BBC pundit claims Liverpool man produced a performance he hasn’t seen ‘in a long time’

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Liverpool suffered a first-leg defeat against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last night.

Stephen Warnock has claimed that Virgil van Dijk produced a performance in the Champions League last might that he hasn’t seen ‘in a long time’ from the Liverpool defender.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live (18/02/2020 at 10:00 pm), Warnock felt that Van Dijk looked ‘shaky’ during Liverpool’s 1-0 Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid and that he would be ‘disappointed’ in his own performance. 

It was a case of attack vs defence in Madrid, and despite Liverpool boasting happy memories from the Spanish capital for their record-breaking number six from last season, this time around they left annoyed and frustrated. 

They have the chance to turn that around in the second-leg when the robust and difficult to break down Atletico visit Anfield, as Warnock shared that Van Dijk’s performance from last night wasn’t one of his best. 

“Shaky performance and I don’t often say that about him,” Warnock told BBC Radio 5 Live. “There was an incident towards the end of the game when he and Joe Gomez came together and it created another opportunity for Atletico Madrid. 

“He looked a little uneasy and I have not said that in a long time about Van Dijk. But he’s only human and he’s allowed to have off days. He was fortunate that he got away with other mistakes but punished for that one mistake and he’ll be disappointed in himself.”

The second leg encounter will not be played until next month, but there’s no doubt that this Liverpool side have been fired up by their Spanish counterparts. 

The manner in which Atletico won perhaps didn’t sit well with the Merseyside club, who will be eager to get them over to England, so they can overturn this current one-goal deficit. 

For a number of months now, it has been plain sailing for Liverpool in the Premier League, but it seems Jurgen Klopp’s men got a taste of defeat which they haven’t been provided with in a pretty long time.