Virgil van Dijk

[Vahue]

Biggest match of his career and wasn't good at all. Overrated.

 

[FCB1987]

Biggest match of his career and wasn't good at all. Overrated.

he played a final last year

 

[Vahue]

he played a final last year

You're correct. Make it the second biggest then. Doesn't change the fact that he was poor.

 

[ronniecro]

he might played poorly but he's not overrated

 

[DonAndres]

Ball watching twice on the goals, guess that's his weakness lol

Didn't lose any duels AFAIK but that's only part of the job as a defender. Bad game for his standards, and shows that every player has down moments. Doesn't mean we need to retroactively call him shit/overrated though. I think it's rightful that he's getting around the same praise or a bit more than Boateng did back in his prime 2 year stretch.

Pique is arguably having a better season though, and Pique has 3 separate years as an extremely dominant CB even though other years were underwhelming. Crazy ups and downs in his career.

 

[FC433]

He has to stop caring about his stats. Reminds me of Arthur at the beginning of the season. He must be more aggressive and attack the ball instead of running backwards and give the opponent time.

I mean look at this:
[tw]<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="ar" dir="rtl">كم مرة تكرر هذا الوضع ومازال يتكرر وسيبقى يتكرر لانه وبكل بساطة هذه طبيعته <br>الكل يشاهد نقاط قوته ولااحد يتكلم عن نقاط ضعفه والتي تسبب الكثير من الاهداف المستقبلة <a href="https://t.co/cDhP3hNZsv">pic.twitter.com/cDhP3hNZsv</a></p>— FC Hollywood (@fchollywood3) <a href="https://twitter.com/fchollywood3/status/1123697584273547264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> [/tw]

 

[Havesaks]

People have to learn to distinguish between legacy and raw performance/ability to have an honest conversation about this.

VVD does not have a legacy yet, only the past 2 years has he been at a relevant stage. But it is simply a fact that Van Dijk this year has had one of the greatest defensive seasons in EPL history, if not the greatest. Many would argue only 2005 Terry came close to this, and maybe the likes of Vidic somewhere behind both of them.

It is also a fact that Van Dijk is arguably the best (at worst 2nd best) player in what is one probably of the 5-10 best teams in EPL history. This Liverpool team would likely beat the piss out of most historical EPL champions. Van Dijk is the only defender other than John Terry to win a Player of the Year award in England.

I will say that not many of the defenders many consider among the greatest of the past 20-30 years have individually transformed a defense like Van Dijk has this year. A vast majority of them gained their historical status by being a top 3 CB or so over a long and decorated career, it's actually extremely rare that a CB is clearly the best in the world for several seasons in terms of actual performance. His peak is as high or higher than any CB of the 2000's era, but that alone isn't worth as much. Many of those CB's have at least 1 similar standout season and then many years of being among the best to go with it. Hell, based on 1 year alone, Umtiti at his peak for us wasn't far from this conversation. But that's only a year or so being considered.

However, it would be disingenuous to downplay the fact that Van Dijk is anything less than dominant. On top of that, it's his versatility and being dominant at so many different aspects of the game that makes him feel like such a presence on the pitch.

Quality post.

The worst match i have seen him play, all tho he wasnt particular bad, just not good and suarez and messi wete om fire

 

[serghei]

He was faced with elite forwards and showed that he is not quite as good as praised. Still a top player obviously.

 

[KingLeo10]

I only care about players who win/dominate when it absolutely matters in CL finals, WCs, and Clasicos.

Stat-beasting is good and all but doesn't quite get you remembered.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Messi couldn't challenge him one vs one. I think he had one chance in the whole game. They cover well for him, so nobody can actually challenge him in 1vs1.

= Bullshit stat.

 

[Arizona Scott]

He was faced with elite forwards and showed that he is not quite as good as praised. Still a top player obviously.

No individual stands a chance vs messi.

 

[FCBarca]

Quality post.

The worst match i have seen him play, all tho he wasnt particular bad, just not good and suarez and messi wete om fire

Agree although Van Dijk has been excellent for years, Celtic matches already demonstrated that

Imagine what impact DeLigt can have, for another decade

 

[Horatio]

He is worldclass, one game wont change that. He doesnt have much experience against Messi and well...Messi is Messi. People consider Ramos wordclass CB but hes probably the player Messi humiliated the most.

 

[El Gato]

Doesn't mean we need to retroactively call him shit/overrated though.

Shit/overrated? No. Flawed? Yes. All CBs are, in some respect, be it tactically or physically.

 

[Andresito]

He's very good at containing the attacker. He rarely puts in a tackle which makes it hard to dribble past him. A bit like Varane.