Virgil van Dijk's defensive style has been described as "weird" by Marco van Basten despite the Dutchman scoring in their latest outing.
The Liverpool man is regarded as his country's best player having established himself as one of the world's leading centre-halves in recent years. At the weekend he scored the winner for the Netherlands as they saw off fellow European heavyweight Belgium in Amsterdam.
Louis van Gaal's outfit will now head into the finals of the Nations League following an impressive campaign, but Van Dijk has found himself the subject of an unusual assessment. Van Basten, who previously coached the national side, claimed the Red is the least likely to take the initiative in the backline despite his quality and standing within the group.
“Jurrien Timber is our biggest strength in defence,” he said, as per Metro . “He always takes the initiative just like Nathan Ake, while actually the best defender (Van Dijk) takes the least initiative of the three which is weird, that such a great centre back does so little in the build-up.
“Ajax is playing great football thanks to Jurrien Timber and the national team is playing great football thanks to him too. It’s thanks to him that we are able to play so easy out from the back.”
Van Dijk, who for so long was unflappable, has come in for questioning this term. Last season he returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines and there were inevitable questions about whether he could recapture his best form. Van Dijk has been susceptible to more errors than he has been previously as Liverpool struggle to get up to speed this term.
Timber, who has been praised by Van Basten, was previously on Manchester United's radar before he snubbed them, which forced the Red Devils to instead go after Lisandro Martinez.
Van Dijk has also hailed the Ajax centre-half, who he claims is far more accomplished than he was at the same age. He said: "I wasn’t nearly as far along as he is now [at the same age]. I have nothing but praise for him. He is a great player and a true professional. He has so much potential. Hopefully he can develop further. Then it will be all right, I think."
Van Gaal has looked to trial United's Tyrell Malacia as a centre-half, with the youngster confessing he didn't agree with the positional experiment. He said: “I didn’t agree with it at the time, yes. That’s right. After the game we talked about that moment for a while and then it was over.”
