Liverpool look something close to back to their best right now, but it has to be said that they’re still not the force they once were.
Indeed, while the Reds have been fantastic this season, they’re some way off being the team that won the Premier League at a canter back in 2019/20.
It’s fair to say that the Reds have declined a bit, and speaking on the BBC Match of the Day Top 10 Podcast, Micah Richards has highlighted one player who he believes has declined as of late.
Indeed, Richards stated that Virgil van Dijk has dropped his standards in recent years, claiming that he is a yard or two slower than he once was after his ACL injury a couple of years ago.
“I saw it when he was at Celtic, I knew he was going to be a star, just effortless, coming out with the ball, fast and strong. His standards have dropped. When you do your cruciate it takes a while. Everyone is lumping on him saying that he’s lost a yard of pace, you’re going to lose a yard of pace when you do your cruciate,” Richards said.
The sad reality is that this was always going to happen.
After his ACL injury, Van Dijk was playing on borrowed time in terms of playing at his peak. That sort of injury doesn’t leave you unaffected in the long-term and at the age of 32, it’s even more difficult to keep up those levels.
Van Dijk is still a world-class player, make no mistake about it, but when you watch him these days, it’s hard to call him one of the best defenders of all-time in his current form.
