Following Liverpool’s slow start to the campaign, Virgil van Dijk is one of the Reds’ stars who has been called into question over his recent performances.
With Jurgen Klopp’s side winning just two of their opening six Premier League games and suffering an embarrassing defeat against Napoli in the Champions League recently, some have claimed that the Merseysiders are not the same team that competed for the quadruple right up until death last season.
But former Leeds striker Noel Whelan has now backed the former Southampton defender to return to his usual best very soon and told the 31-year-old he must take any criticism “on the chin”.
“This is our job, to criticize or praise players,” Whelan told Football Insider (via TEAMtalk). “We’ve been there, we’ve done it. Now we are sitting on the couch looking at it.
“We all know what a great player he is. And the person who will be criticizing him the most is himself.
“The players know when they are not reaching the heights or if they are going through a rough patch.
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“Unfortunately, this is what comes with football. If you’re having a great time, you’ll be praised, it’s a 50/50 thing.
“When you’re not playing well, criticism is going to come your way. And he needs to take it on the chin.
“He’s not having the best of times right now, and he’ll probably be the first to admit it.”
The Netherlands captain has already insisted that he will not listen to people ‘outside’ and will only take advice from those who are ‘close’ to him.
He knows the performance in Naples was ‘unacceptable’ and spoke recently about how that result gave him and his team-mates a ‘reality check’.
He himself has admitted that he can perform better, but it is Klopp’s team as a whole that has performed below average rather than just Van Dijk on his own.
The central defender will never shy away or hide when his performances are not at his usual world-class level and he is to be applauded for speaking so honestly during what has been a difficult start to the campaign.
Following our win over Ajax on Tuesday, the hope is that the Reds have turned a corner and can put together a good run of results when domestic football returns after the impending international break.
Our next match is the visit to Brighton, currently without a manager, on October 1 in a game where three points are essential and a clean goal would not be bad.
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