Virgil Van Dijk

[Barrington Womble]

28 minutes ago, rubble-rouser said:

Has he dropped by 5% from pre-injury?

 

He’s still come up with the odd bit of brilliance and won a lot in the air, but I’m slightly concerned he’s not at the level he was before. 
 

I’m hoping it’s something that will come back with match fitness, but I think Matip has outplayed him pretty much all season. 
 

I love him all the same.

He's not back to his level yet, but he was never going to be this quickly. Players take time to get back to their best level and the pre-season was barely a thing for him in terms of minutes on the pitch. But we were in a position where we had 4 centre backs who have barely played over the last 12 months, so we just had to go with him. He's 30, so he may never be back to where he was 2 years ago, but I'm sure he won't be far off. My expectation is we shouldn't expect to see him at his very best till around December - certainly we shouldn't expect anything any time before the November internationals. 

[Bob]

21 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

He's not back to his level yet, but he was never going to be this quickly. Players take time to get back to their best level and the pre-season was barely a thing for him in terms of minutes on the pitch. But we were in a position where we had 4 centre backs who have barely played over the last 12 months, so we just had to go with him. He's 30, so he may never be back to where he was 2 years ago, but I'm sure he won't be far off. My expectation is we shouldn't expect to see him at his very best till around December - certainly we shouldn't expect anything any time before the November internationals. 

Absolutely spot on. He isn’t sharp quite yet, you can see that. He still reads the game the same way, but he’s not quite at it in terms of getting himself in the right shape or that half yard to the ball. He’s still boss though.

[aws]

It'll be months before he's anywhere near fully recovered. 

[Jose Jones]

Yeah, he's way off his previous top level, both athletically and in match awareness.  I think this season is going to be a story of gradual improvement and then next year he'll hopefully be fully back.

 

[lebron]

Seems like he's starting to get his speed back in terms of running, but he's definitely cautious when jumping, especially when jumping on his injured knee (two-footed and on that knee in particular). It will take time to get there, both physically and mentally.

[coachpotato]

I had a knee replaced a while ago by an Orthopaedic surgeon who, coincidentally, has had links with professional football clubs, this was well before Virgil’s injury. During my questions about how good my knee might be afterwards, he mentioned that after any serious surgery to the knee joint, you almost always are never back to100%, and he stated this was the case for anyone, professional players included, who had ACL or similar injuries as there’s always some weakness due to the intensity their joints are put under playing at the level they do. At least mine would appear to be back to normal after a couple of years, but I’m not playing centre back for LFC thankfully!

[VladimirIlyich]

10 hours ago, Barrington Womble said:

He's not back to his level yet, but he was never going to be this quickly. Players take time to get back to their best level and the pre-season was barely a thing for him in terms of minutes on the pitch. But we were in a position where we had 4 centre backs who have barely played over the last 12 months, so we just had to go with him. He's 30, so he may never be back to where he was 2 years ago, but I'm sure he won't be far off. My expectation is we shouldn't expect to see him at his very best till around December - certainly we shouldn't expect anything any time before the November internationals. 

For fucks sake! Even more internationals in November? Why dont they just forget club football and let England play Andorra and The Isles of Scilly every week?

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, VladimirIlyich said:

For fucks sake! Even more internationals in November? Why dont they just forget club football and let England play Andorra and The Isles of Scilly every week?

Yes, another 2. And they've sneaked one more for January, for which there is no gap in the domestic calendar for. 

 

 

[Aventus]

[TheHowieLama]

What the fuck am I looking at?

[AngryOfTuebrook]

1 hour ago, Aventus said:

@cloggypop, throw us a bone here, will yer.

[Baresi]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/virgil-van-dijk-liverpool-netflix-22559314
 

[Baresi]

Virgil van Dijk has starred in a promotional video for a Dutch television series on Netflix.

The Liverpool centre-back is currently unavailable after testing positive for Covid-19 last week, and has missed the last two fixtures.

In a video which would have been filmed well before Van Dijk’s positive test, the Dutchman is acting in a promotional video for the TV show Undercover.

The 71-second teaser shows Van Dijk presumably in his home where he texts fictional Ferry, who is the title character of a Dutch film also on Netflix.

 

After a brief text exchange, the character goes to Van Dijk’s house where he punches the Liverpool defender in the face.

Left with a bloodied nose, Van Dijk is then asked to ‘help’ PSV Eindhoven in their match against Ajax in January.

