He was one of the best in the world, but now he is responsible for Liverpool's debacle

Of all the ways in which a football team can present itself to the rest of the world is through all the players that play in its squad, with Liverpool having the joy of being able to name at least one player in each sector of the pitch, with the names of Mohamed Salah, Thiago Alcántara and Virgil van Dijk, one of the most outstanding defenders in recent years who made the defensive block at Anfield a wall that today is very easy to break down, standing out.

Although the Reds' poor results in this 2022-2023 season have been collective, the reality is that the defensive block has had a lot to do with the final result on several occasions, influencing the result in such a way that it has even been pointed out by a former Tottenham player that these mistakes are constantly made not only because of the low level of the Dutch defender, but also because of a very bad habit that has taken root at Anfield.

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Jaime O'Hara spoke to talkSPORT about Liverpool's poor form at the moment, citing several players in the squad as examples, saying that the squad coached by Jürgen Klopp is an absolute disaster because they trusted Van Dijk so much at the time that now that he is also experiencing a moment of uncertainty they are unable to help him in defensive duties because they got used to him solving all the opposition's attacks. "They are an absolute disaster at the back. I think they relied so much on van Dijk being at the peak of his powers that they all got away with it because he was so good."

The former England player also gave as an example of the defensive errors England international Trent Alexander-Arnold, who he sees as having a bright future ahead of him but with certain shortcomings once the opposition get close to his goal, making it clear to all his opponents that there is a window of opportunity to get past him in his position. Now he's fallen off, through injury or whatever, he's lost a little bit of faith and confidence going through a bad patch in his own game. So now they've lost that belief and now teams know they can get to Trent."

'They're a mess'

Finally, O'Hara pointed out the easiest way Liverpool can hurt Liverpool at the moment, explaining that if he were a manager he would ask his players to play loaded on that left flank and cause that one-on-one against Trent, knowing that at some point they would eventually win a ball that would compromise the red goal. "If he was playing now and he was playing against Liverpool, the first thing your manager would say to you is 'Get the ball out on the left, leave it in the one-on-one, get one-on-one with Trent'."