‘Bad day at the office’ – Van Dijk issues blunt assessment of his performance against Villarreal

Virgil van Dijk has issued a typically blunt assessment of his performance in Liverpool’s rollercoaster victory against Villarreal on Tuesday night.

The Reds got off to the worst possible start at Anfield after a misjudged backwards header from the captain landed obligingly for Georges Mikautadze to score for the visitors inside four minutes, with the 35-year-old immediately holding up his hand in apology for the error.

The Dutchman already had a wobbly moment prior to that horrific mistake, but he and his teammates battled back from a subsequent 2-0 deficit to emerge triumphant by the odd goal in seven.

Van Dijk admits to having an off-day against Villarreal

Speaking to reporters after the game, Van Dijk admitted that he was far from his best against Villarreal, but he was satisfied that Liverpool made it three wins out of three in the Champions League this season.

The Reds’ number 4 said (via Liverpool Echo): “It was a terrible start. I think the saying is you fight an uphill battle, and as a defender it is pretty difficult to come back from it. I tried but it was a bad day at the office personally, but we do it together with 11 players.

“Fortunately it didn’t happen too many times in my Liverpool career but I was not the best, but we won and it’s not about me. It’s all about us.”

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A rare off-night for the usually unflappable Van Dijk

It doesn’t surprise us that Van Dijk would take accountability for what was, by his standards, a rare poor performance, with the captain seemingly rattled by the early mistake and unable to fully shake it off.

He received the lowest rating of any Reds player from Liverpool Echo writer Ian Doyle (5/10), who explained: ‘Already wayward before early mistake gifted Villarreal opener and seemed affected by that for much of the first half. Not his usual composed self.’

It wasn’t all bad from the Dutchman as he still won six of his nine duels and contributed one key pass (Sofascore), but on the whole he was well below his usual consistent best, having hitherto enjoyed a strong start to the campaign along with centre-back partner Jeremy Jacquet.

Every player is entitled to the occasional off-night, though, and Van Dijk doesn’t have many of them. He now has four more days to put this game behind him and prepare for the challenge of high-flying Brighton at Anfield on Sunday.

We’re fully confident that the Liverpool captain will look more like his usual composed self against the Seagulls next weekend – the Reds will be counting on their skipper to do just that.