Speaking on BT Sport’s coverage of Liverpool vs Villarreal (27/3/22 9:57PM), Peter Crouch shared what he noticed Virgil van Dijk doing towards the end of the game.
Van Dijk, and the rest of Liverpool’s defence, had a rather quiet evening as Villarreal failed to ever really threaten the Reds’ goal, but despite having a rather relaxed 90 minutes, Crouch noted that the Dutchman remained switched on until the very end of the game.
In fact, Crouch says that he noticed van Dijk screaming at Ibrahima Konate, who started against Villarreal, towards the end of the match as the Frenchman spent a little bit too much time on the ball.
What’s been said?
Crouch described what he saw van Dijk doing.
“For me it’s also the mentality. I looked at Konate towards the end of the game, he put his foot on the ball, they were 2-0 up and cruising, and van Dijk was screaming at him to move it quicker and move it quicker, the mentality of being 2-0 up and cruising and still wanting to go for more, it’s amazing to see,” Crouch said.
Mentality monsters
This is why this Liverpool team have been described as mentality monsters in the past.
As Crouch says, Liverpool were absolutely cruising against Villarreal, and while Konate may have been ready to take his foot off the gas slightly, van Dijk was never going to accept less than 100 per cent.
Liverpool’s style of football can be energy-sapping, but the players are expected to keep up their intensity levels until the final whistle, and if there is even a slight drop-off, you will be made to know about it.
Jurgen Klopp may be one of the best managers in the world, but it’s also the coaching that his players do on the pitch that keep Liverpool playing at such a high level at all times.
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