Virgil van Dijk | Performances

Dansk

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He was shit at first when he arrived at Liverpool. I recall us laughing about what a waste of money it was. He then had a couple of seasons where he was excellent, and then he nosedived after the injury. When he was at his peak, I still don't think he was any better than the slew of other great defenders that the PL has seen (Rio, Vidic, Kompany, Terry, etc.), and since he was only any good for a couple of years, it'd be completely absurd to call him anything remotely like the best defender the league has seen. If he had played for a decade straight the way he did for those two years, you could rank him alongside the aforementioned legends, though no higher. But he didn't. At Liverpool he has been awful for longer than he's been good.

It's only because he's a Liverpool player that this conversation even exists. Dozens of players have had a couple of great years, only to wane when their form dissipated, the likes of Papis Cissé and so on. The media's desperation to glorify everything to do with Liverpool is why there continues to be these inane discussions about whether or not this two-season merchant might inexplicably have been the best defender in the history of the universe. It's so stupid and really just highlights how dishonest and self-serving the English football media is. Time and time again, anyone who plays well for Liverpool is heralded as the greatest whatever that the Prem has seen, and anyone with any sense can see through that masturbatory nonsense.

It's honestly getting tiresome to follow a league that functions much like a boarding school where the headmaster's son is treated like a prince while the rest have rules to follow and are rewarded only when they actually do something right. The amount of shameless fellating of Liverpool that goes on amongst journos and pundits is nothing short of sickening. And - I'll say it - it also affects refereeing decisions, disciplinary practices, etc. You can be absolutely certain that Liverpool will not be made to answer for mobbing the ref yesterday. All that to say that the only reason we're even talking about whether VvD is one of the PL greats is because English football media desperately wants that to be the case, based not on merit but sheer bias.
 
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ScholesyTheWise

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people who were word class for short periods of time tend to be remembered somewhat vaguely later on...
I had (and have) no problem when people compare him to Rio, Vidic, and Terry in the 2-3 years he was the best in the league.

But his career obviously falls very very short compared to the well-established PL greats, which makes me wonder-
how will he be remembered? Will he be completely forgotten by non-Pool fans?
Is it fair to compare him to, say, Drogba or Torres,
in that they were truly magnificent, but still can't really be compared to Henry/Shearer?
 

Red Shorts

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The injury, alongside Liverpool being a liability across the pitch has really done him in. Quite a spectular drop of form for him.

I imagine he has his "least dribbled past player" trophy still lying around.
 

SilentWitness

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Why does the injury excuse his performances for so many? I thought that one of the best aspects of his defending was his intelligence. His poor performance in that aspect has nothing to do with his injury.
 

Samid

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He's a major problem for them now. Needs replacing along with their entire midfield.
 

dannyrhinos89

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It’s absolutely laughable that deluded scousers put him up there with the likes of vidic, Ferdinand, terry, adams, kompany, Campbell etc
 

KirkDuyt

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The speed of his decline is amazing. Please bin him for De Ligt in Oranje from now on.
 

SilentWitness

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This game summing up again why his injury has nothing to do with him being so poor now.
 

SmashedHombre

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He’s been atrocious. It’s just rudimentary stuff he’s getting wrong
 

rimaldo

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This game summing up again why his injury has nothing to do with him being so poor now.
if it’s nothing to do with his injury then why can’t he watch jurassic park without crying now?
 

Maluco

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He was always the last line of defence in a team that were always pressing and winning the ball high up the pitch.

If you watch their games, even at his “peak”, he was back behind even the other center back, almost like a cover stopper. Very well protected and very hard to get at.

Now that he has to actually defend in a poor side, he is being horribly exposed. He was never as good as they said he was. His natural position in games meant he wasn’t taken on even nearly enough.
 

horsechoker

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Was he ever really a top defender, he just seemed to have an incredible purple patch

He was still at Southampton at 27, most World class defenders are usually at top teams a few years before that.
 

SalfordRed18

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Hell always be a level below the likes of Ferdinand, Vidic and even Terry for the simple reason that his peak was far too short. The best all had longevity.
 

rimaldo

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Was he ever really a top defender, he just seemed to have an incredible purple patch

He was still at Southampton at 27, most World class defenders are usually at top teams a few years before that.
he’s just a tall jesse lingard.
 

Pexbo

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He was always the last line of defence in a team that were always pressing and winning the ball high up the pitch.

If you watch their games, even at his “peak”, he was back behind even the other center back, almost like a cover stopper. Very well protected and very hard to get at.

