Soccer

Michael Walker: Struggling Van Dijk could have one eye on the World Cup

Haaland up next for the Dutch defender who hopes form is temporary and class is permanent

Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool runs with the ball against Arsenal. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty
Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool runs with the ball against Arsenal. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty
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Michael Walker
Sat Oct 15 2022 - 06:00

It is the Ballon d’Or announcement and ceremony on Monday. That’s the European Footballer of the Year award, if you’re of a certain age. It is expected Karim Benzema will win, or at least someone from Real Madrid, given they became European champions for the 14th time in May.

Real defeated Liverpool 1-0 in Paris, you may recall, Vinicius Junior scoring the goal.

Valverde cross-shot. Far post. Trent. All that.

Vinicius Jr is on the rather long 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d’Or, as is 2018 winner Luka Modric. Thibaut Courtois, deservedly, is there too. Real Madrid will have quite a presence in the hall in Paris on Monday.

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But so will May’s losers. Liverpool will not be expected to send players to Monday’s occasion. They have no less than six of the 30 names listed, but they also have a Premier League game against West Ham at Anfield next Wednesday.

One of the six, Sadio Mané, has already left the club and for the other five — Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz, Fabinho, Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk — there could be a feeling that last season is a long time ago anyway. A stop-start to this season has taken some of the glow from late April when Liverpool were contemplating a quadruple.

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There is so much nostalgia in football, yet the game forgets fast. None of the Liverpool players know this more than Van Dijk.

Three years ago he was the best defender on the planet; today he is part of a Liverpool defence that conceded three at Arsenal last Sunday, three at home to Brighton the weekend before and four last month in Naples. In some eyes you can go from solution to problem in a few matches.

Three years ago Van Dijk was also nominated in the Ballon d’Or awards. He came second; the winner was Messi.

Van Dijk was a mere eight votes away from beating him. Had he done so Van Dijk would have become the first defender to win the individual trophy since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006. Cannavaro was the first since Matthias Sammer a decade earlier, who in turn was the first defensive winner since Franz Beckenbauer in 1976.

Lionel Messi, then of Barcelona, running at Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk in 2019. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty
Lionel Messi, then of Barcelona, running at Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk in 2019. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty

The message is defenders tend not to win these accolades, so you really must stand out. Van Dijk had already won England’s Players’ Player of the Year in 2019 and the Uefa Player of the Year. He was 27/28, captain of the Netherlands and a totemic, transformational figure at Anfield.

Then in October 2020 Van Dijk was seriously injured in a game against Everton by Jordan Pickford. Van Dijk sustained severe cruciate ligament damage to his right knee. Optimists said he could be out for six months, pessimists for twelve. No one knew how he would be when he returned.

The Dutch hoped their leader could play in the delayed 2020 Euros in 2021. But that time-frame fell into the optimism category. Van Dijk did not make it. It would be the end of July 2021 before he played again — an absence of 9½ months.

It reveals just how bad the initial injury was and it is a long time out for an athlete. It brings introspection, time to ponder your career.

Van Dijk was first capped in 2015. The Netherlands missed out on Euro 2016 and then the 2018 World Cup in Russia. When they secured qualification for Euro 2020 — in Belfast — Van Dijk spoke afterwards about watching the two previous finals “somewhere on TV, probably on a beach.”

He did not envisage adding Euro 2020 to his beach list, but first came Covid, delaying the tournament, then the injury. So he did watch again from afar, doubtless nursing regret as well as a wounded knee.

Which brings us back to today and tomorrow and to next month. The Netherlands are 36 days away from their opening game in Qatar against Senegal; they are one day away from meeting Manchester City at Anfield.

Manchester City's Erling Haaland helps Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk from the ground. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
Manchester City's Erling Haaland helps Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk from the ground. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Van Dijk will once again be centre stage because the man he will be up against is the incredible galloping goalscorer himself, Erling Haaland. They have faced each other before and it is Van Dijk whom Haaland called “a monster”, not the other way round.

But Haaland has 20 goals already in sky blue and City are averaging 3.6 goals per game this Premier League season. Liverpool, meanwhile, are 10th, 13 points behind City and though they have a game in hand, City feel unstoppable while Liverpool look transitional.

Four of those listed for the Ballon d’Or have underwhelmed — Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho and Salah — and the other, Diaz, is injured.

Things are sufficiently precarious for comfort to be taken from winning 7-1 at Rangers on Wednesday. Maybe that’s understandable, it’s just Rangers went ahead when they had two of their most important players on the pitch — Connor Goldson and Ryan Jack. They fell apart only when those two hobbled out. It was 2-1 when Jack followed Goldson off.

As the Ballon d’Or emphasises, footballers are individuals as well as team players. Our disapproval of this World Cup is understandable; for certain players it might be their one chance.

There was a bit more to it, but in the second half Liverpool basically hammered a demoralised, understrength team from an inferior league. Rangers are not City.

Van Dijk’s main job was to patrol Antonio Colak, Rangers’ lone striker. Van Dijk glided through.

There was one moment, however, when he appeared to temper his physicality. It was midway through the second half as he jumped for a bouncing ball with Fashion Sakala. One is 6ft 4in, Sakala is 5ft 10in. Sakala got the ball.

Ultimately nothing came of it, but it prompted a thought that, five weeks from a World Cup, Van Dijk could be managing his body. Perhaps it is what James Milner thought when arguing with Van Dijk in defeat at Old Trafford in August.

And after what the Dutch and Van Dijk have been through in the past few years, who could blame him? There was a time at Anfield when Bill Shankly could say to a player with a knee injury, in this case Tommy Smith: “What do you mean, your knee? It’s Liverpool’s knee”; but Klopp would not say it today.

He will have witnessed Van Dijk’s rehabilitation dedication; he cannot question his player’s commitment. Indeed perhaps Klopp thinks we do not appreciate how bad the injury was, or what it has done to Van Dijk’s view of his career. Klopp will also know Van Dijk will be touching 35 when the next World Cup arrives.

As the Ballon d’Or emphasises, footballers are individuals as well as team players. Our disapproval of this World Cup is understandable; for certain players it might be their one chance.

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