Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk has been hailed as Holland’s star performer in last night’s draw against Ecuador.
Van Dijk and co were held to a disappointing stalemate by the South Americans in World Cup Group A. Although a poor result for the Netherlands, Dutch outlet AD rated the Liverpool star as the best of a bad bunch.
Scoring a 7 out of ten, Virgil was hailed as the team’s best player ‘by far.’ The 31-year-old is said to have ‘intervened strongly’ on two separate occasions: once with his head, and once with the foot.
Only three other outfield players scored higher than a 5.5. Reported Liverpool target Cody Gakpo managed a 6.5, while the previously linked Frenkie de Jong earned himself a 6.
Still sitting top of the group, Van Dijk and Holland will face hosts Qatar on Tuesday. A point there will secure qualification, while they could even still go through with a loss.
Van Dijk the star of the show for Holland
This shouldn’t be a surprise, really. Looking through the Netherlands squad, Van Dijk is comfortably the most high profile player.
Holland have often boasted a large number of world-class stars in their teams for past tournaments. But this time around, the Liverpool defender is the only one on Louis van Gaal’s 26-man roster to have won the Champions League.
Although that isn’t a barometer of world-class talent, it does show the standing Van Dijk has in this team. As the captain, he’ll have been expected to turn out this kind of performance on the biggest stage of all.
Thankfully, Virgil looks to be delivering. After a somewhat difficult beginning to the season at Liverpool, that’s pleasing to hear.
Having finally got the major tournament monkey off his back, hopefully he can take that form into the rest of the year.
But first, Van Dijk has to try and raise standards in the Holland team. There is talent there and in Gakpo they have what looks to be a potential superstar.
Unless they significantly improve though, it’s hard to see them challenging at the business end of the competition, no matter Van Dijk’s heroics.
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