Micah Richards has waxed lyrical over the ability of Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk after watching him against Manchester City on Sunday.
Speaking on BBC 5 Live Sport’s The Monday Night Club (30mins), Richards was in awe of Van Dijk’s defensive positioning.
“When I see the balls going over the top all the time and Van Dijk, Van Dijk just gets back into position so early,” he said. “He’s always in the right position. Then Matip goes on his mazy runs and for some reason Van Dijk is just there.”
Having played in defence for title-winning teams himself, Richards knows a good centre-back when he sees one. And judging by his comments here, he thinks Liverpool’s number 4 is one of the best.
“Watching Van Dijk live, honestly, he is something else,” said the former City man. “How he gets into position, he just sort of strolls like a Rolls Royce into position, he’s never got sweat on his face.
“Honestly, what a performance, just watching him and his positioning and playing that high line – wow! What a player.”
We know, Micah. What a player indeed.
Van Dijk rises to the occasion
By his own supreme standards, Van Dijk actually had a rather sloppy start to the game at the Etihad on Sunday.
He looked rushed by City’s high intensity press and made one or two uncharacteristically sloppy clearances in the opening quarter.
Virgil soon regained his composure though, as he always does. Alongside Joel Matip, Van Dijk helped The Reds to a second-half clean sheet to keep City at bay.
There was the moment where he looked like he was playing with his son in the park to brush off Raheem Sterling. There was also an excellent block off the line from a goal-bound Gabriel Jesus effort. Fantastic defending.
Defined by the high-line
Above all though, and what Van Dijk may be defined by in years to come, was the bravery of executing the notorious high-line to virtual perfection.
Pep Guardiola’s City are perhaps one of the greatest football teams of all time. The courage it took to continue with Liverpool’s much-publicised defensive tactic of course came from Jurgen Klopp and his staff.
But you still need your players to carry it out on the pitch. With City getting all sorts of joy in the first-half, lesser players may have felt the need to retreat back.
Not Van Dijk though. The Dutchman had the coolness to continue with his coaches orders even whilst deep in the trenches.
Credit goes to Matip, Alisson Becker and the rest of the back four, too. But Van Dijk is undoubtedly the one who sets the tone.
Sterling thought he had breached the offside trap to put his side 3-2 up. It was close, but offside is offside.
An imperious and memorable display from our iconic centre-half. Hopefully he’s got a few more of those up his sleeve between now and the end of May.
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