Liverpool: Video of Virgil van Dijk giving defensive masterclass is fascinating | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk is one of the greatest defenders of the modern era.

When the Liverpool juggernaut wasn’t missing out on Ballon d’Or glory by a nose hair, he was going an entire club season without being dribbled past in what has been a legendary spell at Anfield.

While Van Dijk’s world-class potential was always simmering away at Celtic and Southampton, it was the Dutchman’s record-breaking move to Merseyside that truly launched him into the stratosphere.

Van Dijk’s brilliance at Liverpool

Under Jurgen Klopp’s stewardship and with Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold by his side, Van Dijk has been an absolute juggernaut on the way to the Reds’ Champions League and Premier League triumphs.

All that being said, one of the skills that means that Van Dijk is compared to other defensive greats like Nemanja Vidic and Sergio Ramos is the fact that he can hold his own, well, on his own.

Even if a world-class team or a top-level player has bypassed every single outfield Liverpool player other than Van Dijk, you still know there’s a very good chance that they’ll never make it to the goalkeeper.

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Van Dijk: Unstoppable in 1v1 scenarios

You only have to look at his iconic one-or-one defending against Kylian Mbappe at full pace vs France to get the idea that Van Dijk is one of the most intelligent and technically-able defenders in the business.

Marry that to his genius handling of a 2v1 situation against Tottenham Hotspur in 2019 and it’s not hard to establish that Van Dijk is the footballing equivalent of a brick wall when it comes to dribbling past.

And if that’s a footballing trope that arouses your interest, then you’re in luck because Van Dijk revealed some of his key tips for one-on-one defending during a recent video with the F2 Freestylers.

The Liverpool hero broke down how he defends against opponents in tough situations to Jeremy Lynch in a video that has amassed more than 2.5 million in under two weeks.

“Liverpool made Tottenham & Conte LOOK STUPID” (Football Terrace)

Van Dijk’s 1v1 defending masterclass

Tips like forcing the player onto their weaker foot or delaying them so other players can get back are pretty universally known, but Van Dijk interestingly revealed that he looked at certain players’ eyes as opposed to their feet.

In order to fall into the trap of becoming lost in their tricku footwork, Van Dijk openly admitted that he keeps tabs on the attacker’s eyes in order to get a better idea of what they’ll do next.

Interesting, right? Well, that’s just scratching the surface, so be sure to check out Van Dijk’s full masterclass down below to improve your defensive skills:

Big Virg needs to release a defensive tutorial DVD when he retires.

Van Dijk looking into attackers’ eyes

The moment that Lynch looks up having simulated dribbling against Van Dijk and realises that he’d been looking at his eyes the whole time really is class – and kind of intimidating, too.

Not only can yours truly barely pass a football without staring at it until the last second, but the idea of defending against a player while not even looking at what you’re trying to snatch feels mind-blowing.

However, when you’ve had Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar bearing down on you, perhaps the worst thing you can do is look at the ball if you want to avoid your legs getting knotted like a pretzel.

And even if it wasn’t, who are we to call out Van Dijk on his methods? What an absolute colossus.