Liverpool have not had an ideal start to the campaign and one pundit has placed the blame for this on the shoulders of Virgil van Dijk, with a barrage of bizarre claims.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Jason Cundy said: “There is no question how good van Dijk was, but now let’s call him what he is, van Dijk is an absolute shadow of the player he was.
“He’s being overlooked because he’s happy to blame Trent [Alexander-Arnold] and Gomez and Tsimikas enter. The mainstay at the moment is van Dijk and he’s not even close.
READ MORE: Virgil van Dijk on his ‘opportunity to achieve great things’ as captain of his country
“What about Mitrovic’s penalty challenge against Fulham? Mitrovic turns it around, that’s not van Dijk! He squares it, turns it, penalty.
“Against Napoli, he jumps in and makes a challenge that he doesn’t have to do.”
Normally when you see the words ‘Jason Cundy’ and ‘talkSPORT’ you know an extravagant claim is about to follow and that hasn’t changed in this case either.
It’s unclear how our number 4 blames the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez and Kostas Tsimikas, but it’s obviously something the former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur defender believes to be true.
To say that the 31-year-old is an ‘absolute shadow’ of the player he used to be is also very unfair, important to remind people that we have only lost two games this season.
Our form hasn’t been great and the Netherlands captain could play better, but that’s no reason to act like he’s finished.
That’s the nature of the beast though, when you play as well as our central midfielder does, any drop in performance disappears and pundits like this 52-year-old react hugely.
Let’s hope he can make it out of the international break unscathed and return to help the Reds start a winning streak.
EOTK Insider Opinion: 70% of Liverpool fans suspect he’s had a falling out with Liverpool, but… What’s going on with Naby Keita?
