15 Nov 2023 08:28:45
I think giving VVD the captain’s job has been really good for him (probably not least for his self confidence, which was shot to hell following Pickford’s ‘tackle’).
Anyway, whatever it is, he’s starting to play well consistently again.
15 Nov 2023 09:21:07
Gotta be honest, I thought it'd have the opposite effect given that he didn't seem to play as well with it as he did without.
But he seems to have taken to it well.
15 Nov 2023 09:35:02
I think we've seen that sometimes it takes more than a season to recover from a serious injury; maybe two seasons? We certainly saw it with Danny Ings and Joe Gomez. And it wasn't an easy road for either.
So it's a combination of the two for me. Recovering physically and mentally from the injury and putting on the Captain's armband that has raised VVD's form.
15 Nov 2023 10:16:55
Also last season we where comparing vvd to his previous seasons when he head and shoulders the best cb in world. His standards where at the sky, as close u got to a 1 man defence.
15 Nov 2023 11:04:24
SR, I thought he would be a burdened by the captainship myself as I have always said that whenever he wore the armband, he just looked jaded and seemed to play worse than without it.
Right now, he has welcomed the pressure and the responsiblity and is actually thriving on it. Also, VVD has clearly shut out all the wretched noise that used to trigger him, knuckled down and reinvented himself into a top CB again (even tho, VVD pre-injury was essentially a one off) and all credit goes to him, the staff and his team mates for helping him thru the storm.
15 Nov 2023 17:55:22
Looks like Klopp knew best.
Who would have thought.
15 Nov 2023 18:55:58
Even last season, I don't think he was as bad as people were making him out to be. Was Still comfortably our best defender. But it's so good to see him back to something close to his best, and that's good enough. His peak was the absolute highest I have ever seen for any defender, and anyone at even 80% of that will still be the best defender in the world.
15 Nov 2023 21:52:24
I agree Koparmy he was woefully exposed last season largely due to the introduction of Nunez and the injuries of Diaz and Jota in the front line plus the injuries to pretty much every midfielder we had for long periods meaning the press just wasn’t functioning so teams could just put it in behind our back line at will.
I said it last season there is no defender in the history of football who can make 40 yard sprints 20 times a game without looking a bit tired. Especially a defender of his size.
You can see now Nunez is more up to speed and we have a more settled midfield with energy plus Diaz and Jota are back to get teams going the other way he’s not having to run so much. So when the ball is played in behind he’s got the energy to deal with it. He actually started to look much better towards the end of last season after Diaz and Jota returned from injury hence why we went on an unbeaten run at the end of last season. The team was just functioning better as a whole.
As captain this is now his team along with Trent and both have stepped up to the challenge. It’s great to see.
16 Nov 2023 09:00:14
Hey guys, cool down. Its only 1 game. How many shxtyy games did VVD played last season? I reserved my comments after 10 games with similar performance.
16 Nov 2023 10:30:31
He has stepped up and into the void left by Henderson and Milner from a leadership perspective. He looks to be thriving in his new role and he appears to trust his body a bit more now. Stoked for him!
Difficult to believe there was a clamour to sell him to fund a replacement in the summer.
That pass to Salah on Sunday. Just wow.
16 Nov 2023 09:16:19
Last season he looked worse as the defence got no protection, with Henderson, Fabinho and Milner running in treacle.
16 Nov 2023 17:36:20
You're a cheery soul, Leek.
16 Nov 2023 21:24:39
Lee, it's you who needs to cool down. Read the thread. Everybody is talking about his improvement since last season. And he's clearly had 10 good games, some of them excellent; it's your problem if you don't watch.
17 Nov 2023 13:47:25
Fair play to VVD for stepping up and improving his game.