Virgil van Dijk endured a miserable evening as Southampton’s under-23s lost 4-0 to their Aston Villa counterparts.
Southampton fans have been reacting on Twitter to Virgil van Dijk’s performance in the Saints’ under-23 side’s heavy defeat to their Aston Villa counterparts at the Bescot Stadium on Monday evening – and it is safe to say that they are not impressed.
Van Dijk endured an eventful summer, with Sky Sports reporting that he handed in a transfer request during the window in an attempt to force through a move to Liverpool.
However, the window closed with the Netherlands international still a Southampton player, and Sky Sports reports that Mauricio Pellegrino has looked to reintegrate him into the first-team ranks recently given his desire to leave and his recent return from an ankle injury that ended his season prematurely last term.
The game against Villa was his first since sustaining that injury – but it will certainly not be one that he will remember fondly as the Villans ran out 4-0 winners.
And unfortunately, van Dijk’s own performance left a lot to be desired as he hardly covered himself in glory with his role in a couple of the goals – with the first coming from a challenge that he failed to win, while he also failed to put a tackle in on a couple of other occasions.
The Southampton supporters who took to social media in the wake of the defeat were obviously less than happy with van Dijk’s display, with many questioning whether his heart was in the game considering how poor a performance it was for a defender who is so highly-rated.
And while keeping van Dijk seemed essential at the start of the window, some of the fans appear to be willing to see him leave if his display was an indicator of how unhappy he is – though it must be remembered that it was his first game back.
Here is the best of the reaction…
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