Virgil van Dijk made clear his preference with regard to the tactical decisions favoured by Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool compared to Louis Van Gaal’s set-up with the Dutch national team.
The comments followed the Netherlands’ 4-2 win over Denmark in an international friendly.
“Do I like the system?” the Dutchman was quoted as saying by Manchester Evening News. “Well, I’m still in favour of 4-3-3 but I’m not the national coach and the national coach has a very strong opinion about it.”
The former Southampton star has excelled this term following a return from a serious ACL injury, which had ruled him out for much of the 2020/21 campaign.
Given the clear success of the tactical set-up favoured by our German head coach in Merseyside, one can certainly understand where our No.4 is coming from when forced to transition into the more reserved system of the ex-Manchester United manager.
For a player that thrives in being actively involved in build-up play, one might be inclined to argue that Van Gaal’s tactics arguably don’t get the best out of the centre-half on the pitch.
Fortunately, we’ve got a manager more than aware of what the 30-year-old can offer in a system, with Van Dijk’s game thankfully not appearing to have suffered after his long-term injury.
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