Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk has been blasted by pundits for his post-match comments after The Red’s Champions League win over Ajax on Tuesday night.
Liverpool and Van Dijk have come under major scrutiny from the football world, mainly outside Merseyside, for their relatively poor start to the current campaign.
The Reds currently sit seventh in the Premier League having only won two of their opening six fixtures. However, Jürgen Klopp’s men, particularly his defence, faced heavy criticism following their 4-1 away defeat to Napoli in the UEFA Champions League last week.
Although Van Dijk made a fantastic goal-line clearance during the game in Naples, the Dutch International did play a part in his side’s defensive issues, giving away his second penalty of the season, having not given away a single spot-kick in his entire Liverpool career before the current campaign.
The postponement of Premier League games this past weekend may have come at the wrong time as Liverpool ought to put the midweek result out of mind. Their respite eventually came, even for the time-being, after last night’s 2-1 win over Ajax at Anfield.
Following the match, Van Dijk caught up with BT Sport, saying that ex-players are trying to bring Liverpool down in spite of those former footballers going through difficult periods themselves during their careers. Van Dijk was heard saying: “Not listening to the outside world is the most important thing. It’s funny sometimes because there’s a lot of ex-football players and know exactly what we go through but they say a lot of things to try get us down.
“We know last week was unacceptable, very bad and we tried to make it right. This is a step in the right direction, don’t get carried away because we played so many games. Now we have to focus on the national teams or the break then crack on.”
Former Liverpool player Danny Murphy did not agree with Van Dijk’s statements. Whilst being a guest on the Jim White and Simon Jordan Show on talkSPORT, Murphy said in reaction to the interview: “It’s a strange one coming from him because for the majority of his time at Liverpool, everyone has spent minutes, if not hours, eulogising about what a wonderful player he is and rightly so. He is a Rolls Royce of a defender and everyone knows his quality.”
“The standards he has set himself, he has fallen below. It is honest, truthful punditry, nothing more than that. He’s been a revelation at Liverpool, but when he plays poorly and is not at it then we will call it like anyone should.”
Murphy then concluded by saying: “When someone is having a dig, or is being critical, unless it gets personal, the last thing you do is qualify it by talking about it. It shows you are bothered. The mentality of an elite is ‘I’ll get on with my job and I’ll keep doing it the best I can. What is said doesn’t bother me.’ That’s what you’ve got to show, your resilience.”
