Virgil van Dijk, the human roadblock who has been more transformational for Liverpool than Mohamed Salah
The Dutchman's arrival has meant the Reds can attack in a more carefree manner than ever before
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Your support makes all the difference.Virgil van Dijk is the most expensive defender in the world and he is playing like it. His impact on this Liverpool team has been transformational. His confidence has wafted over the defence like a cool aftershave.
Liverpool do not look as though they are going to concede whenever the opponent has a set piece. Van Dijk is there, heading crosses away. Suddenly, Andy Robertson can stream forward with vigour, knowing someone is left behind him that makes his buccaneering approach actually quite safe. Dejan Lovren still makes mistakes but he is now recovering from them quicker than he did before. Loris Karius finally looks a goalkeeper with hands.
During Saturday’s Merseyside derby, you could hear Van Dijk bellowing orders from all the way up in Goodison Park’s press box. On the pitch, he looks like the boy in the school yard that for some unexplainable genetic reason, is much bigger than everyone else. Jordan Henderson got his wish when he demanded from Van Dijk that his passes into the midfield become that bit crisper. It should encourage Liverpool supporters that critical discussions are happening during games. It shows standards have been raised, that nobody is above criticism. This fosters humility and focus.
All great, of course, but if Liverpool were to exit the Champions League having held such an advantage over Manchester City, emotions will tailspin and assessments will not be quite as generous. Maybe more than any other Liverpool player, the pressure falls on Van Dijk because City need goals and he needs to carry on being a human roadblock.
“I think it is only other people who put pressure on me but I don’t care really,” Van Dijk said on Saturday. “Every game I need to step up and show like every other player that I can do well, that’s Liverpool. It is not only Tuesday, it was Saturday [against Crystal Palace], the game we played already against City [in January – when he was injured]. But those games were definitely a reason why I wanted to play for Liverpool. That is clear and I am enjoying every bit of it. I love the club already.”
Van Dijk is imposing but he is also serene. He knows that unlike in the first leg, he will probably have to stop Sergio Aguero – a different challenge to Gabriel Jesus. Van Dijk must try and avoid situations where the Argentine’s trickery turn of speed sends him towards his own goal. Listening to Van Dijk, you realise that Liverpool will not set up to sit back, though. If Liverpool score first, City will need to score five. If Liverpool establish an early advantage, progression would surely be sealed if they keep 11 players on the pitch.
“We cannot go there and think we are going to defend,” Van Dijk added. “I think we approach the game as though it is still 0-0. We want to win this game – that’s the mindset from us. We don’t want to go there and think maybe we can lose 1-0 and we are still through. We want to win this game as well and we need to be ready for a massive game, a big fight and I am sure we will be ready.”
Officials at City claim they were never really interested in signing Van Dijk from Southampton but they were. The problem was, Van Dijk had already made his mind up to sign for Liverpool: to sign for Jurgen Klopp whose confidence in the player was reflected in the enormous fee that he paid, as well as his patience in getting him. For Klopp, there simply wasn’t an alternative. He recognised that at 26, he was getting a defender approaching his peak – the sort of character that he could rely on for the next five or six years at least. Klopp believes Pep Guardiola is the best coach in the world. Van Dijk describes
Klopp as “the complete manager”, in that there is far more to him than the raw emotion we all see in on the touchline.
“He is a fantastic team manager, player manager as well, everyone is working hard together,” Van Dijk added. “Obviously that [interaction with crowd] stays more in people’s minds because that is what you see, but he is much more than that. You don’t see all the hard work we put in behind the scenes. He has shown already that he is an outstanding manager.”
Now all Klopp needs to do is produce another outstanding result.
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