International manager suggests he could drop £75m Liverpool player now, he’s been ‘poor’

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Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk will have to improve his current form or face being dropped by the Netherlands.

That’s according to the Dutch national team’s current boss, Ronald Koeman. Speaking to NOS in his home country, Koeman suggested that Van Dijk is at risk of being left out of June’s UEFA Nation’s League squad.

“It will have to be better, We are well endowed with central defenders,” said the former Everton boss. “I’ve always said to Virgil: you have to assume that the player standing next to you makes a mistake. Then you have to look at: am I good? Am I assessing the situation correctly? And sometimes he just has to come into the game much harder and shorter, but then he keeps his position too much. I’ll discuss that with Virgil as well.

“Virgil obviously got injured. A knee injury, a muscle injury, then a World Cup played in November… But I think his poor form also has to do with the team he plays in.”

Maybe a break from the relentless calendar of domestic and international football may actually be just what Virgil needs. Let’s wait and see what Koeman decides.

Van Dijk faces Netherlands axe

On current form, it’s debatable whether Van Dijk does deserve to keep his place in the Netherlands side. In truth, were the alternatives in better shape, there’d be a stronger discourse over whether he should even continue to start for Liverpool.

Saturday’s win over Nottingham Forest was the latest in a string of sloppy, lethargic performances from the Reds’ No.4. Since his return to the side, partner Ibrahima Konate has outshone him in virtually every way. This is a worrying trend which set in from near-enough the beginning of the season.

Whether it’s purely a drop in form or something more permanent, we’ll find out in due time. But it’s clear by now that Van Dijk is no longer the insurmountable force he was a couple of years ago.

That’s fine, of course, most players experience a wane as they enter their thirties – and Van Dijk will turn thirty-two in June. Perhaps we should all have to recalibrate our high expectations of the £75m man..

But somewhere in the dull ache of that acceptance, there’s something fighting against it. Having once been without question the best defender on the planet, there remains a hope that Virgil can scale those heights once again.

Koeman will hope that too. His Netherlands side are shorn of real star quality without their captain. With players like Nathan Ake and Sven Botman having had a far better season than Van Dijk though, he can’t afford to rest on his laurels. Up and at em, Virg!