Virgil van Dijk should not be getting the level of criticism he has received this season – partly because his centre-back partner Ibrahima Konate has been a liability, according to Jamie Carragher.
Liverpool's defence has come in for particular scrutiny this season after keeping just nine Premier League clean sheets - fewer than Crystal Palace and Everton.
The criticism intensified following Liverpool's 4-0 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup at the weekend, followed by a 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals in midweek.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher: Go easy on Virgil van Dijk
That has led plenty of pundits, journalists and fans to conclude that the Liverpool defence needs an overhaul this summer to upgrade the ageing van Dijk and out-of-form Konate.
The French international is set to go out of contract this summer, while van Dijk has another season left on the two-year extension he signed last year.
Speaking on CBS Sports after Liverpool's loss defeat to PSG, Carragher said: "People have criticised Van Dijk for his performances this season but I think it’s been harsh.
"I think he plays every game, the fella next to him has been awful all season, and poor again [against PSG].
"Konate makes a mistake every game, so that’s not easy to play alongside - so I still think he’s been one of Liverpool’s better players, Virgil van Dijk. But [against PSG] in that back three, I have never seen him [Van Dijk] so uncomfortable in a Liverpool shirt in my life.
"[With] Konate, it’s getting to the stage now where you actually feel you shouldn’t criticise him, because you’re watching something that’s actually not nice to watch, when you’re watching a player go through something like this.
"I’ve never thought he was top class, but he’s just going through an absolute nightmare."
For FourFourTwo, although the criticism of Konate is valid, that feels extremely generous to van Dijk.
We've seen plenty of occasions this season where the Dutchman has been caught flat-footed and out of position in ways that he would not have allowed at his peak a few years ago.
We're not at all convinced that van Dijk's issue is that his attention is being drawn away from erratic defending elsewhere in the defence, especially bearing in mind he played all 38 games in the 2019/20 title win alongside Trent Alexander-Arnold, 28 alongside a 22-year-old Joe Gomez, and 10 alongside Dejan Lovren.
It's fine to acknowledge that a player who will turn 35 this summer is no longer as imperious as he once was.
