duels won
- 1 Goal line clearance
- 6 Recoveries
- 6 Accurate long balls
- 109 Touches
- 93% Pass accuracy
But everyone wants to focus on one slip.
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I don’t really think it was that much of a slip at all. He’s committed to the player going on the outside and all his weight was going that way. He got done, not sure why people are defending him. If that was Slabhead we’d still be laughing.
I saw it as the inevitable conclusion to a fast winger having a free run on goal and the tracking defender having to make up ground. Attackers will always be able to take advantage of that situation but either driving to the goal - if the defender is too slow, or cutting back inside if the defender over-commits. It’s an unenviable situation to be in.
Call me crazy but I think the problem stemmed from being 3-0 up with half-time approaching and still having 7 outfield players in the opposition half. It’s dumb to be pressing so high when we don’t need to be.
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It was a collective fuck up. Van Dijk didn’t cover himself in glory scrambling to close down Son but he was in a very difficult situation to begin with. I was more annoyed by Robertson taking a position in no man’s land.
Problem I had with the first goal is where is Ibou going? I’ve noticed this time and time again from him recently, he ventures at times ahead of Trent and Fab, in this instance leaving Virgil and Robbo having to defend a 3v2 situation. (a bit later on when Perisic cuts inside Virg and clips it in to Kane, Kuluevski makes it a 2v1 situation at the far post with Fab unable to cover the ground)
1 ball that deep from Skipp shouldn’t cut through 5 players.
There were 5 or 6 instances in the first half of players losing their footing when trying to turn like as happened with Virgil. There was clearly an issue with the pitch in certain areas. It hurt Virgil here and hurt the sweedish lad a bit later when trying to take advantage of one of Robbo’s two big give aways.
Virgil has reached near superman status in years passed and it seems he’s suffering the consequences of that now where anytime a goal is scored he’s getting blamed because [reasons]
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Only when he raises his hands in disgust to blame someone else. still our best CB but he could be more supportive.
that image isn’t the first goal, don’t know what you’re going on about. Son drifted out wide behind Trent, then cut back inside to an area hiding just behind Konate and timed his run perfectly. It’s a great ball and a great run. Son is a world-class player, he’s going to get chances.
https://twitter.com/sonshinediary/status/1652727650442412032?s=20
Son scored their 2nd goal? I was talking about their first…where Perisic cut inside Virgil and clipped it to Kane? That image is about 5 seconds before that happens.
Yeah I have a different take on that play, I’ve watched it quite a few times after to see if my initial reaction was off. Here is a good quality video of the highlights, play it at 0.5 speed and you’ll see that the slip of his right foot takes place after Perisic has taken his cut back; he’s already on the inside of Virgil by that point and I don’t see Virgil making that up even if he keeps his footing, his momentum is just too great.
He committed himself early and his body position made it so that his momentum could not be changed and then couldn’t adjust in time and then went over on top of that. It’s okay, it happens. It’s hard to say how he could have stopped that except by anticipating it but he had a choice of the devil and the deep blue sea there, the attacker had all the advantage, Virgil had committed himself to going with him on the outside and got sat down.