Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has been blasted as “overrated” in comparison to John Terry and Rio Ferdinand as the Reds’ tricky start to the season continued against Napoli on Wednesday.
Jurgen Klopp’s men were on the sharp end of a 4-1 thumping at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona - a result that means that they have won just two of their opening seven games of the season in all competitions.
One of their main problems throughout that run has been a leaky defence, with the Reds’ only two clean sheets of the season coming in the record-breaking victory over Bournemouth and in the Merseyside derby stalemate against Everton.
That continued in Italy on Wednesday - Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Van Dijk all enduring difficult evenings. The usually composed Dutchman was directly at fault, having conceded his second penalty of the season for a foul on Napoli star Victor Osimhen.
talkSPORT pundit Jason Cundy has taken aim at Van Dijk as a result and suggested that his recent performances are not befitting of a player billed as one of the best defenders in world football.
Speaking after Liverpool ’s reverse, he said: “He was lauded as one of the greatest centre-halves that the Premier League has ever seen – poppycock. He’s not and I’ll tell you why he’s not, it’s because it comes down to longevity.
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“If you look at Rio Ferdinand and John Terry who over a number of years won multiple Premier Leagues, won Champions League and won FA Cups. The pair of them won the lot. Van Dijk is a brilliant centre-half, but overrated at Liverpool. If you did a best XI at Liverpool ever, he’s not in there.”
He continued: “There’s no doubting how good Van Dijk was, but right now let’s call it as it is, Van Dijk is an absolute shadow of the player he was.
“He’s getting overlooked because he’s happy to blame Trent [Alexander-Arnold] and Gomez and Tsimikas comes in. The mainstay right now is Van Dijk and he’s nowhere near it.
“What about the challenge on Mitrovic for the penalty against Fulham? Mitrovic turns him, that’s not Van Dijk! He squares him up, turns him, penalty.
“Against Napoli he lunges in and makes a challenge that he doesn’t have to make.”
“I never saw John Terry make decisions like that or consistently have a bad run like this. Rio Ferdinand, I never saw it. The drop-off from him being the greatest centre-half that the world has ever seen to now, the drop-off is colossus.
“I want Liverpool fans to see it and say it.”
