Topic: Virgil Van Dijk (Cpt)

[farawayred]

At his age, he should be winning a quadruple.

[MonsLibpool]

At his age, he should be winning a quadruple.

This first trophy should whet his appetie for more. I've noticed that he tends to start the biggest games in every competition which indicates that we want to win it all.

[cipher]

The best I've ever seen for us and is already one of the best ever play in this league (not just Premiership!).   Feel so lucky that we get to see this colossus play for us and help lead our team previously as a co-captain and now as a captain.  Hopefully, he can keep this level for another 2-3 years and then a few more years after this at 80-90% VVD is still better then most at this position.

Also, thank god we signed him as imagine the cheats had somehow won his signature when he left Southampton.  They would be going for their 7th straight title and who knows how many Champions League's they would have won during this period.

[Garlic Red]

Was listening to TAW pod before, Neil Jones was discussing van Dijk as the best centre half he’d seen, he basically had Ramos, Terry and Cannavaro as the other three on his level. Had me thinking for a bit who people felt were the best centre halves they’d seen?

I’ve always felt the closest and most similar player to Virgil is Nesta. He obviously had a lot of injuries in his career that robbed him of some of his best years and ability to show it for Italy, but I think in terms of total package, it’s Nesta or Virgil for me. Height, strength, speed, timing, composure, aerial dominance, man marking ability etc for me they’re the two most complete defenders I’ve seen. Ramos was also an outrageous player but I don’t think he’d have been as dominant as a premier league player, nor do I think Terry would have been as good if he played in La liga. I think you could stick Virgil or Nesta in any league or side in the world and they’d have been the best and most talented defenders in the league.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Yeah Nesta was some player. I'd go for Virg because with hindsight, he's perfect.

[Coolie High]

Was listening to TAW pod before, Neil Jones was discussing van Dijk as the best centre half he’d seen, he basically had Ramos, Terry and Cannavaro as the other three on his level. Had me thinking for a bit who people felt were the best centre halves they’d seen?

I’ve always felt the closest and most similar player to Virgil is Nesta. He obviously had a lot of injuries in his career that robbed him of some of his best years and ability to show it for Italy, but I think in terms of total package, it’s Nesta or Virgil for me. Height, strength, speed, timing, composure, aerial dominance, man marking ability etc for me they’re the two most complete defenders I’ve seen. Ramos was also an outrageous player but I don’t think he’d have been as dominant as a premier league player, nor do I think Terry would have been as good if he played in La liga. I think you could stick Virgil or Nesta in any league or side in the world and they’d have been the best and most talented defenders in the league.

I thought Neil Jones knew more about football. The closest to Virgil currently playing is probably Thiago Silva, you looking for a CB who doesn't have a weakness, is world class in the air, faster than most wingers and forwards, stronger than mostly every single number 9 is pretty good on the ball and has a cool head in any situation.

The likes of Terry Cannavaro and Ramos have pretty glaring deficiencies that those two simply didn't have, Terry was his lack of pace and athleticism, Ramos limitations were probably more mental, and despite being a good athlete himself he didn't have otherworldly pace like VVD, Cannavaro didn't have the athleticism and i'm not sure he was as good on the ball and in the air even though he wasn't a slouch in any of those departments.

When you're talking about VVD you're talking about a player who actually had areas in his game where he is an all time great, for example i think there is an easy argument that aerially he is probably the best CB we've seen in the league, at his best he is probably the fastest, and technically he would be in a small group of cbs on the ball.

Also i would agree with your assertions about Nesta, he was the most complete cb i had seen till VVD, Silva Nesta VVD would be the best three i've seen in my years, and i think Ferdinand wouldn't be too far behind but he simply wasn't as dominant in the air, which would go against him.

[DonkeyWan]

Was listening to TAW pod before, Neil Jones was discussing van Dijk as the best centre half he’d seen, he basically had Ramos, Terry and Cannavaro as the other three on his level. Had me thinking for a bit who people felt were the best centre halves they’d seen?

I’ve always felt the closest and most similar player to Virgil is Nesta. He obviously had a lot of injuries in his career that robbed him of some of his best years and ability to show it for Italy, but I think in terms of total package, it’s Nesta or Virgil for me. Height, strength, speed, timing, composure, aerial dominance, man marking ability etc for me they’re the two most complete defenders I’ve seen. Ramos was also an outrageous player but I don’t think he’d have been as dominant as a premier league player, nor do I think Terry would have been as good if he played in La liga. I think you could stick Virgil or Nesta in any league or side in the world and they’d have been the best and most talented defenders in the league.

VVD is the best I have ever seen at Liverpool, I have never seen a CB who has such dominance in defence and such an incredible all round game. Klopp can only play the way he does because VVD is so good iot's like having two CBs.

His leadership skills are also exceptional, he is calm but utterly determined. He makes so few mistakes it's insane. Best CB I ever saw? Maybe, none better in the same mould spring to mind. He reminds me of maldini, absolutely oozes class.

If you are looking for better I would struggle, but if you are looking for effective CBs with a very different style, Baresi is one I always think of. Just for desire, determination, pure badness, he was insane in a diffferent way. If VVd is the thinking man's CB, Baresi was a warrior.

[Raaphael]

Best player in the world right now. Should be a potential ballon d`or winner.

[PaulF]

Was listening to R5 on a drive back last night. They were comparing the new CB at spurs to VVD. Can't remember the name, and never watch Spurs.  Was there anything in the comparison?  (This was about a conversation saying that their boss relies on the two CBs being excellent for his brand of football, and that the new guy , if he'd been more available should be in the running for footballer of the year).
Now that I've typed that out , I realise they must have been spouting nonsense.

[Redknight60]

If it's van de ven it's a pretty terrible comparison. He's atrocious in the air for a CB.

[Claire.]

❤️

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/7M5C5ay6OvA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/7M5C5ay6OvA</a>

[JackWard33]

Was listening to TAW pod before, Neil Jones was discussing van Dijk as the best centre half he’d seen, he basically had Ramos, Terry and Cannavaro as the other three on his level. Had me thinking for a bit who people felt were the best centre halves they’d seen?

I’ve always felt the closest and most similar player to Virgil is Nesta. He obviously had a lot of injuries in his career that robbed him of some of his best years and ability to show it for Italy, but I think in terms of total package, it’s Nesta or Virgil for me. Height, strength, speed, timing, composure, aerial dominance, man marking ability etc for me they’re the two most complete defenders I’ve seen. Ramos was also an outrageous player but I don’t think he’d have been as dominant as a premier league player, nor do I think Terry would have been as good if he played in La liga. I think you could stick Virgil or Nesta in any league or side in the world and they’d have been the best and most talented defenders in the league.

Yeah Nesta and Thiago Silva are his rivals in the modern era ... and Maldini of course who will be remembered as a left back but was the Messi of defenders

Also Neil Jones' takes are consistently fucking awful

[danm77]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sport/football/article/virgil-van-dijk-liverpool-jurgen-klopp-wife-interview-ntxz0kchd

Virgil van Dijk on Liverpool, Klopp — and owing it all to his wife
The Liverpool captain and legendary defender now has a third title, as the face of his adopted home city. He talks to Polly Vernon about family, falling in love at first sight and his bond with his manager, Jürgen Klopp

Polly Vernon
Thursday April 04 2024, 12.10am, The Times

Virgil van Dijk walks round the Cavern Club exuding Big Captain Energy from every pore. He raises the excitement levels of the assembled crowd of journalists and PRs and marketing managers, jollies along those who require jolliment, calms those who are a touch overexcited and loud. He listens to those who need to be heard, herds everyone in the right direction should they need to be moved, perks things up with a well-timed gag should they flag. Van Dijk is 6ft 5in with a muscular charisma only ever deployed for the greater good. If you didn’t already know he’s captain of one of the Premier League’s most successful teams (Liverpool, second in the table at the time of writing, a hair’s breadth behind Arsenal) and his own national team (Holland), you’d probably be able to work it out.

We’re here — me, the other journalists, the PRs and marketing managers — because Van Dijk has been signed by the travel site Expedia to promote Liverpool, the city in which he’s lived since 2018.

Liverpool is, the bloke from Expedia assures me, “trending” among its clientele. Van Dijk’s filming a promotional video for the city in the conceit of a tour. He’s joined by singer-songwriter, footballer and Scouser Chelcee Grimes (a woman who, later that morning, will secure a place in my heart by telling us about the bodies routinely dredged up from the bed of the Mersey as we take a boat tour of the city’s docks).

So yes, here we are in the Cavern Club, launchpad of the Beatles, and there Van Dijk is. Is it terribly inappropriate to mention how attractive he is? A 32-year-old who is so easy in his height and breadth (he keeps reaching up and touching the ceilings of the Cavern; presumably not something many other people have done, but maybe when you’re that tall you’re compelled to touch places other people can’t?) and equally easy in the angle of his cheekbones and the symmetry of his smile. He even smells good — famously so, in fact. “I hate him, I hate going up against him. He’s too big, too strong, too quick, too good on the ball and… he smells lovely,” the striker Troy Deeney once said.

Van Dijk’s not flirty with it, mind. He has no interest in being reassured of his handsomeness or of leveraging it; just accepts it — accepts that it makes for a better shot of him playing drums on stage at the Cavern or standing in the bow of the boat that tours the docks, all of which again serves the greater purpose of the day. Big Captain Energy, see? Which should be annoying — lacking in snide edge and cynicism and all the things I value, generally speaking — except I appear to be in Van Dijk’s team currently, experiencing what it is to be captained by him, to be rallied, supported and included by him, and I gotta tell you: it feels really good. Oh shush now, because we’re in the back of a minibus transporting us from the dockside to the hotel where he is to be shot for The Times, driving through a part of the city he remembers going through on the top of a double-decker bus, surrounded by fireworks and oceans of ecstatic Liverpool fans, the day after the club won the 2019 Champions League final in Madrid, when Van Dijk was named man of the match.

“And we had no sleep because of the party, then we flew home [to the parade] and, after a bit, I was so tired, and we were in a double-decker bus, so I went down to the bottom floor and was just, like…” He mimes a lonesome, dazed, barely conscious slump in a seat on the lower floor of a double-decker.

We get to the hotel, the shoot happens (following a slightly tense conversation with Van Dijk’s magnificent wife, Rike Nooitgedagt, without whose say-so the player will not agree outfits), then he and I sit down for our interview. I only just resist saying, “Alone at last,” though this has less to do with my guiding sense of propriety (I have none) and more with us being very much not alone: two representatives from Expedia and one from Van Dijk’s management are in the room with us.

Never mind.

Can you do a Scouse accent, I ask (on the grounds we’re here to promote him promoting Liverpool).

“Ek ick ick all right la,” he says, laughing at how terrible it is.

Did you have to learn how to understand the accent?

“Funnily enough, me coming to Scotland [in 2013, Van Dijk left the Dutch club FC Groningen to sign for Celtic] and learning English in the Scottish way helped me.”

How good was your English?

“Basic. We learnt the hard way.”

From the Scots?

“From Scotsmen, yeah. But I think learning English in the Scottish way helped me massively in understanding different dialects. Because then we have the Scouse, we have the Manchester, we have the Birmingham, we have the London, the proper posh accent. It’s nice.”

If Virgil van Dijk is still, to his core, a Dutchman (“100 per cent, definitely, yeah. Won’t change,”), it was in Britain that his career caught fire — or rather caught a spark, which would lead to a slow, steady burn, which would lead to today, when he’s one of the most accomplished and admired players in the Premier League. Van Dijk moved to Celtic because, having played football wherever and whenever he could as a kid (“I always had a football with me. Me and my brother, when there was spare time, we just played football”), he never cracked the Dutch game as a younger man.

He joined the Willem II club’s academy when he was eight but, as he grew older, the team’s reserve manager, Edwin Hermens, considered that Van Dijk had “too many limitations” to be worthy of the club’s first team. This meant he wasn’t given a contract, and he found himself washing up in a restaurant to earn money. “But for me, that feels normal. Around that age — 16, 17 — you want to earn a bit of money. Me and my wife, we want our kids to make sure they earn their money at a certain point.”

Van Dijk was scouted at 19 and moved on a free transfer to FC Groningen, where he did manage to break into the first team with some success. Days after his 20th birthday in 2012, however, he was diagnosed with advanced appendicitis. He ended up in hospital undergoing life-saving surgery when it ruptured.

Did you think you were going to die?

“It was a very tough time. But it happened for a reason. I learnt a lot about nutrition afterwards. It made me realise nutrition is very important.”

You had been, what, living off McDonald’s?

“Not McDonald’s! I like McDonald’s, by the way.”

Following stints at Celtic and Southampton, by 26 he was one of the most widely fancied players in the Premier League. “Everyone wanted him. We were longing for him,” says Anthony Quinn, Liverpool fan and author of Klopp: My Liverpool Romance.

In December 2017, Van Dijk’s transfer to the Reds — for a reported £75 million, a record fee for a defender — was confirmed. “That [news] was joyously received,” Quinn says. “Ask him why he chose Liverpool. Because I think Barcelona were after him.”

I do.

“No, no, no, not Barcelona at that time but, yeah [other teams were making offers]. Liverpool: I made a decision with my wife, obviously, but it was based on the feeling that you get looking at the city, looking at the football club, speaking to the manager, speaking to the players that I knew before I joined the club. Funnily enough, my wife said very early, ‘It’s gonna be Liverpool.’ She has a very good feeling for things.”

Did Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool’s manager, say anything to Van Dijk to clinch the deal?

“Liverpool were in a bit of a transition where they were going to be challenging to win things again. One of the things that the manager said to me is, I could be a big part in getting there again.”

You really have been.

“Not only me,” he says, but the fact is Liverpool’s fortunes have soared since Van Dijk joined. He and Klopp in combination are widely credited with having lifted the club from the slump in which it had been lingering. Captained by Van Dijk since last summer, Liverpool now routinely win the kind of silverware that had escaped them, most recently the League Cup in February. Van Dijk scored the winning goal in extra time and then lifted the trophy with Klopp.

Can you explain, to somebody who will never be in that position, how that feels?

“That goal, in the last couple of minutes of extra time… it was what dreams are made of. To lift the cup with the manager? When I wanted him to do that with me? It was special.”

Yeah, about that manager: Jürgen Klopp, the man who has transformed Liverpool’s fortunes so definitively by doing things like buying Virgil Van Dijk; the man who — the barista in my local café, another Liverpool fan, tells me — “is part of who we are. He means everything to us…” About him. On January 26 this year, Klopp devastated the club and its fans by announcing he’d be leaving at the end of this season.

“I can understand that that’s a shock for a lot of people at this moment,” Klopp told a press conference. “I love absolutely everything about this club. I love everything about the city. I love everything about our supporters. I love the team. I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take. It is that I am… how can I say it? Running out of energy.”

How does Van Dijk feel about Klopp going?

“Well, obviously it was a tough one in the beginning when I heard about it.”

How did he hear?

“Like everyone else.”

From the press conference?

“No, sorry. We had a meeting with all the players, all together.”

Did you suspect it was coming?

“I had a sense that there was something serious going to be announced, and then you’re going to think about, ‘What can it be?’ But in life these things happen. And yes, I think the decision was best for him and his family.”

Were you angry with him?

“Definitely not.”

Sad?

“A little bit, because it’s the end of an era. I never thought that I was going to be playing at Liverpool without him being the manager. If you think about Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp is one of the first figures that you would think about. He’s part of the culture of the city. And the success that we have has been incredible, what we’ve done since he came to the club. But I think he made that decision for him and his family and he needed that year off. I think he will definitely be back quite quickly because he lives and breathes football. We’ll see.”

Did anyone cry?

“No. It was a bit… silence. It was before training, so there was a bit of silence, then we just got changed and went out for training and everything was quite normal. I’ve sent a message, a group chat with all the players on it, making sure that we still have the same goals, nothing has changed until the end of the season, then he will have a farewell that will hopefully be the best farewell he could have imagined.”

If Klopp is a defining figure in Van Dijk’s life, I’d say the other one (based on how often he mentions her, how regularly he defers to her and how present she’s been in person today)is his wife, Rike Nooitgedagt. She had powered onto the shoot earlier — a purposeful, innately potent individual with the face of a china doll — expressed concern about the chosen outfits (one of which Van Dijk was already wearing, having said several times over, “Yes, I like it, but my wife is coming, so…”), and had proved herself the ultimate decision-maker in these (among, I’d guess, many other) circumstances. I spent little more than ten minutes in her presence but I tell you what: I wouldn’t mess with her.

You were both young when you met — just 20, according to my research.

“She was a little bit older than I was, but obviously it was a young age.”

I get the impression footballers — or perhaps their managers — like to have their domestic lives nailed down early so they can focus on excelling at their game without the drama of heartbreak etc, which is why they so often marry their childhood sweethearts. Was that the case with Van Dijk?

“One hundred per cent. I feel like she is the pillar of my team, the six of us — I’ve got four kids. She keeps everything together.”

So did you fall in love with her immediately?

“I did.”

Really? Actual love at first sight?

“It was.”

And you knew instantly that you’d get married?

“The conversations were always very open already, from the first time.”

They did marry in 2017 and now have four children together — three girls and one boy. Van Dijk’s relationship with his own father, Ron Van Dijk, is difficult. Ron left Van Dijk’s mother, Hellen Chin Fo Sieeuw, and their three children (Van Dijk has a younger brother and sister) when Van Dijk was 11. Van Dijk originally went to live with his father and then returned to be with his mother, at which point Ron ended contact with his son. This, according to Steven Fo Sieeuw, Hellen’s brother, is why the back of Van Dijk’s shirt reads “Virgil” rather than his surname.

“His dad was not around for so many important years, and it is his mother who is the real hero of this story. You don’t take your dad’s name off your shirt without a reason, and Virgil has made it very clear how he feels,” Fo Sieeuw told The Sun in 2018.

It’s the kind of thing that can make a person hesitant about becoming a father himself, of course. Yet when I ask Van Dijk if he’d always wanted to be a dad, he says “yes” without hesitation.

To have four kids?

“Funnily enough, I always said five.”

Well, there’s time.

“I think we’re going to stick with four.”

I ask him how the issues with his father have informed his relationship with his kids.

“Well, yeah, obviously I’ve seen a lot. You learn a lot from your experiences. In football, for example, the experiences that you take shape who you are today, but in life as well. Everything that I’ve experienced when I was younger, I take in. Certain things you want to make sure you bring across to your kids and certain things you make sure you don’t.”

I’d heard karaoke is an important tool in Van Dijk’s parenting approach. One of his team told me earlier that if he needs to exhaust his kids, the eldest of whom is just nine, Van Dijk fires up the karaoke machine and lets them tire themselves out on the mike.

“Listen, music is so important,” he tells me. “I would say almost every night from six to seven, their bedtime, we always have music on. There is always dancing in our house.”

You dance, the children dance, your wife dances?

“Yeah. My son, when he hears any beat, he’ll just dance around. I was the same. Me and my little brother, we always danced as well.”

Were you any good?

“I did a bit of breakdancing.”

An alternative career, perhaps?

“Ha. No. I don’t think there was any career in that. But music is so important in general. It can also bring you back in time when you hear a song from, I don’t know, ten years ago. It could bring you back.”

Which song does that for you?

“The first song that comes to my mind: I was in the hospital during the appendix period and Viva La Vida by Coldplay was on the TV, so when I hear that song, it brings me back to the hospital.”

But that’s a bad place to go back to.

“No, because where I am today,” he says, by which I guess he means: it gives him perspective on how far he’s come, on how bad things can get and then how good again.

I ask him if he hates losing. “I do.” What happens? “To be fair, I’m better at it now. Obviously in my time at Liverpool we didn’t lose much… I remember the first Champions League final when we lost in Kyiv [in 2018, to Real Madrid] and we arrived back home early morning, like 6am. It took me a day, I think, to properly digest it and move on. But being the family man — papa Virgil, husband Virgil — that’s been key to dealing with difficult moments.”

We talk about fashion. “Obviously, I try to look all right. I really like to put a little effort into it and I’ve got the right people around me.” Your wife? “My wife.”

And we talk about the abuse and trolling footballers routinely get on social media. Does he get it too? “I assume so, but I’m not paying any attention.”

You don’t look?

“No.”

I’d wanted to talk politics, British and especially Dutch: the Netherlands is struggling with extremism. Its nationalist right-wing populist Party For Freedom is rapidly growing in size and power, thanks largely to its anti-immigration stance. How does that feel,to a man of mixed heritage? But Van Dijk says he doesn’t “do” politics.

British or Dutch?

“No.”

Finally, I ask him if there’s anything he hasn’t yet done but wants to. “Ski. Skiing would be very high on my list.”

You’ve never skied?

“We’re not allowed to.”

Of course you’re not. Injury risk.

“And I know myself — I know I will get carried away after, like, three days, wanting to do jumps and things.”

Yeah, probably best to leave that until retirement. Something to look forward to.

We say goodbye — me, Van Dijk, the guys from Expedia, the guy from his management team — and I head off for Liverpool Lime Street and my train home. So ends my brief, entirely enjoyable experience playing for Team Virgil.

[Eeyore]

Incredible distribution tonight completed 98 of 100 passes and 9 from 9 for long balls.

[Claire.]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/MzIM6ez19rs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/MzIM6ez19rs</a>

he's been getting about this week eh

[Heritage]

Makes me a little nervous seeing him do this level of media rounds so late in the season. It has to be a thought in his mind to leave since Klopp is leaving, but I image that at this point Liverpool would be too dear to him to leave yet. But all these interviews do make me nervous.

[Samie]

Eh, he's the leader of the club and it's a big game week. Obvisly he's going to be doing media work. 

[Red Beret]

It's not like he's Henderson with his legs dropping off. He knows that at this point, Klopp or not, any other club is a downward step. Unless he's really really keen on making a shedload more money than the shedload he must already have, then he has no real reason to leave. Not like his international place is under threat either.

[SamLad]

Makes me a little nervous seeing him do this level of media rounds so late in the season. It has to be a thought in his mind to leave since Klopp is leaving, but I image that at this point Liverpool would be too dear to him to leave yet. But all these interviews do make me nervous.

nervous about what?

[WhereAngelsPlay]

The Club have to make players available for the media.

Why better than the Club Captain ?

[MonsLibpool]

It's not like he's Henderson with his legs dropping off. He knows that at this point, Klopp or not, any other club is a downward step. Unless he's really really keen on making a shedload more money than the shedload he must already have, then he has no real reason to leave. Not like his international place is under threat either.

Yep. He's 33 at the end of the season and that ship has sailed. A big move for a 33-year old doesn't financial sense either in term of his wages and/or fee.

[Garlicbread]

Even when he wasn't captain he was still doing a lot of media.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Even when he wasn't captain he was still doing a lot of media.

Because he was a senior player, the captain of his country & also the best defender on the planet.

[Garlicbread]

Because he was a senior player, the captain of his country & also the best defender on the planet.

And just a natural talker.

[darragh85]

imagine bumping this thread with that shite just before kick off against United.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

imagine bumping this thread with that shite just before kick off against United.

It's easy if you try

[HardworkDedication]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/u_qGiAdkz1U" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/u_qGiAdkz1U</a>

[rawcusk8]

Thought him and Ibu were equally terrible tonight, got given the run around all game by their forwards. As a captain and leader of the defence I really hope he gets the rest of em together to find out exactly wtf is going on. Can’t keep a clean sheet for love nor money and fallen behind 20 times in games this season.

[jepovic]

Sometimes he gets really arrogant, and it spreads in the team. Worst game hes had in a while

[kingmonkey007]

Anyone think of a reason as to why he's constantly dropping deeper and playing everyone on, its been this way all this year now, think a player is off only to find Virgil playing them on. Has to be a lack of confidence in the keeper or rest of the back 4?.

[Draex]

He started the complacency, no arguments, was an arrogant performance.

[Dree]

It’s possible he’s playing too much hence why he tries to coast through this kind of game.

[farawayred]

I think Virg was really poor today. His positioning was off, often kept their players onside. Yes, he was complacent and arrogant, and we can't afford that from the captain.

[MonsLibpool]

Not a captain's performance.

[RedDeadRejection]

Looked well pissed off didn't he?

[Le Westalero]

Just expecting more from him.

It started in the 1st half, when he got under pressure by their striker and lost the ball.

Continued with things like closing down the guy from Atalanta who gave the assist for their 2nd.

Had no idea what his plan was for the 3rd goal.

Should defend a bit more active.

[farawayred]

Looked well pissed off didn't he?

Hopefully at himself, first and foremost.

[eddiedingle]

Very sloppy performance from the big man.

[bornandbRED]

He looked like he was running in mud today

[PEG2K]

Watched the goals again and his defending for their 2nd and 3rd was pathetic. Just jogging without any purpose. Neither closing the player down, trying to keep an offside line, or cutting down passing lane. Maybe he actually believes his aura defending is real.