Liverpool 0-3 Barcelona: Wenger blames first goal on van Dijk’s failure to respond to Saurez

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has blamed Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk for allowing Luis Suarez to score Barcelona’s first goal.

Former Red Suarez met a perfect Jordi Alba cross and planted his header past Alisson Becker in goal to give the home side the lead after just 26 minutes.

Wenger, who is working as a pundit for the normally awful beIn Sports, has unpicked the events leading up to that moment and concluded that van Dijk should have done more to prevent the goal. Watch the video below to take in everything that was said on the subject.

It’s actually a joy to listen to The Professor talk about the sport, and unlike so many pundits and ex-players he actually offers seriously interesting insight into the game.

Van Dijk, offered Wenger, made a huge mistake when he chose not to follow Suarez to the ball. Virg decided to cover the area his man had vacated, and this gave the attacker the opportunity to power his header past Alisson and give Barcelona their Champions League advantage.

We all know that van Dijk is a top defender, but Wenger criticised the PFA Player of the Year for failing to respond to the movements Saurez was making in order to get on the end of the Alba cross.

Everyone is allowed to make errors and for an average central defender, something like this might be expected now and again. But what’s interested is that Wenger explicitly mentions VVD’s quality – which to him makes the mistake interesting.

But it may not have even mattered that much if Liverpool’s normally reliable forwards were able to hit the back of the net.

However all three missed good chances to score as Sadio Mane wasted a glorious Jordan Henderson pass, Mohamed Salah hit the post from six yards out and Roberto Firmino had one cleared off the line.