Virgil van Dijk ‘washed up’ as Liverpool ace’s strange defending leads to Bournemouth goal

Virgil van Dijk raised plenty of eyebrows with a surprisingly shoddy bit of defending in the build-up to Bournemouth’s opening goal against Liverpool on Saturday afternoon. The towering Dutchman was selected to start alongside Ibrahima Konate at the back for the Reds but was unable to prevent his side from going behind in the first half, with Philip Billing firing home from close range to give Bournemouth an early lead.

Van Dijk initially looked set to deal with Cherries winger Dango Ouattara as he attempted to burst away down the right-hand side of the pitch but seemed to get caught off-balance as the latter successfully dribbled past before finding Billing with a cross into the box. The Liverpool man appeared to give up the chase when he was beaten one-on-one and did not bother to try and prevent Ouattara’s delivery, which left many fans scratching their heads on social media given his reputation as one of the Premier League’s finest central defenders.

Jermaine Jenas expressed his confusion while running the rule over the incident in his role as a co-commentator on BT Sport, saying: “The whole thing was strange, there was a time where Van Dijk would never have been done like that. He just looked lethargic.”

Plenty of Twitter users also chimed in to offer their thoughts on the strange moment that saw Van Dijk almost give up on the idea of stopping Ouattara’s cross, with @HeritageCFC tweeting: “Van Dijk is so washed man. Thiago Silva is so clear.”

@StretfordPaddck added: “They spent all week mocking [Lisandro] Martinez only for Van Dijk to get destroyed by a Bournemouth winger,” while @GraceOnFootball said: “Ouattara sprinting past Van Dijk like that feels like the kind of thing you never ever saw a few years ago.”

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