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Is Van Dijk the world’s most effective player?
I thought i’d write my first mail in repose to Natty’s mail a couple of days ago considering whether Van Dijk is the second best player in Europe at the moment.
Liverpool have conceded only 7 goals in 18 games in the league this season. That’s fewer than Barcelona (19), Real (19), Atletico (12), PSG (10), Juventus (8), Bayern & Dortmund (both 18). No team has conceded fewer goals in the Premier League history after 18 games.
When considering whether Van Dijk one of the best players in Europe, people may be quick to throw names like Mbappe, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lewandowski etc. as players of better ability. Clearly attacking players with flair are more likely to be considered the arbritrary “best” players, but it’s arguable that no current player has had more of a positive effect on a team than Van Dijk.
He’s strong, has no business being that fast for a 6 ft 4 dude, tackles well (and fairly), impossible to beat in the air, can ping a 60 yard pass effortlessly and accurately, can carry the ball into midfield when the space is there, is a leader and improves those around him (see Gomez, Robertson). He literally has no weakness. From a pure footballing sense I’m finding it difficult to find a more effective player in Europe at the moment (bar Messi – but he’s an alien).
While I’m here, i’m not buying that Alisson is the reason for Liverpool’s improvement in defence. Yes, he has a good shot stopping percentages, but if you watch a few Liverpool games, it’s because the players in front of him stop dangerous shots from coming in. Opposition players resort to pot shots from distance.
Ibz (Wembley)
…Why does Van Dijk always seem to be the player that stops a good attack?
Either he’s attached magnets to the ball and his body, there are 3 of him, or he has incredible positional sense.
Like the bogeyman in a horror movie, he’s always there.
Aidan, Lfc (Apparently he smells nice too which makes him better company than Freddy or Jason)
…Yesterday’s match has once again brought to the fore the need to have yearly awards for individual positions (GK, DF, MF, F) rather just the one player of the year/Balon D’Or which inevitably always goes to attackers, with Kanté and Modric the honourable/dishonourable exceptions in recent times.
I mean, how good was VVD yesterday? How good has he been all of this season, a strong and nimble one-man wall of defence nicking the ball off attackers with nonchalant ease or shepherding them into cul-de-sacs? How good was KDB last season, a world class puppeteer pulling the strings as City waltzed to the league title?
How about DDG the past four or so seasons, who by most accounts has been the one difference between United and mid table obscurity? Dave might save but he’s definitely not winning any awards outside his club. Not then, and not now. And neither is VVD, by the looks of things, with Salah/Hazard/Silva poised to cart off the yearly awards depending on who finishes where.
The solution is to reward positional excellence by having positional awards at the country/league, confederation and FIFA levels. It will help send the message that one position is as crucial to the team’s success as another.
EOD, Lagos
Reds’ Christmas cheer
It’s a shame that Man City were so good last year because Liverpool’s current form in the league is nothing short of phenomenal and I don’t think people are fully appreciating just how good it is.
IF (and I’m aware it’s a very very big if) Liverpool can keep up this form they could theoretically beat City’s points record of 100 from last year, beat the defensive record of 15 goals conceded all season and still are unbeaten in the league this year.
It’s a great time to be a Liverpool fan.
Andy (fully expecting it to fall apart in typical Liverpool.fashion but I’ll enjoy it whilst it lasts!)
…People often love the cliche about winning whilst playing badly being the sign of champions. I’ve heard it many times and think it’s not always true. Football is massively about momentum; in the micro sense it can be a shift within a game that leads one side to victory and in a more macro sense it can be a sense of invincibility that leads a title charge (e.g Brendan’s Liverpool side). So a team can win a game but walk off the pitch with a sense of negative momentum; nothing came together, the win was fortunate and everyone feels happy but also drained. Eventually it can all unravel.
That was not Liverpool today. Today Liverpool played badly and won like champions do. Mané was poor all night but the attack found a way through the tightly packed defence despite the fact Mané consistently took too heavy a touch, mislaid a pass or just got dispossessed. Andy Robertson made a couple small mistakes whilst Lovren made a couple big ones. The team as a whole couldn’t pass well enough to consistently evade the press. And yet, they didn’t really concede a single big chance all game. Traore‘s shots from the angle weren’t threatening at all, Jimenez did nothing and the subs didn’t fare much better either. We conceded nothing from set pieces and after the 5 minutes of stoppage time was announced I’m not sure Wolves even managed to get possession again.
Who knows what the rest of the season will bring but right now this is the strongest Liverpool team I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. They’re so strong that I sort of miss our more mad swashbuckling teams; more likely to win 4-3 then 1-0. But I’d be quite happy to watch us boringly pick up clean sheets and wins for, say, five more months.
Minty, LFC
It’s getting ridiculous
SB (boycotting Adidas) asks if there is any player on the planet who has mismanaged his career as badly as Paul Pogba. MISMANAGED?!? A quick look at wikipedia shows that, in addition to making a shed-tonne of money, Pogba has won:
4 league titles
2 cups
1 league cup
1 Europa league
1 FIFA U-20 world cup
and the Actual. World. Cup.
