Harvey Elliott sends funny two word message to Virgil van Dijk after his goal last night

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Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has earnt plenty of praise after scoring during last night’s win over Sheffield United.

The Reds centre-back bagged his first official goal since becoming Liverpool captain over the summer. And what a goal it was too, Van Dijk slamming home a first-time volley from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner to put his team 1-0 up.

After the game, the 32-year-old took to Instagram to celebrate what was a good night for Liverpool.

“Goal, clean sheet & the win!” wrote Van Dijk. “Time to recover and get ready for an early one on Saturday.”

Plenty of his Liverpool teammates were in the comments, with the likes of Ryan Gravenberch, Diogo Jota and Dominik Szoboszlai all voicing their approval.

But it was Harvey Elliott’s comment that caught the eye most, with the 20-year-old suggesting that Van Dijk is now a ‘top striker’.

Van Dijk shows attacking credentials

Elliott was obviously joking here, but it’s worth pointing out just how valuable Van Dijk’s ball-striking is.

The goal at Bramall Lane was his 20th in 236 Liverpool games. Not prolific, obviously, but a really decent record for a defender.

There are some exceptions to this of course – Tottenham’s Cuti Romero perhaps being the best example – but not many centre-backs can strike a ball like Virgil.

As he also showed with his recent last-minute penalty winner for the Netherlands, the Liverpool captain does have plenty of attacking instincts.

On a night where Liverpool’s forward options really failed to catch light, that ended up being crucial once again.

In fact, it isn’t just Van Dijk who has been helping the forwards out, though. The Reds have now had five different goal scorers over the past two games, none of them have been attackers.

Seen through that lens, Elliott’s cheeky comment here has a little more than meets the eye.

We still wouldn’t fancy sticking the big man up top for a full 90 minutes, mind you. But if Liverpool need to pull a goal out from somewhere, Virgil has proving himself to be a reliable source. A top striker indeed.