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Van Dijk - what do you do with him?


Born In The 80s

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A few months on from the summer (and after a handful of fairly average performances), I see the Van Dijk situation as being a big problem for us.

 

He seems moody on the pitch; even worse off it. But more importantly, he doesn't look anywhere near as commanding as he did this time last season. That is probably because he is going through the motions. I for one really don't think we can afford to have a guy like this in the side any longer. His defending for the second goal yesterday stank of someone who just didn't give a ****.

 

However, if you do drop him you his value could decrease.

 

Personally, I think it's time we have a look at a Hoedt/Yoshida CB pairing. Keeping hold of a player that doesn't want to be here (and playing him) is doing us no good.

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We have made our point. We should sell in January to anyone but Liverpool.

I think we have to get out of this 'anyone but Liverpool' mindset, we'll just end up cutting off our nose to spite our face. We sold Lovren & Clyne to Liverpool. Shaw & Schneidelin to Man U. It all backfired for them. It may well happen again. Football clubs just move on

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He’s been a ****ing disgrace.

 

Putting that aside it’s an interesting (possibilities?) look at what can happen when you force a player to stay. Obviously it can go either way, but for those who were very vocal about us bending over and taking it for Mané etc. this is how it can go wrong (see Fonte also).

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When you have a coaching team like we do then I don’t blame him wanting out.

His workload of protecting a **** keeper and having a team that scores NIL takes it’s toll on anybody.

I say free him or match his ambitions.

 

Free him as in let him go for a sensible fee and match his ambition,sorry were not capable of that right now so you can see where his heart is and its not here.Play Yoshida and Stephens as we had to last year.Hoedit or any other pairing just need time and confidence in the whole teams performance and not just 1 or 2 that might be bothered on the day.Basically were very poor and if were above the relegation zone at the beginning and end of march next year i think we could be safe if the points gap is good enough ,because if anyone has seen the fixture list in march ALL those fixture are big big games in the overall league as it stands right now and the teams now should be there or thereabouts then.

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No team whether in sport or business functions well with discontented individuals. just need to maximise the price and ideally not sell to Liverpool. I'm sure there will be other potential buyers. The current state of affairs is only made worse by having any player who doesn't want to part of the plan

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A few months on from the summer (and after a handful of fairly average performances), I see the Van Dijk situation as being a big problem for us.

 

He seems moody on the pitch; even worse off it. But more importantly, he doesn't look anywhere near as commanding as he did this time last season. That is probably because he is going through the motions. I for one really don't think we can afford to have a guy like this in the side any longer. His defending for the second goal yesterday stank of someone who just didn't give a ****.

 

However, if you do drop him you his value could decrease.

 

Personally, I think it's time we have a look at a Hoedt/Yoshida CB pairing. Keeping hold of a player that doesn't want to be here (and playing him) is doing us no good.

 

Simple - sell him for any offers £70M or more in Jan, and to anyone, yes including Liverpool. Invest the money in two top class replacements for Redmond and Tadic at around £35M each. Job done.

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I am obviously not party to exactly what went on over the summer but if there was any way we could have sold him for anything over £50 million – even to f****** Liverpool – then we should have done that and reinvested the money to strengthen the team in areas that needed strengthening. I don't care how good he is on his day; to see someone pulling on our shirt who has made it so blatantly obvious that he doesn't want to be here is extremely galling, and I hate to think what message it sends out to the players who have been dropped to accommodate him.

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I think it all depends on Beijings plans and transfer policy ! If were investing in the squad (and manager) keep him , If we're staying in the bread line jog him on and invest as much as we can in a whole new training staff (youth included) and a few new players !

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I am obviously not party to exactly what went on over the summer but if there was any way we could have sold him for anything over £50 million – even to f****** Liverpool – then we should have done that and reinvested the money to strengthen the team in areas that needed strengthening. I don't care how good he is on his day; to see someone pulling on our shirt who has made it so blatantly obvious that he doesn't want to be here is extremely galling, and I hate to think what message it sends out to the players who have been dropped to accommodate him.

Hoedt has already made it clear that he's pissed off. I feel even worse for Yoshida, who's been playing very well, and is a model professional who is being dropped to accommodate a **** with a polar opposite character.

Not to mention young Stephens, who's now completely out of the picture.

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Sell.

 

We all wanted to keep players, media say we lack ambition, but all you get when you force people to stay is demotivated underperforming players and a lack of team spirit.

 

Fans need to accept it a bit too. Modern players are spoilt beyond belief, often obsessed with money and fame, and often quite thick. So long as we sell and reinvest, it's fine.

 

Bertrand and VVD should go. They've been brilliant, now sell for £80-90m between them. We could still stay up without them, I think Targett and McQueen will be decent enough, Yoshida is fine. But i'm sure we'd reinvest, get another experienced CB and spend the money elsewhere. I think Targett gets underrated on here, he'll end up a decent player and wouldn't mind him stepping up IF we get an experienced CB with Hoedt to organise things.

 

Would happily sell VVD if it meant signing Cillessen or Romero to replace Forster, a CB and 2 wingers.

 

It is doubtful that selling or keeping van **** will make a scrap difference to our increasingly inept performances on the field under this manager. Not fair to lump Ryan in with the Dutchman 'though, he's been a great and loyal servant to our club and more than paid back the trust we put in him.

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It is doubtful that selling or keeping van **** will make a scrap difference to our increasingly inept performances on the field under this manager. Not fair to lump Ryan in with the Dutchman 'though, he's been a great and loyal servant to our club and more than paid back the trust we put in him.

 

Oh, come on. Bertrand has been here for just over 3 seasons and we resurrected his career which was going nowhere at the time. Calling him a great and loyal servant is completely OTT.

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To be fair he has started to look like his old self in some games right up until Pellegrino tells him to stay back and we start allowing the opposition to dominate the ball, you can visibly see all of the excitement to be playing again and the passion to drive the team forward drain out of him then. I don't blame him for an at times lifeless performance in a lifeless team where it's hard to see if any of them even have a pulse at times! The management at all levels in the club should be able to see this every week and be doing something to fix it.

 

I don't think Virgil is to blame for souring the team spirit, that is more to do with the fact that certain players get in the starting 11 every week regardless of their previous performances. I can only imagine how pee'd off those on the fringes are at being overlooked every week. That is what is causing the real friction in the squad!

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I tell him to keep doing what he's doing, except whatever he was doing for Liverpool's second. He's been our best player since he came back, with only Lemina even in the same book.

 

Tell him we'll sell him in the summer, and not before.

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He’s been a ****ing disgrace.

 

Putting that aside it’s an interesting (possibilities?) look at what can happen when you force a player to stay. Obviously it can go either way, but for those who were very vocal about us bending over and taking it for Mané etc. this is how it can go wrong (see Fonte also).

 

Weird how people see what they want. He's put in shedloads of last minute blocks, the only time I can say I thought he wasn't putting it in was in the U23 game against Villa, when everyone was awful, the back 4 got zero protection from midfield, and he was ambling back. Attitudes to playing in the reserves have always varied, but I could see why he wouldn't put in 100% there - not that it was acceptable. I also have no idea what he was doing for Salah's 2nd at Anfield, trying not to get into conspiracy theories on that one though.

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