Tim Sherwood has expressed his appreciation for how Virgil van Dijk plays the game after Liverpool comfortably beat Norwich 3-0 at Carrow Road on Saturday evening.
The former midfielder told Premier League Productions (14/08/21 at 7:45 pm) that even though Van Dijk is the ‘quickest’ player on the pitch, he still ran the ‘lowest average speed’ of any player yesterday.
This was Van Dijk’s first Premier League start since he suffered that horrific injury against Everton last season and he played like he was never away.
Sherwood was just left wowed by how the 30-year-old plays the game and how easy he makes it look.
“I love him,” said Sherwood. “It’s not only about his performance. He makes other people around him better.
“As soon as he is lined up with you if you are his teammate then you know you have got the boss there. On the pitch, he is the governor. He is the man. He is back. He’s with us. Sticks his chest out. He has that arrogance about him, in a nice way and he’s a nice man. He leads. He talks.
“He strolled through that game. He’s a Rolls-Royce. When you have a Rolls-Royce in the garage, when you bring it out, you don’t put your foot down straightaway, do you?
“He had the lowest average speed of any player on that pitch today. He totally cruised that football match. But he could. He is probably the quickest player on the pitch, bar none. If you put them all in a line. He just lets his brain do it.”
As the games build up, Van Dijk will find it that bit tougher on his legs because he hasn’t been used to playing so many games in a long while.
But then again, given that he is Van Dijk, he will probably walk all the games and help Liverpool to clean sheet after clean sheet.
Norwich will be one of the easier opponents for Van Dijk and Liverpool given that they are newly promoted.
But a certain Romelu Lukaku will visit Anfield in a fortnight’s time and that battle is going to be something.
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