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Publication date: Sunday, September 13, 2020 12:36 PM
Virgil van Dijk has been accused of “arrogance” in Liverpool’s opening day win over Leeds, and should not be placed in the same group as Rio Ferdinand and Vincent Kompany.
Mohamed Salah’s late penalty salvaged all three points for the Reds at Anfield, as the Egypt ace scored a hat-trick to send his team away to a 4-3 win.
But Leeds crossed Liverpool’s bottom line with ease, and former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor has accused Van Dijk of being arrogant and not putting in the effort required against Marcelo Bielsa’s team.
READ MORE: F365 early loser – Defending champions Liverpool fail to reassert themselves
“Everybody knows that Virgil van Dijk is an incredible defender,” Agbonlahor said. talkSPORT. “With the ball he can change the diagonals and, defensively, nobody wants to face him.
“But I felt that yesterday’s performance was, by Van Dijk, arrogant; That move he made on the goal he gave away, it felt like ‘we’re playing Leeds United, it’s going to be an easy game and I can drop my standards.’
“And in that game, he did [let his standards drop].
“Even Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right was also poor defensively.
“Van Dijk is a great defender, and he will be one of the best defenders to ever play the game, but when people start to put him in the Vincent Kompany and Rio Ferdinand box …
“I think people forget how good certain players were as time goes by.
“People forget how good Rio Ferdinand was in its prime; You wouldn’t even want to go to the same side of the field as him!
“It was the same with Kompany and John Terry too; you just wouldn’t want to face them because you wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Virgil van Dijk is an incredible defender, but he still can’t put himself in that category of Rio Ferdinand and Vincent Kompany.
“I feel like today was Liverpool’s arrogance on defense,” he added. “As if they didn’t realize how good the Leeds team is.
“I feel like a lot of teams that watch Leeds will be more cautious about how they play, and this can also be a wake-up call for Liverpool.”
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