VAN DIJK: NO NEED FOR LIVERPOOL TO PANIC AND STRESS
▶ Uefa’s Player of the Year says Salzburg’s comeback from three goals down was as much down to the opposition’s quality than his team’s frailty at the back
For Virgil van Dijk, August brought Uefa’s Player of the Year award.
September provided a place on the three-man shortlist for Fifa’s equivalent prize, flanked by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, beaten by a player some consider the greatest ever. And October began with a reminder of human fallibility.
It is rare that a Liverpool defence including Van Dijk is breached three times, still rarer that they give up a threegoal lead or that he is sent sliding in one direction as a forward goes in another to score.
Hwang Hee-chan accomplished the unusual feat of making Van Dijk look foolish. Red Bull Salzburg mounted a remarkable comeback, only to lose 4-3 at Anfield.
“We don’t want to concede, to allow them back into the game,” Van Dijk said.
“But we are humans, and sometimes it happens. They kept going, and they have a lot of individual quality. It’s not only that we are poor. We could have done better, yes, but they have quality which could punish us as well.”
It was a game that suggested imitation is the best form of flattery. Earlier in the week, Salzburg manager Jesse Marsch had noted that sides with similar philosophies shared the same strengths, but argued that Liverpool executed them better.
It turned out that the European champions are also susceptible to gegenpressing and high-speed breaks from teams who acquire momentum and belief. “We were so comfortable at 3-0 but then we conceded a goal and they started believing,” Van Dijk said. “They had a lot of pace and pressing – a bit like we play.
“When we have the ball, we are a little open. I think the problem was when we lost the ball, there was a lot of space for them to counter, and with the pace they have and the runners they have, that can be dangerous.”
It was Jurgen Klopp’s chaos theory at both ends of the pitch. Van Dijk’s comments about Salzburg’s shortcomings could have applied to Liverpool. “We knew how they would play and where the opportunities would be, especially when they were pressing and they left a lot of gaps, a lot of space in behind. And if you have the courage to play under pressure, there can be so much space.”
So Salzburg proved. Frailties were apparent in the Liverpool rearguard, with Joe Gomez enduring a difficult night and the Austrian champions joining the list of opponents who enjoyed the room the overlapping Trent Alexander-Arnold left behind him.
Van Dijk was characteristically unruffled. “Everyone wants to panic and stress and maybe look for all the negatives, but we shouldn’t,” he said. “We know we can do better, but we are human beings and we can’t always play the perfect game. We have to grind it out.”
Liverpool have already ground out one victory this week, with Van Dijk a dominant figure as they kept a clean sheet against Sheffield United on Saturday. They retain a 100 per cent record in the Premier League.
“We are doing pretty well this season,” the Dutchman said. “We shouldn’t forget that after one night where we were a bit disorganised. There’s no reason for panic at all. We just need to relax.”
Liverpool host another set of famed counter-attackers tomorrow. Leicester arrive fresh from scoring five goals against Newcastle and with Klopp warning that if Liverpool defend the same way, Jamie Vardy will be clean through on Adrian’s goal five times.
Van Dijk saw a positive in an evening of poor and porous defending. “Maybe a good thing,” he said. “We know we still have to improve, but we will.”