Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk is excited for the season but knows that the club has to sign more players
New Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk is excited about the new season but understands the discomfort among the fans regarding the lack of transfers and defensive deficiencies.
As a defender himself and a very good one, van Dijk has admitted that while the team has looked great going forward, giving up goals in the pre-season hasn’t been good.
Liverpool haven’t signed a defender or a defensive midfielder in this window so far. They have let go of a number of midfielders and have added just two. With the deadline three weeks from now, they have to start speeding up the process if they are actually thinking of getting bodies in.
Here’s what van Dijk about the season and fan apprehension (h/t Independent):
“I can definitely understand it (fans’ negativity) in some ways but I’m not a very negative person, so obviously it’s not in my mind to think like that.
“But obviously when a lot of players are leaving, when your captain is leaving, your vice-captain is leaving, and at the moment there are only two incomings…
“And the way we have been playing, in possession really good but defensively when you concede goals it’s not as good I can understand some people having doubts.”
One can look at these two quotes in different ways. The first would be to acknowledge how open the Dutchman is about the situation and he is echoing the sentiments of the supporters as well.
The other side of the coin would be that it shows that the players in the dressing room know they are not good enough yet to go back to challenging for the major honours in the coming nine months.
The club is really struggling to get the Romeo Lavia deal done to add some solidity to the defensive midfield position. Amidst all that, we have almost forgotten that this team needs a new centre-back too, preferably a left-sided one.
In this new hybrid system, Andrew Robertson cannot be the third centre-back. The Scotsman is a naturally attacking player who has and will leave enormous gaps for van Dijk and the left-sided midfielder to cover.
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- Mohamed Salah ‘committed to Liverpool’ amid Saudi links
There are probably more questions ahead of the start of this season compared to last. Or maybe we were able to mask the shortcomings last season because of the memorable yet heart-breaking 2021/22 campaign. Let’s hope for the best and for some miracles to happen by 31st August.
