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2018/19 Season Report Card - Virgil Van Dijk

By tlw content,
July 3, 2019 in FF - Football Forum

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deiseach

Posted July 21, 2019

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Posted July 21, 2019

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One of the biggest differences he’s brought to our game is something that largely goes un-noticed. When the opposition try to put a ball over the top or just try to knock it long and play for second balls, we’ve had problems with that in the past. Defenders would be at full stretch and would often only be able to clear it straight to the opposition and allow them to mount attacks, or at the very least get up the field and relieve the pressure from themselves.

Now? It just doesn’t happen, because Virgil doesn’t just win those balls, he knocks them down to his own team-mates and allows us to keep up the pressure. He does it constantly, and because he does it so easily it’s barely even mentioned. I see it all the time though and just marvel at the difference he’s made. There’ll be a difficult looking ball played down the channel that has him turned around, and he’ll just rise like a salmon and knock it down perfectly into the path of Robertson, or he’ll bring it down on his mighty chest and roll it to Fabinho to get us going again. It’s only a little thing but it makes a huge difference.