Van Dijk jumps to De Ligt’s aid after wonderkid’s dodgy Juve start

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Virgil van Dijk has shown support for his Netherlands centre-back partner Matthijs de Ligt following a troubled start to life in Italy.

The youngster arrived in Turin for €75m from Ajax during the summer, but made countless mistakes during pre-season and was at fault for three goals in the crazy 4-3 win over Napoli at the weekend…

De Ligt actually began the season on the bench under Maurizio Sarri, but with Giorgio Chiellini injuring his cruciate ligaments, he’ll now be a starter next to Leonardo Bonucci.

“Everybody that knows him also knows that he always stays calm in these kinds of situations,” van Dijk told Goal.

“Of course, I spoke to him. But we don’t need to tell each other a lot. I think it’s also something you only talk about when you see each other for the first time again.

“After that, the focus is on the future and the match in front of us as a pairing. So that’s what we did.”

It’s how funny how the stock of a player can rise and fall so quickly.

Many Reds were claiming Liverpool were foolish not to buy De Ligt, but with the Dutchman’s shaky start to Serie A life and Joel Matip in career-best form, it looks like we’ll be absolutely fine at centre-back.

Joe Gomez is chomping at the bit to get back in the side, while Dejan Lovren remains a more than capable fourth-choice.

We expect to see the latter pairing in the EFL Cup tie with MK Dons at the end of the month.

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