Virgil van Dijk has been heavily criticized by Dutch legends Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit after losing to France with a score of 4:0.
Van Basten and Gullit accused the captain of the Netherlands national team of “creating chaos” and “thinking that he is better than the rest.”
The test is being carried out shortly after the Liverpool defender played for his country in a 4-0 defeat against France, when three goals were scored in just 21 minutes.
Van Basten’s assessment consisted of a series of cruel comments and questions about the 31-year-old captain’s capabilities.
“He’s making noise, but he’s not saying anything,” Van Basten told Ziggo Sport.
“It is not clear. A good captain thinks out loud, makes it clear what’s going on. He stays in between. He creates chaos, which leads to misunderstandings.
— This is something that you, as a captain, must prevent.
Gullit also contributed to the onslaught by suggesting that the central defender is arrogant and that his leadership skills are currently not up to par.
“He thinks he’s better than the others,” Gullit said.
“We see something, and then I think: “You are the captain, you have to decide this.” But he’s just commenting a little bit on what’s going on in front of him.”
Van Dijk has since responded by insisting that he and his teammates are “not robots” and that maintaining consistency at the elite level is not easy.
“It’s useless for me,” Van Dijk told Ziggo Sport after Monday’s 3-0 win over Gibraltar.
“Everyone can have their own opinion these days, it is.
“It’s quite normal that you can’t always play consistently. That you have a stage as a club or player where you are looking for your level. People should not forget about this.
“I am very positive about the future and try to show my best performance in every game. We are not robots, let’s not forget that.”
Van Basten and Gullit are not the only ones who have expressed their opinion about van Dyck’s form. Former Feyenoord manager Gertjan Verbeek called the fourth Liverpool player a “first-class weakling” during his expert work with Omrop Frislan.
This is a damning assessment of Van Dijk’s recent performances from different sides, but the most expensive defender in the world will hope to get back to normal in a difficult situation for his club team.
Within nine days, the Reds will travel to Manchester City and Chelsea, and then return to Anfield to face Arsenal, hoping to keep the hope of getting into the top four.
