Liverpool 1-1 Napoli: Five things we learned as toothless Reds struggled
Virgil van Dijk is human after all
There hasn’t been many moments like this since van Dijk joined from Southampton, and it was a moment none of us were expecting. But could you make a case for Virg being at fault for Napoli’s goal?
Probably not, but the Dutchman could have done better to win his duel on the halfway line. Not only that, but van Dijk nearly injured himself in the process and to lose him and Fabinho within minutes of each other would have been disaster for the club.
With his size, his ability, his strength you wouldn’t expect van Dijk to second best so drastically. There have been arguments made that he was fouled by Mertens, who went on to make it 1-0 to the away side, but even so the Dutchman should have done better within that incident.
Delight as Salah sits down Koulibaly. light. Liverpool 1-1 Napoli
Liverpool can’t expect him to provide world-class performances every week and Lovren could have made better decisions in the lead up to the goal. But it shows how much the side rely on van Dijk and maybe that’s an area that can be improved on in the summer.
Our back up options seem to lift their game when playing next to the Dutchman, but the club can’t rely on that being the case every match. We need to see permanent improvement for the days when Virg is shown to be human after all.