‘Unrecognisable’: Sky pundit says Liverpool player is truly a shadow of his former self now

By Charles Jones

Speaking on Soccer Saturday (18/3/23 2:00PM), Tim Sherwood has been discussing Virgil van Dijk and his poor form this season.

The Dutch defender, much like many of his teammates, hasn’t been on song this season, and last weekend against Bournemouth that was more evident than ever.

Indeed, the centre-back looked so shaky against the Cherries. He was done for pace by Dango Ouattara on countless occasions, and he really struggled to communicate with Ibrahima Konate effectively during the game.

Sherwood was less than impressed by what he saw from Van Dijk, stating that he was unrecognisable during the game against Bournemouth.

Unrecognisable

Sherwood gave his verdict on Van Dijk.

“Van Dijk is unrecognisable though isn’t he? Certainly in that game at the weekend, he was getting stood up. When your full-backs would push forwards he would just control it and he was happy to defend on his own. Now he needs cover around him either in front of he needs the full-backs to tuck in,” Sherwood said.

What has happened?

Van Dijk’s form in recent months is almost inexplicable.

The centre-back was genuinely one of the best players on the planet last season as the Reds pushed for a quadruple, but now, he looks bang average to say the least.

He’s lost a yard of pace, and that really seems to have affected his confidence as he seems hesitant to commit to challenges as he knows there’s a chance he’ll be left for dead by any pacy attacker these days.

We can only hope that this is a by-product of his recent injury and he’ll be back to his best soon, because if this sort of form continues, Liverpool will struggle to get back amongst the Premier League’s elite.