Something went ill-timed, please judge again late. Sign up to receive the best LFC impression address to your inbox Virgil vanguard Dijk didn ’ thyroxine have his finest of games against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The Dutchman endured an uncomfortable afternoon in west London, as the home side came from two goals down to level the crippled within five minutes towards the end of a spellbinding first half of football.

Van Dijk, partnered with Ibrahima Konaté due to Joël Matip ’ mho forced absence in light of a positive Covid test, could do small about Mateo Kovacic ’ s one-in-a-million strike that got Thomas Tuchel ‘s men binding in the game. The second goal however was a different story. Liverpool ’ s defense were signally passive voice for Chelsea ’ s second : trento Alexander-Arnold was out of position ; Jordan Henderson didn ’ triiodothyronine cover the ladder of christian Pulisic ; and Konaté came across to try and avert the risk, but left a massive opening behind him which, ultimately, Van Dijk should ’ ve come across to cover. But he didn ’ t. Van Dijk ran in a straight line — and not even run, jogged would be a better description — towards his own goal, and it allowed Pulisic a clean sight of goal and meter to pick his point. It was honestly a bizarre objet d’art of defending all around. It was a composition picked up on by Sky Sports ’ pundits Jamie Carragher, Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and Graeme Souness in the studio apartment during and after the game. Carragher was critical of Liverpool ’ s defending during the Chelsea game. “ They ’ ve got an compulsion, Liverpool ’ s centre-backs, you see this a distribute where they always stay in line with each other, ” said Carragher. “ They never cover each other — there ’ s an compulsion with playing offside. “ We noticed that correct throughout the game, the quad between the two centre-backs is excessively big. “ Initially, his starting position, Van Dijk, because he ’ s not acute enough to get over, he doesn ’ t want to cover his other centre-back.

“ He stays in the lapp line, and that ’ s why he ’ s excessively far to get across. ” After a bright starting signal to the temper in which it looked like the towering Dutchman had barely skipped a step since returning from his dangerous stifle injury, Van Dijk has been out-of-sorts over the last match of months. Liverpool ’ s high-line, which has been a raw material of the Jürgen Klopp earned run average, is now causing Van Dijk problems. The terrifying accelerate in which he used to cover the ground behind him seems to have been lost to his injury, which has happened to multiple players down the years. It takes months, even years, for a player to regain the form anterior to the reverse. Van Dijk could just be going through a rough patch of phase : possibly his assurance has taken a dunk and he ’ second uncertain of himself, of his put on the flip. It ’ mho happened to even the best of defenders, going through a unmanageable patch of form is about expected at one clock or another. however, if this international relations and security network ’ t a bare bulge in the road, if Van Dijk in truth has lost a yard of yard, then Klopp will need to re-think his defensive scheme. The german can ’ thyroxine keep asking his defenders to play in a high-line if Van Dijk international relations and security network ’ metric ton immediate adequate to cover the outer space behind if one of the confrontation breaks through the line, like Pulisic did. It would mean a tactical reconsideration from Klopp, with possibly Liverpool ’ s bet on four defending slightly deeper than in previous years. The consequence of this would be a bigger opening between the defense and midfield, and how this would effect Liverpool ’ s vogue of bring remains unknown. Klopp could tinker his system, and operate with a double over pivot in order to protect the defense. possibly two of the three midfielders could be asked to sit deeper, and allow only one to bomb forward and support the attack. But all of this is barely conjectural at this stage. merely meter will tell if Van Dijk has truly lost a yard, or it ’ randomness just a blip. Let ’ s hope it ’ s the latter than the former.