Paul Pogba is 25 years old, and could have another 10 years of trophies still to come. Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes should have mismanaged their careers that badly!
I know he’s been playing badly, but come the f*** on.
Stewart, Chicago (amused at how a certain player has gone from “Mesut ****ing Ozil” to “****ing Mesut Ozil”)
Jose’s lost the keys
Roy Keane (quite rightly) called out the Man U players for throwing Jose under the bus…
At least he had parked it first.
(Merry) Chris, Stretford
Make it happen
Anybody doing odds on Pogba and Mourinho both ending up at the same club ( PSG or Real )?
Matt – MUFC ( Pogba in January, Mourinho in the summer )
Two types of United fan
One United fan says “we should just give the job to Zidane or Blanc or Conte or Guardiola’s unborn fetus for a few months with a free run at things to see how it goes before either hiring them on a permanent or bringing in someone else.”
Another United fan says “the boardroom is where the real problems are and we need to modernize to catch up with what has been successful elsewhere.”
Guys, talk to each other. One is answering the others’ question. You aren’t going to get the managers you want (which apparently are the names we all know) because your club is woefully behind the times. Fans propose no- to little-risk solutions to all problems, but the solution here is going to require significant risk hiring a manager desperate enough to do a Brendan and build a plane while flying.
And don’t even get me started on the problem with mirroring your rivals’ approach to catch up with them instead of overtaking them with an exponential instead of incremental improvement to the structure. Do something that blows our mind; don’t just bring in one guy to focus on French player metrics so another can focus on French fry sponsors
Niall, Denver
Arsenal fan clutches at straws
Just a quick observation on the recent losses by arsenal. The gunners started the season with consecutive losses of 2-0 and 3-2 at home to man city and away to Chelsea. They followed it up a 22 match unbeaten run. Now by sheer coincidence the run was ended by Southampton in a 3-2 loss away just like the match with Chelsea and another 0-2 loss to spurs at home, albeit in a different competition. Thereby reversing the pattern of the early season losses. So are they going to embark on another 22 match unbeaten run?
Steven (hopeful gunner)
Old-school debates
in reply to Ian H of the above title:
yes, it twas a disastrous mis-cue from Gerrard , a simple pass he had no business of mis-controlling …
…
… however I ask, two or three minutes into injury time at nil-nil , a match Liverpool really did NOT NEED to win, why on earth is Gerrard, very close to the centre line, the last man back ? ….. his two defending colleagues, are level, spread as smooth peanut butter over beans on massive toast, either side of him ….
at this time of the match, deep into injury time , just see the half out, and reset for the second 45 …..
… one may only assume (and we do know what happens when we ‘assume’) …. BR (who could have yelled at his defenders, or one of them at least ) to play deep, as a precaution … just in case, oh, just in case, maybe Stephen Gerrard should slip or some such unthinkable, unbelievable, anomaly occur …
but no, … in a match with JM .. setting Chelsea as JM is wont … a match were Chelsea were never, ever, never going to score … a match which still could be playing now, four years later, and Chelsea still would not be scoring .. BR, with the very highest heaps of horrendous hubris … not only wanted to win the title , but win it with 14 straight wins … kept pushing pushing pushing for a goal, even at three minutes into injury time, when all tides pointed to plugging in the kettle, heating the scones, having a breather, and giving it another go in the second half …
… by playing his defenders so high, gifting Chelsea , BR’s pride & overconfidence, brought about Liverpool’s & Stephen Gerrard’s downfall — and that is no slip of the tongue …
cheers
skywarp (Canada)
…Ian’s mate has a point. it WAS Brendan’s fault! Not that Gerrard slipped but that Liverpool lost that game. He showed how naive and inexperienced he was at that moment. Let me tell you why. Your team needs four points from games against Chelsea and Crystal Palace to win the Premiership. The fist game is Chelsea at home. Mourinho sets up his team to defend and looks happy to play out a boring draw so you have two options. You either take the draw and then decide the title against Crystal Palace of all teams, or if you are Brendan you go into the game all guns blazing. If you win the game you still have not won the title. You need a result in the last game. Liverpool could only loose the title that day and that is what they did.
Yes, Liverpool lost the game because of Gerrard’s slip, but they also lost it because Brendan wanted to win the title in style, prove a point and get one over his old mentor Mourinho.
Martin LFC
Geography365
I know this mail is probably not akin to the main stream mails of recent days regarding ManU, Pogba, lack of silverware et al but I thought that I would still send it in.
Although degenerating into an old codger (my wife’s opinion) and recently turned 63, I was wondering whether someone from the peer group on this always pleasurable to read site could enlighten me.
Why will my favourite team ( been a QPR fan since 1965) have to lose an Australian squad player for up to seven matches at the beginning of 2019 because he has been nominated to play for the national team in the “Asian Cup” in places like Al Ain.
I failed my Geography O Level but I always thought that Australia was part of Australasia or their national team played competitive matches in an Oceania group. Has someone or UEFA made a demographic transition while I was napping.
Would be nice to be informed what happened here.
Cheers in advance
Spud (exiled QPR fan in Germany) Murphy