BBC Sport pundit Matthew Etherington has praised the ‘unbelievable defending’ of Liverpool centre back Virgil van Dijk against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
The Dutch international kept his cool in a key moment during the second half of his team’s 2-1 win over Spurs at Anfield, not allowing Moussa Sissoko to take advantage of a two-on-one situation in the visitors favour.
Etherington was blown away: “It was incredible defending,” he told the Football Daily podcast [03:38]. “As soon as it happened I just went ‘wow, that is unbelievable defending’.
“To make those quick decisions in that small amount of time… Firstly he was trying to cut off the pass to Son [Heung-min], then he was thinking ‘right if I cut out that pass there it won’t take me out of the game there and Son’s one-on-one with the ‘keeper’, then ‘OK, Sissoko’s right-footed so I’m going to show him onto his left foot and when he does shift it to his left foot I’ll try and make a challenge’.
“All those quick decisions in that short amount of time is just unbelievable defending and that’s what the best players do: they make those decisions quickly.”
OPINION
This was a world class bit of defending from Van Dijk and is probably something that he alone was capable of. Most other defenders, you would think, would have committed to one action or the other in an attempt to force Sissoko’s hand. They would probably be hoping for the best there. Van Dijk, though, as Etherington says, quickly assessed his options and decided that the best thing to do was to remain fairly neutral and cut off the pass to Son, thus forcing Sissoko to go it alone on his weaker left foot. It worked: the Frenchman smashed the ball well over the bar. What made this all the more impressive is that it came at a crucial time for the Reds. It was 1-1 in the game and Liverpool were pushing forward in a 4-2-4 formation. If Spurs had scored it would have been a critical blow to the hosts’ title hopes. Van Dijk, though, prevented that from happening.
