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Virgil van Dijk was labeled a “baby” by Jamie Carragher, Mohamed Salah looked like a toddler and Alexander Isak is not worth $25 million. Liverpool trio were terrible in defeating Manchester United.
The narrative around Liverpool’s defensive woes this season has been that Abraham Connet’s malaise – both in and between the deal. Interest from Real Madrid is now cooling as a result of his injury – has been too dramatic for Van Dijk’s brilliance.
But after the extraordinary passing of the game at Anfield in the first minute that gave Manchester United the lead, we were forced to consider the possibility that Conte’s absence and Liverpool’s collective dysfunction have not exactly been their captain’s way this season.
Either that or Van Dijk The mind and body hadn’t yet woken up to a game against Liverpool’s fiercest rivals – and indeed never did – with nothing short of a victory so they wouldn’t pay back doubts over their ability to stay on course with Arsenal in the title race. Neither reflects well on it.
He goes games, weeks, months, often seemingly entire seasons, without making a mistake, but makes three – four if you count the head injury, less than ten seconds into the beginning of that game, and spent the rest of it, as Gary Newell said on commentary, “not knowing whether to stay or screw up”.
Having failed to deal with a long ball in the process, caught on the back of Brian Mebomo, nailing McAlister with an elbow in the process, Van Dijk then dipped a leg to block Bruno Fernandes’ pass to Imad Diallo, before Mebemo raced over for the score.
We’ve seen it back in the position a thousand times, but usually in the ‘I’m better than you so no need to break a sweat’, instead of the air of indifference we see here, instead of marking it on his side, Kontet points vaguely at Mbuyomo.
Milos Kerkes was having another nightmare as well and we have to ask questions about what Arne Slott has done since the 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace to play against the 3-4-3 formation coach Liverpool have been playing against.
Without playing against a true No. 9, Van Dijk was constantly dragged out of position and looked genuinely uncomfortable whether he was being tackled wide by Mbyomo or pulled into midfield, moments that dogged his mind to such an extent that he was losing a physical battle to Mitsis Kunha at half-time.
Crashing a cross into Kirkes’ face before shouting at the full-back for failing to talk him down added to his new-term defensive inadequacies and the all too familiar Van Dijk of blaming someone else for his mistakes. And when Van Dijk Aura came back briefly to equalize for Liverpool with a fine tackle to stop United’s counter-attack, he was marked by Harry Maguire scoring the Red Devils’ winner, with Matthijs de Ligt also free at the back post.
“For most of the season van Dijk has been looking after a baby in the coven. Now it’s the other way around,” Carragher said on commentary. But short of his much-maligned centre-back as a scapegoat, Liverpool had two other very agreeable, highly-respected Pettis who completely focused the beleaguered captain’s attention.
Alexander Isak missed a golden opportunity when beautifully dispatched by Contet, but he aimed his shot straight at Sean Lemmons. He dragged another wide, and when on another occasion well placed Mohamed Salah could have been played in. Slott said this week that Isaac has now completed his delayed preseason, so now it’s just bad football from the $125 million man.
Not as bad as advice Although, Joe was as poor as we’ve seen him for Liverpool against the team he loves playing against the most, evidenced by him kicking the ball with the wrong side of his boot, like he was a toddler contesting an effort at the back post, when he presented a golden opportunity against United to make it 17 goals in 18 games.
Unsurprisingly, Salah was replaced in the 85th minute by Jeremy Frampong as they chased the game but it was too late to realize that the Egyptian was now proving to be Liverpool’s stumbling block in attack as well as in attack.
And on the back of United’s first win at Anfield for a decade, after which Ruben Amorim and his players clearly deserve huge credit (which you’ll find in 16 results), although the visitors played their part in the mini-cruise, the upgrade is mainly Liverpool’s doing.
Kudos to Slott for treating the last 30+ minutes as if it were the last, for shrinking two Liverpool legends in Sahib and van Dijk when they really needed them and for making the summer signings that should have taken this fantastic team to the next level instead of starting this dramatic fall from grace.
