Van Dijk’s a bargain at £75m... Pep must be kicking himself!
THE script couldn’t have been why, with all the injury problems better written – a debut surrounding Vincent Kompany. winning goal in the last five As much as Kompany is such a minutes in front of the Kop in fantastic player, if City want to be a Merseyside derby. the team they are aiming to be It’s what dreams are made of under Pep Guardiola (below), then and showed what other big you can’t live with what is happening clubs, such as Manchester City, to him much of the time. have missed out on. He misses far too many games. I thought, even without his I believe that Van Dijk would goal, Virgil van Dijk looked certainly have helped City, so it’s composed, calm and collective Jurgen Klopp’s gain and – everything a £75million Guardiola’s loss. player should be. When you sign a player, you Of course, there is pressure always want to make a statement. on him because of the price The world-record fee for a tag, but it’s not the player’s defender in securing Van fault someone has gone out Dijk shows that and spent big money. Liverpool is still Such players are only regarded as a big club. worth what clubs are With this signing, willing to pay for them. they have displayed huge If Liverpool weren’t intent that they want to going to pay £75m, progress and win things. then somebody else The counter-argument to that would have is then why allow a top player like because he is a Philippe Coutinho to leave, as now very, very looks certain. good player. But as much as he is a great By all accounts, player – and Liverpool have had many down the years – they do there come and go. were No one is bigger than the club. other The club will still be there the clubs next day. after The fans will still be there. him. But also supporters are not It appeared stupid. They can see when a player that doesn’t want to stay. It doesn’t stop Manchester them supporting the club when he City were does eventually leave. very interested It’s happened for years and years and will continue to happen. More and often than not players have their you way because football is more and can more weighted towards them. But, see to be fair to Liverpool, they resisted over Coutinho in the summer. If a player really wants to leave, eight times out of 10 he will. Supporters want to see the best possible side and Coutinho falls into that category. I would have loved him to stay, but, if not, then you have to go out and sign the best possible replacement.
I see that Riyad Mahrez has had a mention – that’s the standard Liverpool should be considering.
They certainly went for it with Van Dijk.
Defensively, I don’t think Liverpool have been as bad as some critics have made out, but he is still a great addition. Obviously, he has many qualities. With the size of him, you would expect him to be good in the air, but he appears decent on the ball and is very mobile.
But let’s sit back and allow him to play his football. There will be times when he makes mistakes. No price tag makes you immune. If you cost £2m or £75m, you’re still human. And when you pay a lot of money, you want them to make fewer mistakes.
He is not in the side to score goals, but if he crops up every now and then with an important one, like on Friday night, Klopp will settle for that.
And against Everton, in all honesty, he probably dug himself out of a bit of a hole because he probably should have scored with another header earlier.
In the end, it was a superb night for him – an emotional one which he will never forget.
It was a proper FA Cup tie, a great atmosphere, a full house and two strong line-ups. You have to give Everton credit. They had a go. At times, they looked good on the ball, better than I thought they would be.
Any praise, though, won’t lessen the pain of defeat for Evertonians.
The atmosphere at Anfield was what we want from the FA Cup.
Thankfully, the game matched the atmosphere.