Was Virgil van Dijk injured or tactically hooked by Jurgen Klopp at half-time? The fact that’s even a question is telling… willfordy25 on BRELIV
Was Virgil van Dijk injured or tactically hooked by Jurgen Klopp at half-time? The fact that’s even a question is telling…
– along with Alisson, who remains brilliant, and Fabinho, who doesn’t – was key to Liverpool challenging for and then winning the Premier League. Klopp’s side were producing attacking, entertaining football before Van Dijk arrived, but lacked the supremacy he then provided in spades. He’s been one of the greatest centre-backs in Premier League history.
Van Dijk still shouts a lot, but when previously he’s berated teammates having made up ground to expertly shut down a chance for the opposition, he now, more often than not, questions the actions of those teammates from a position of no strength, in which he’s been at least as much to blame for a misstep as anyone else.
He wasn’t obviously to blame for either goal in the first half. But neither goal – or indeed the two disallowed ones – would have been scored had the Van Dijk of two years ago been playing. Yes, as an aerially dominant defender he should have made his presence more keenly felt from the corners, but it’s the concession of the corners that’s the more eminent and controllable problem.