Van Dijk replied: “What do you mean? You know I play in Liverpool, right?

 

Van Dijk was then asked to fake an injury and play for PSV in ‘secret’.

The Dutchman replied: “In secret? What would you like me to do, shave off my goatee and go undercover?”

The promotional video ended with Van Dijk saying: “Calm down, little one,” as the title ‘Undercover’ appeared on the screen.

[VladimirIlyich]

4 hours ago, Baresi said:

Virgil van Dijk has starred in a promotional video for a Dutch television series on Netflix.

The Liverpool centre-back is currently unavailable after testing positive for Covid-19 last week, and has missed the last two fixtures.

In a video which would have been filmed well before Van Dijk’s positive test, the Dutchman is acting in a promotional video for the TV show Undercover.

The 71-second teaser shows Van Dijk presumably in his home where he texts fictional Ferry, who is the title character of a Dutch film also on Netflix.

 

After a brief text exchange, the character goes to Van Dijk’s house where he punches the Liverpool defender in the face.

Left with a bloodied nose, Van Dijk is then asked to ‘help’ PSV Eindhoven in their match against Ajax in January.

Van Dijk replied: “What do you mean? You know I play in Liverpool, right?

 

Van Dijk was then asked to fake an injury and play for PSV in ‘secret’.

The Dutchman replied: “In secret? What would you like me to do, shave off my goatee and go undercover?”

The promotional video ended with Van Dijk saying: “Calm down, little one,” as the title ‘Undercover’ appeared on the screen.

Undercover is a decent film/show.

[Jimmy Hills Chin]

Hearing rumours that it was Nat Phillips who originally recorded this but the actor broke his hand when he punched him.

[niallers]

Is it me, or does he not attack the front post on our attacking set pieces anymore? His goals against Leeds last year on the opening day, attacked the front post. Another against united,front post attacked. Brighton, when he scored 2, 1st one was front post again. 

Any set piece we have since he came back, he's loitering at the back post,hoping that it gets to him.

He's been an invaluable source of opening goals since he arrived but its dried up completely last few months. 

Maybe it's a mental thing,  but it'd be great if he, and matip could start coping in with a few.

 

[lebron]

On 05/10/2021 at 02:02, lebron said:

Seems like he's starting to get his speed back in terms of running, but he's definitely cautious when jumping, especially when jumping on his injured knee (two-footed and on that knee in particular). It will take time to get there, both physically and mentally.

Last night was the first time I've thought he might eventually get back to his previous level. He looked far less reserved than he has since his comeback. Would be a huge bonus if he could regain his trust in himself when turning and jumping.

 

Niallers' post above seems apt too, after the bullet header last night.

[Jose Jones]

3 minutes ago, lebron said:

Last night was the first time I've thought he might eventually get back to his previous level. He looked far less reserved than he has since his comeback. Would be a huge bonus if he could regain his trust in himself when turning and jumping.

 

Niallers' post above seems apt too, after the bullet header last night.

I thought it was the best he'd looked all season too.  There was one time (second half?) where Daka was through and Virg sped back past him and Daka just gave up.  I think it was given offside in the end, but it was vintage van Dijk.

[Wezza]

He did quite a long interview with BT after the game. Seemed in a really good place and is essentially loving life at Liverpool 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

8 minutes ago, Wezza said:

He did quite a long interview with BT after the game. Seemed in a really good place and is essentially loving life at Liverpool 

When the Big Man's happy, everybody's happy.

[VladimirIlyich]

He's not a patch on Rigobert Song or Torben Picnic. What are you doing to our club Jurgen!

[aRdja]

46 minutes ago, Jose Jones said:

I thought it was the best he'd looked all season too.  There was one time (second half?) where Daka was through and Virg sped back past him and Daka just gave up.  I think it was given offside in the end, but it was vintage van Dijk.

One of the most beautiful sights in the world is of Virge effortlessly outpacing a supposedly quick forward. 

[Anubis]

Looked back to his best last night. I think that in the first half of the season he was still working out some mental niggles about his injury (only natural with an injury like that). Hopefully he's over that moving forward.

[El Rojo]

He's definitely attacking our corners again, which is brilliant. We've actually been potent from them in recent games after months of just giving possession back to the opposition. 

[aws]

26 minutes ago, aRdja said:

One of the most beautiful sights in the world is of Virge effortlessly outpacing a supposedly quick forward. 

Or "crazy quick" as Virgil described him.