Pep Guardiola has refused to speculate on how badly Liverpool will miss Virgil van Dijk.
The Reds omitted Van Dijk from their revised Premier League squad this week after a knee injury sustained in last week’s clash at Everton resulted in him being ruled out for the whole season.
From a selfish point of view, it doesn’t harm Manchester City’s chances of reclaiming the Premier League title from Liverpool in the slightest.
This is a player who placed second in the Ballon d’Or behind Lionel Messi a year ago, illustrating that he’s probably the best defender in world football.
Jurgen Klopp’s side will more than likely suffer in some way without the big Dutchman at centre-back until next season.
Here’s what the City boss told The Daily Star about Van Dijk: “I cannot speak about how it will affect Liverpool. Jurgen can talk about this. We wish him to get well soon and have a good recovery. I don’t like opponents losing important players for a long time.
“I don’t know him but he looks strong so he’s going to come back well. We’ll wait for him to come back – the Premier League is better with good players and he is one of the best.”
The good news for Liverpool is that they have another monster in the form of Fabinho.
The Brazilian replaced Van Dijk in defence for the 1-0 Champions League win over Ajax on Wednesday and despite being a midfielder, the big man didn’t look out of palce one bit.
Fabinho has played central defence on a handful of occasions – including in the 2-0 win at Chelsea last month – and everytime he does, he seems to keep a clean sheet.
And long may it continue from Liverpool’s perspective.
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