Now that he has to actually defend in a poor side, he is being horribly exposed. He was never as good as they said he was. His natural position in games meant he wasn’t taken on even nearly enough.
Very much this. He had unbelievable protection and he was so highly rated because of the time and space he had on the ball around the half way line to spray long balls.
 

Bubz27

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Players rarely come back after that kind of injury.
He nearly win the quadruple last year. The injury isn't the reason. He was never as good as everyone made out and he's had a rapid decline and his protection from midfield has vanished as well. Perfect storm to make him look absolutely terrible now.
 

KeanoMagicHat

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Was he ever really a top defender, he just seemed to have an incredible purple patch

He was still at Southampton at 27, most World class defenders are usually at top teams a few years before that.
He was team of the year at Southampton and standing out for Celtic years before that in the CL.

He was a better defender at Celtic than he’s showing now. Gone to shit this season but doesn’t change he was class at his best.
 

redshaw

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Players rarely come back after that kind of injury.
He looked good for one and half seasons when coming back so I don't buy this after injury excuse. Liverpool were struggling badly without him and then shot up the table in the latter half of the season when he came back and then went on to another 90+ point haul in the following. He and the others started to look ordinary.
 

TheReligion

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He was team of the year at Southampton and standing out for Celtic years before that in the CL.

He was a better defender at Celtic than he’s showing now. Gone to shit this season but doesn’t change he was class at his best.
He’s not in the same conversation as the all time greats
 

kaiser1

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He nearly win the quadruple last year. The injury isn't the reason. He was never as good as everyone made out and he's had a rapid decline and his protection from midfield has vanished as well. Perfect storm to make him look absolutely terrible now.
Injury was not the reason, he was never that good. His defending style is to avoid engaging attackers he relies in the Liverpool pressing machine to snuff out attacks while he mops up

Real defending he is mid tier
 

SAFMUTD

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The fall is delicious. He was so good they don't dare to bench him which makes it better.
 

Bubz27

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Injury was not the reason, he was never that good. His defending style is to avoid engaging attackers he relies in the Liverpool pressing machine to snuff out attacks while he mops up

Real defending he is mid tier
Yes mate, I agree.
 
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He was team of the year at Southampton and standing out for Celtic years before that in the CL.
Actually Celtic did better in the CL the season before he joined, actually making it out of the group in 2012-13.
In his two seasons at Celtic they didn’t make it out of the group in his first (2013-14) and didn’t even get through qualification in his second so weren’t actually even in the CL (2014-15).

Not sure how that equates to “standing out for Celtic for years in the CL”.

Seems like another case of people attributing way more to VVD than he actually deserves.
 

Amarsdd

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Basically a well functioning system making a decent player look great. As soon as the system has started failing, the player has reverted to his level.
 

Stadjer

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Basically a well functioning system making a decent player look great. As soon as the system has started failing, the player has reverted to his level.
Oh come on... Yes, a good and well coached team made him look even better but every defender that is in the conversation for ''best defender'' had a fantastic player next to him or in front of him while also being in a well coached team.

When he was at Southampton he was already called the best defender in the league. He had a few years where he was a fantastic defender. After the injury he has not been able to get back to that level while his team also gotten a lot worse. I know he plays for Liverpool and has been a major part of their succes and therefore the unwritten rule is to shit on him... but for a time he was an excellent defender. His peak might not have been as long as some other of the top tier defenders but at his best he did play like one of the best.

He was a lot better than just a decent player.
 

KeanoMagicHat

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He’s not in the same conversation as the all time greats
No point having the same conversation again as a few months ago
Actually Celtic did better in the CL the season before he joined, actually making it out of the group in 2012-13.
In his two seasons at Celtic they didn’t make it out of the group in his first (2013-14) and didn’t even get through qualification in his second so weren’t actually even in the CL (2014-15).

Not sure how that equates to “standing out for Celtic for years in the CL”.

Seems like another case of people attributing way more to VVD than he actually deserves.
Yeah, fair enough. I remember seeing some CL game for Celtic he was very good in. May be attributing more than he showed, I admit I’m wrong in that case. It was just more the case you can still be a good player before you play in a ‘top’ league.
 

TheReligion

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No point having the same conversation again as a few months ago


Yeah, fair enough. I remember seeing some CL game for Celtic he was very good in. May be attributing more than he showed, I admit I’m wrong in that case. It was just more the case you can still be a good player before you play in a ‘top’ league.
No point no. I think I’ve been unequivocally proven correct :angel: