Virgil van Dijk was at the centre of plenty of praise after a mixed display from Liverpool as they put two beyond Sheffield United, but a win is all the matter at this time of the year.
Liverpool are fond of handing points to lowly teams and the trip to Sheffield United led to some caution, but Van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai ensured this was not a time for giving.
The trip to Bramall Lane was far from vintage Liverpool, but results are the name of the game and we left with all three points and a clean sheet.
But the big concern was Alexis Mac Allister, who took an awkward fall in the first half and was hit with some heavy tackles thereafter – he had to have heavy strapping on his knee and couldn’t continue beyond 60 minutes.
He finished with just 21 touches and an injury concern. On the flip side, Van Dijk took plenty of plaudits after the victory…
Virgil, another showing of him back to his best…
Van Dijk has been Man of the Match by a country mile here.
— Henry Jackson (@HenryJackson87) December 6, 2023
van Dijk the match winner and led by example once again. He’s been excellent so far this season.
— Aaron Cutler (@aaron_cutler) December 6, 2023
van Dijk head and shoulders above every other one of our players today.
— Red (@TaintlessRed) December 6, 2023
Virgil van Dijk vs Sheffield United
92% Pass accuracy
4/6 Accurate long passes
2/3 Shots on target
1 Goal
6/8 Duels won
2/2 Tackles won
4 ClearancesThe captain has been a lot closer to his best this season, and that is a level matched by very few defenders. Imperious. pic.twitter.com/XlHsEY41U7
— The Tactical Times (@Tactical_Times) December 6, 2023
Van Dijk is the greatest CB I’ve ever seen in my life. A literal cheat code when he’s on it.
— Samuel (@SamueILFC) December 6, 2023
Virgil van Dijk has stepped into that club captaincy so so well, he has really flourished again with his new title & I love to see it.
— Rebekka (@rebekkarnold) December 6, 2023
Van Dijk was absolutely imperious tonight. He’s back to his best. Endo was also very solid #LFC
— Lee Dawson (@LeeDaws19) December 6, 2023
Macca was a low point, but we take the 3 points and move on…
Why the fuck did we keep MacAllister on when he was obviously struggling. Madness.
— Green Scouser (@Green_Scouser) December 6, 2023
Fair play to Hooper. Screwed us over with one of the worst refereeing performances of the Premier League era at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but has shown no sign of trying to make up for it here. Allowed them to target Mac Allister repeatedly, to the point that he’s injured.
— And Could He Play (@andcouldheplay7) December 6, 2023
“Made hard work of beating the worst team in prem history…But another win and a clean sheet is the most important thing, just hope we play better against Palace.” – Iver in the TIA comments.
“Winning when you’re not at your best is a good sign.” – Nu-Metalfan 27 in the TIA comments.
Why didn’t Klopp just take Macca off for 2nd half? Such a dumb decision to let him continue with when he was clearly uncomfortable
— Arastu (@illidan_storm) December 6, 2023
Quite a difficult one to pick apart. Liverpool obviously not great again but hard to divorce the performance from the context of Chris Wilder’s emotional return and limited rotation options in a gruelling period. Oh, and they weren’t that convincing here in 2019-20, either!
— David Lynch (@dmlynchlfc) December 6, 2023
Another awful performance by Liverpool. Ugly win but I will take it.
— Shankweni ?? (@JohnnyAdam92) December 6, 2023
That’s the worst two nil win I’ve seen for a long time. Liverpool need to be much better for the upcoming fixtures; but December is all about winning, and that’s a win.
— Chris Williams (@Chris78Williams) December 6, 2023
Look, a win is a win. We’re in the month of December and this is where momentum of results is the most important. Sometimes you have to win ugly and that was the case at Sheffield United.
Scrappy but the Reds got the job done, now we move on to Crystal Palace and hope for the same result.
