The former Chelsea and Aston Villa striker has made a strong case for being one of Liverpool’s best players.
Chris Sutton believes Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk is not the player he used to be and has cited the 2020 signing of Jordan Pickford as the reason.
Van Dijk, 32, has been in top form for club and country this season and has rediscovered his high level of play after taking over the captaincy following the departure of Jordan Henderson this summer.
Red have been in incredible form, losing twice during the season and once in Van Dijk’s absence, with Jurgen Klopp’s side currently top of the table, two points behind leaders Arsenal.
The Dutchman was virtually blameless apart from Alexander Isak’s red card in the 2-1 win against Newcastle earlier this season. In fact, he has outplayed almost every centre-back in the Premier League and rediscovered something close to his best form as he has yet to dribble this season.
But despite his resurgence, Sutton does not believe he will ever return to his best form. “At the start of the season I said the most important part of the Liverpool team was their defense and the way they did it, because when they won the league it was just how stingy their defense was.”
He said this on the Mail Sport podcast: “We have to accept Pickford’s criticism. He (Van Dijk) will never be the same again. Suddenly he will not come back with the same speed. This is after the strikers reach a stage where they don’t know how to cope.
But that’s no longer the case.” In 2020, Liverpool and Everton played out one of the most controversial and heated Merseyside derbies in recent memory, with Van Dijk making way for Pickford and missing the entire 2020/21 season.
We wrote about Van Dijk’s form earlier last month. Through mid-November, he had committed no fouls, lost possession, never dribbled and had the league’s highest tackle success rate among defenders.
Sure, he may never reach the levels he reached in 2019, but he’s still one of the best defenders around and a big reason why Liverpool rise to the top.
