Michael Owen was critical of Virgil van Dijk’s defending during Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Southampton on Saturday, as he told Premier League Productions (12/11/22 at 3:55 pm).
With a new manager in Nathan Jones in the dugout for the away side, Southampton responded well to Roberto Firmino’s opener when Che Adams nodded home from a deadly set-piece situation via James Ward-Prowse’s boot.
Former England striker Owen was critical of Van Dijk’s actions, or lack of it, by stating that he ‘went to sleep’ during that moment because Adams did ghost ahead of the 31-year-old to put the ball into an empty net.
Liverpool fans would have probably felt ‘here we go again’ because they aren’t making life easy for themselves this season, even at home now.
Either way, Owen shared the mistake Van Dijk made during that moment as Jurgen Klopp’s side walked away with three points, despite that early setback.
“At a free-kick, you try to keep an arm’s distance from everyone, so nobody can get into the gaps,” said Owen. “If they do, then you can hold a stiff arm, let’s say, not pull their shirts.
“But it looked like Virgil van Dijk went to sleep for a while there and then Che Adams got in between them and knocked in the equaliser.”
WORLD CUP BREAK NEEDED
Arsenal are sitting at the top of the Premier League table heading into the break for the 2022 World Cup and they probably won’t like this stop in play.
But Liverpool and Klopp will probably love it given how stop-start, error-prone and energy-less the team has looked this season.
It still doesn’t hide the long-term issues on Merseyside and it will probably need a few transfer windows to sort out those problems, but for now, this break will do everyone at the club the world of good.
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