Speaking on the Indirect Podcast, Fulham centre-back, Tim Ream, has been discussing Liverpool’s poor start to the season and Virgil van Dijk.
The American has been blown away by just how poor Liverpool have been, and he says that he’s most surprised by just how passive the Reds’ style has been this season.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have made their name as one of the most intense footballing outfits you’re likely to ever see, playing a style known as ‘heavy metal football’, but that intensity has vanished this season.
Ream noted just how passive one player in particular has been – singling out Virgil van Dijk as a player who has taken his foot off of the gas.
Van Dijk has been passive
Ream discussed the Dutch defender.
“The thing that is most surprising to me is how passive they have become. If you look at van Dijk especially, he’s become very, very passive and that’s not him from a couple of years ago. In this league if you’re not at it you’re going to get punished and they are being punished,” Ream said.
Not been himself
Ream is absolutely right, van Dijk has been way too passive on the pitch, and it’s so unlike him.
In the past, the Dutchman has genuinely proven to be impossible to get past, but now, he seems to be coasting a bit.
From the opening day of the season when Ream’s teammate, Aleksandar Mitrovic, gave him a schooling, van Dijk hasn’t looked at it, and sadly, there haven’t been many signs of improvement.
As the saying goes though, form is temporary, class is permanent, so it may not be long before the Rolls Royce of a centre-half clicks back into gear.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
