Former England centre-back Matthew Upson has claimed that Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk isn’t playing well right now.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Upson said that despite his obvious qualities, the Liverpool man looks poor at the moment.
“He’s a master at assessing 1v1 situations, guiding players into avenues where he wants them to go so he can stay on his feet and just shepherding things where he needs to be. You don’t necessarily see him too many times throw himself in the way of balls, go to ground, make last ditch tackles, he’s not that type of defender,” said the pundit.
“But he’s finding himself in situations at the moment where that’s actually now required. Liverpool aren’t in control of games as much as they’d like, so those kind of situations where they’re in a position where he’s got to get out and effect the ball, he’s not really reacting in that way and it looks quite poor at times.”
Van Dijk held to a different standard
Van Dijk has suddenly come under the spotlight as one of the reasons behind Liverpool’s slow start to the season.
That seems a little harsh given that he has had to play with three different partners in the opening three games.
Of course we hold Virgil to such high standards that any little slip can be seen as a major catastrophe. But he’s human and the lack of rhythm after the summer break just looks to have knocked him off his stride.
It isn’t dissimilar to the 31-year-old’s start last season. Then, he was coming off the back of a huge injury lay-off and was perhaps afforded a little more leeway.
Mitigating circumstances should apply
That leeway should still apply, though. Van Dijk is far from the only Liverpool player looking off the pace, and there could be several reasons for that.
As mentioned, the chopping and changing of the right-sided centre-back can’t have helped. Nat Phillips has different qualities to Joe Gomez, has different qualities to Joel Matip. These little changes can have an impact on how a defence operates.
As well as the defence, Liverpool’s midfield has been fiddled around with no end in the three games so far. In the absence of regular combinations in the middle of the pitch, Liverpool’s back-line has been exposed.
When you’re left so open, mistakes can easily happen. That’s not to excuse Van Dijk his recent sloppiness, but he’s allowed an off day, or an off few weeks. So, just as he was last season, Virgil is being written off. But he’s still the best in the business. He’ll be back.
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