The Premiere League season will soon come to a pause due to the break caused by the 22nd FIFA World Cup, leaving almost a month without activity in the EPL, which so far is led by Manchester City, but behind them comes a big pack willing to take the lead, and one of them is Liverpool FC, which has big stars, Virgil van Dijk being one of them.
According to former player and manager Martin Keown, van Dijk is a top player in every sense of the word, being one of the Red's best signings in recent years. "I think he could be the all-time great but I do feel what he's doing at the time, is instead of actually going and pressing the ball, smothering the ball, he's stood like a statue, trying to make himself big," Keown told talkSPORT.
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Keown went on to praise the 31-year-old centre-back. "He's hoping the ball is going to hit him and I feel like his instinct needs to be to go towards the ball. Do you remember when Sancho scored that goal and Milner was in his ear? Milner was bang on it. Even the one against Zaha, it's like he's running in an olympic lane," commented the former player, who also added van Dijk's rudeness in his area.
It is undeniable that there have been good and bad games in the EPL, for example the game against the Citizens in which the team looked perfect in all lines, this is something Keown knows and he said of Virgil. "Yes [he has become more exposed] because Liverpool are not pressing high up the pitch. Against City, he and Joe Gome were magnificent. But against Leeds, you can't sit off and hope. It's do or die in that situation. He doesn't seen to have that instinct".
In closing, Keown knows that van Dijk must improve on certain points to be irrefutably rated as one of the best defenders in history. "When he gets that, he will probably be the best defender we've seen all round. His passing is magnificent, he's a giant in the air, he's ahead of everyone in those categories but he isn't when it comes to blocks," the 56-year-old Englishman concluded.
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