Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk may very well be the defender in the history of football.
That’s the view of TalkSPORT pundit Martin Keown. A centre-back himself, Keown suggested that Van Dijk could be the best ever in his position.
However, the pundit also claimed that there’s one thing that’s just holding the Liverpool man back.
“I think he could be the all-time great. But I do feel that what he’s doing at times, instead of actually going and pressing the ball, smothering the opponent, he’s stood like a statue. He tries to make himself big and he’s hoping the ball is going to hit him. The instinct needs to be to go towards the ball,” said Keown.
“Do you remember when Sancho scored that very good goal earlier in the season and Milner was in his ear. Milner was bang on there. There was one before against Zaha for Crystal Palace, it was like he was running in an Olympic lane. Get across. Does he feels as though he doesn’t want to get embarrassed, someone skipping inside of him? Why doesn’t he want to risk going in? I think you need to do that. I think you need to do some of the rough and tough stuff as well.
“I thought it had gone away when he played Haaland, I though him and Gomez were quite magnificent that day. But against Leeds, you can’t sit off and hope, you’ve got to get in there. It’s do or die in that situation and he doesn’t seem to have that instinct. When he gets that, I think he’ll probably be the best defender we’ve seen, all-round. His passing is magnificent, he’s a giant in the air. He’s ahead of everybody on lots of categories, but he isn’t when it comes to blocks.”
Virgil not getting stuck in
This is actually a really good analysis from Keown. If there’s one thing that Van Dijk is just lacking, it’s that ability to make consistent goal-saving blocks.
No doubt Virgil will tell you the old adage about a block making up for a mistake. And to an extent, he’d be right. The 31-year-old’s positioning is often so good, that he doesn’t have a need for dramatic blocks and tackles.
Sometimes though, especially this season, that is needed from a defender.
No matter how much you back yourself, or your world-class goalkeeper, sometimes you need to throw yourself in. We don’t see that from Van Dijk.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that this would stop the goals either. It may be that with such a superior football IQ, Van Dijk has already calculated the scenario in his head.
But still, it doesn’t hurt to try. Some fans have gotten on his back this season for a perceived lack of effort, and it’s easy to see how Virgil’s game would come across that way.
That almost certainly isn’t the case. But there are times that you’d just like to see a little more blood and thunder from Van Dijk. He’s got the physique for it. If he starts being slightly more proactive in his defending again, Liverpool will be all the better for it.
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