Thierry Henry and Peter Schmeichel argued over Virgil van Dijk’s defending during Liverpool’s second-leg Champions League defeat to Inter Milan on Wednesday night, as they told CBS Sports (08/03/22 at 10:10 pm).
The legendary striker made it clear that, for Lautaro Martinez’s goal, Van Dijk did ‘very little’ and he should have closed down the Inter forward.
But Schmeichel stated, from a goalkeeper’s perspective, he liked that the Liverpool defender was showing Martinez ‘one way’.
At the time of Martinez scoring, the home fans would have started to feel the nerves, but then, two minutes later, Alexis Sanchez was shown a second yellow card to all but kill any momentum the away side had built.
Nonetheless, this is how the conversation unfolded between Henry and Schmeichel regarding Van Dijk’s actions on Tuesday.
“I think that Van Dijk does very little there,” said Henry. “He should be tighter to Lautaro Martinez. Sometimes, he takes that liberty to see what is going to happen. And this is what happens, if he got tighter, then the ball would never have past his leg.”
Schmeichel responded: “I disagree, from a goalkeeper’s perspective, I kind of like what he did because he is showing him one way, then he hits a wonderball.”
Henry added: “If I am the striker and you do that, then I see the whole goal.” to which Schmeichel then responded: “I like that I can see that. If he goes much tighter, then he can go the other way as well.”
Henry then further added: “Are you telling me that you don’t like the defender trying to block the ball here?”
Schmeichel: “I like when I can see it. What can he do? He goes in and it hits him a little bit and goes the other way?”
Henry: “If he goes tighter, then it doesn’t go past him.”
Even though Jurgen Klopp’s side weren’t at their best at Anfield, they still progressed and put their name into the hat for the next round of Europe’s biggest competition.
The Reds, after winning the League Cup final at Wembley recently, are still in every competition.
If they are to do the unthinkable and add multiple trophies to their cabinet this season, then in truth, they are going to have matches where they are off it.
But, the key thing is, just like when they won the Premier League title, they get over that dotted line, no matter what.
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