Former Premier League star Virgil Van Dyck accused of being frenzied as Mohamed Salah saved Liverpool at the opening of the Premier League.
Salah’s late penalty saved all three points for the Reds at Anfield, as the Egyptian ace scored a hat-trick to lead his team to a 4-3 victory.
Impacted by his return to the First Division after 16 years, Leeds came back from falling behind with a goal of three times before Salah’s late penalty kick – his second penalty in the match – which was ruled a defeat on the first day.
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Salah got the match ball as he saved his underperforming teammates with a superb hat-trick
While Liverpool’s attack was as sharp as ever, their defense was shockingly below par and delivered an unprecedented performance prior to Van Dijk’s move to Anfield in January 2018.
The Reds’ defense line changed overnight when the Dutchman joined from Southampton Liverpool Go from catastrophic to calm and porous to matchless with just one signature.
But Liverpool’s defensive problems resurfaced on Saturday evening when Leeds easily cut their defense line, and former Aston Villa striker Gabi Agbonlahor accused Van Dyck of arrogance and under-effort against Marcelo Bielsa’s side.
“Everyone knows Virgil Van Dyck He is an incredible defender, “Agbonlahor started at TalkSPORT’s Weekend Sports Breakfast.” On the ball he can switch diagonals, and in defense nobody wants to take on.
“But I felt that yesterday’s performance was, from Van Dijk, arrogant; that flick he scored on the goal that gave him, I felt like” we’re playing with Leeds United, it’s going to be an easy game and I can let my benchmark go down. “
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Van Dyck made a fatal mistake that led directly to Patrick Bamford recording Leeds
And in that match, he did [let his standards drop].
Even Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right was also poor defensively.
Van Dijk is a great defender, and he will be one of the greatest defenders who have ever played the game, but when people start to place him in the arc of Vincent Kompany and Rio Ferdinand …
“I think people forget how good some guys are over time.
“People forget how good Rio Ferdinand was in his prime; you wouldn’t want to go to the same side of the field as him!
“It was the same with Kompany and John Terry too; you just don’t want to take them because you don’t have a chance.
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“Virgil van Dijk is a great defender, but you can’t put him in the Rio Ferdinand and Vincent Kompany category yet.”
Agbonlahor has already increased his criticism for claiming that ENTIRE Leeds’ defense was arrogant against Leeds on Saturday night.
“I feel it was the arrogance of Liverpool defensively today,” he added in “Sports Bar Weekender”. “As if they didn’t realize how good the Leeds team really was.
“I feel a lot of the teams that watch Leeds will be more cautious about their gameplay, and that could be a wake-up call for Liverpool as well.”
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