I agree with your point about him liviong off his reputation, but not about him being scared to put himself where it hurts.
I think his injury has robbed him of a bit of his pace, which was always his strength as it allowed him to recover, but without his pace, he isn’t able to recover as quickly but still defends as if he can run down every striker which he can no longer do
i dont agree with the accusation hes living off his reputation. hes doing nothing of the sort.
hes not at his best level, but that doesnt mean hes taking the piss
still better than most defenders in the league
still playing week in week out - if he was 'living off his reputation- hed be injured by now through lack of proper conditioning
theres litterally no one to replace him in the team, no one…not his fault
hes played more football than just about anyone i can think of in the league over the last few seasons, and hes mid 30s
nothing there points to VVD ‘living off his reputation’, unless, of course you mean, hes not being as criticised as others, in which case, maybe, but then, hes built that much credit that he should be afforded that respect…plus…the reasons noted above.
hes not above criticism, but application to task should not be one… hes being played into the ground
Considering the first part of his career, I’m so proud of some of the numbers he’s hitting in different aspects at this later stage. Number of appearances for club and country, his consistency of availability, performances, goals. At one point, around his injury and lockdown, you could’ve made a case that he might be one of those gems who wasn’t at the top level for long enough time. That is way behind us now, he came back strongly and it’s lasting nicely. 714 games, 74 goals, 11 trophies. And I see him playing for a few more years. Recently he said he physically feels like he can go on for another 3-4 years.
@Limiescouse i wrote this in a different thread but thought id bring it over here, as some of the comments are now zeroing in on the great man. its sad. just sad. i hope the next month or so doesnt spiral
who knew playing a 34 year old defender for every minute in every game for about 3 seasons in a row would end up taking a toll.
there should be some science field to look into this rare occurence…
Ive seen the fan opinion start to round now on Virgil… its hard to take.
really hard to watch Mo go through it, VVD still a really good defender though… but hes still human.
Fuck Slot and Fuck the club, this needed to be handled better… i know theres a common opinion about Quansah getting game time elsewhere etc etc…but, you know, sometimes the answer is staring you in the face.
And I’ll reprise what I wrote:
couldnt agree more.
not only that, we have looked a gift horse in the mouth here, i cant recall off the top of my head a player who could have been phased out over time whilst still delivering in spades on and off the park.
ultimately, whatever we needed to spend to reduce his playing time would have been repaid in spades, now we probably need to spend that money and more with a ready made fit for purpose centre back.
it really is an opurtunity spurned.
goes back into Klopp era, to be honest
One of Virg’s issues at the moment is that he has lost that half a yard of pace and when he moves to cover something, like Semenyo’s cross, he gets there too late, because he doesn’t give it his all.
He still thinks that he is in his prime and can get there quicker with the effort he put in when in his prime.
He has to realise that he now has to actually show more determination and use all his pace to cover situations.
The team in front of him has been really poor. It is totally reasonable to expect that at his age now and with his workload he’s physically not at the level he was before, but I think its really difficult to tease out.
I do want sometimes, VVD at Hamburger SV, but i think, that was damage for the developing of my club. For example too Ruud van Nistelrooy.