A number of Liverpool fans have slammed Charlie Nicholas after the pundit said that Virgil van Dijk has looked “cumbersome and sluggish at times” this season.
Although he named the Dutch defender in his Premier League team of the season for Sky Sports, he feels that the 28-year-old’s standards have dropped in recent months, saying: “Has he been as good as last year? No. He looks cumbersome and sluggish at times, but his pace can rescue him”. Those quotes were later posted on Twitter by @AnfieldEdition.
Charlie Nicholas on Van Dijk: “Has he been as good as last year? No. He looks cumbersome and sluggish at times, but his pace can rescue him.”
— Anfield Edition (@AnfieldEdition) April 9, 2020
As noted by Sky Sports, Van Dijk famously went through an entire 38-match Premier League season without being dribbled past once, something which has happened to him six times in the current campaign.
However, the reigning PFA Player of the Year has still been ever-present in the division for Liverpool this term, helping them to keep 10 clean sheets in 11 league games between December and February and conceded only 21 top-flight goals, seven fewer than the next-best defence in the league (as per premierleague.com). Also, despite not missing a single minute in the division, the centre-back has only been booked once in the Premier League all season (as per TransferMarkt).
These Liverpool fans on Twitter took aim at Nicholas, who was also pilloried by some Kopites for omitting the likes of Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah from his team of the season:
He proper hates Liverpool
— Champions of Europe & The World (@mainstandred) April 9, 2020
Yep coming from the so called pundit who clearly needs to retire before he embarrasses himself any further?
— J??NNY B??Y ?????? (@JonnoLovesLFC) April 9, 2020
Sluggish but his pace can rescue him ?????????????
— Ciaran Sheridan (@ciaranpsheridan) April 9, 2020
Have you seen his weekly score predictions, he just trolls for attention
— Rich ?????? (@ick1emonkey) April 9, 2020
Ah yes sluggish but his pace can make up for it. Nice one, Charlie
— Dän ??????? (@FutboIDan) April 9, 2020
— Mike Michael ?????? (@mikemichael73) April 9, 2020
Liverpool fans, were you baffled by Nicholas’ “cumbersome and sluggish” remark about Van Dijk? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
