Virgil van Dijk missed a wonderful chance to give Liverpool the lead this afternoon.
The Reds are having a difficult first half against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League; as of right now, the score is 0-0.
When a beautiful ball from Liverpool’s James Milner found Van Dijk unmarked after a corner on minute 36, he could have—and probably should have—opened the score.
But the towering Dutchman headed back across the face of goal rather than try to beat Dean Henderson himself.
And Jim Beglin, speaking live on Optus Sport [37 mins], was shocked by Van Dijk’s rationale, claiming he was trying to find Roberto Firmino himself.
He said: “It’s a great clearance! I mean, did he forget he was attacking and not defending? It doesn’t get much better than this. He should’ve been scoring that. I mean, is he trying to pick out Firmino?”
A fully-confident Van Dijk would’ve found the net there with relative ease, such is his skillset.
But the indecision sort of sums up the Liverpool centre-back’s season thus far.
The big man is beginning to question himself, beginning to question what he would ordinarily do instinctively and that missed chance was typical of that doubt creeping in.
Overall, Jurgen Klopp’s side have been the better of both outfits at the City Ground, but Forest have had a couple of promising chances themselves.
And the Liverpool boss will know that despite being huge favourites, there’s a lot of work to do in this second half.
Leave a Reply