Darren Gough laughed off Adrian Durham’s suggestion that Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk is sulking due to not winning the Ballon D’or.
The talkSPORT host asked the former England cricketer whether the Reds’ centre-back was sulking when trying to work out why the player made mistakes, which he previously pointed out on the radio station, in the 4-3 victory over Red Bull Salzburg.
“Two questions I want to ask you, firstly is Van Dijk sulking a little bit as he didn’t win the Ballon D’or?” asked Durham on talkSPORT (October 3rd, Thursday, 16:14)
Gough laughed and said, “no” before Durham insisted it was a “fair question” to ask as a lot of people expected him to win it.
OPINION
Seeing as the 2019 Ballon D’or winner isn’t crowned for another two months, you feel Durham meant to ask if Van Dijk was sulking over Barcelona playmaker Lionel Messi being named best male player at the Fifa Best awards ahead of him. However, it doesn’t really matter, as the question being asked and him making the suggestion about Van Dijk’s mood is still unwarranted. The 28-year-old didn’t have the perfect day at the office against Salzburg, but that doesn’t mean he is sulking. Van Dijk has set such high standards for himself that people tend to overreact whenever a slight error is made. The 28-year-old failed to make a tackle against Salzburg while only making two interceptions and registering one clearance, as per WhoScored, so when he was caught out by Salzburg’s Hwang Hee-chan, it just allowed Durham to be able to put the spotlight on the centre-back in a negative way. However, considering that Van Dijk has been in great form this season in the Premier League, he has been named Man of the Match twice on WhoScored out of the first seven league games, then it wouldn’t be a surprise if he is instantly back to his amazing self against Leicester City on Saturday.
