this season
England Premier Soccer League
The best player, the
Liverpool (England)
of center back Virgil Van Dijk.
act as
Liverpool (England)
's starting middle linebacker, Van Dijk's leadership role on the defensive line can be described as
Liverpool (England)
The most important contributor to such a great performance this season, the season
Liverpool (England)
With leading attacker Salah in a slump and the midfield lineup suffering a slew of injuries in the first half of the season.
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This season has actually been about grabbing points all the way through the league on the back of exceptional defense.
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This season has produced a total of 21 Clean Sheets, 20 of which have come from Van Dijk. Of course goalkeeper Alisson has been instrumental, and across the defense
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Relying heavily on Van Dijk, who already has his place in soccer history as a center back in terms of size, speed, strength, defensive ability, and even attacking prowess, Van Dijk had a fantastic season, ultimately taking home the 2018/19
England Premier Soccer League
Best Player. This is actually the
England Premier Soccer League
The Player of the Season award is a historical anomaly, as it is often given to an attacking player or midfielder, and rarely to a center back. The award has been around for 46 years and only four defenders have won it in its history, the last one being John Terry in 04/05. In the current era of attacking soccer, it's very rare for a center back to win the award, which is a good indication that this season is going to be a good one.
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How good is the defense.
With a height of 193 centimeters and a weight of about 92 kilograms, Van Dijk is a heavy center back with a very good physique, but he is more than that. His movement is very agile, fast feet, often can be very beautiful to cut off the opponent's attacking ball, and from his often launched in the attack on the long pass and with the ball, can also see that his footwork is in fact very good, just in the center back of the defense area these actions are in fact to avoid, so Van Dijk's this feature is not very obvious to show.
The stats of defense in soccer are actually a big deal, and many times excellent stats don't mean that they are top defensive players, nor do they show the number of goals a team concedes. We can see that in
England Premier Soccer League
In the last defensive statistics in the official website, the best defenders in terms of tackles and headers, in fact, their team's goals conceded are not low, and they are not ranked in the top teams. This actually only represents a very simple situation, that is, the team is not in good shape, has been under siege, so the number of times the center back released very much, but in fact, the number of times the release again, as long as one or two times missed, often is to lose one or two points, so in many of the defender's defensive data, Van Dijk are not in the top five, but he is
England Premier Soccer League
Best player.
One of the most important factors is his ability to neutralize the opponent's attack in advance. In the game, you can see Van Dijk often leave Matip at the back and suddenly go up to the back of Fabinho's position to grab a header to the front, or break the ball along the center line and directly deliver it to the front, Van Dijk is a player with very high tactical vision, and he is also a very smart defender. He suddenly pressed forward at crucial moments, breaking up attacks before they could take shape and even turning them into counter-attacks, so naturally he didn't have to deal with the need to clear the ball.
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In the first half of the season, many of the main midfielders were injured, the replacement back Fabinho is actually not very fast, in the ability to drive the counterattack is also very weak, it is Van Dijk stepped up to rush to the back position, to take a large part of the work from the defense to the attack, which also let the
Liverpool (England)
The rest of the midfield will not have to drop back deep to support the defense, and will soon be able to convert into an attacking force again.
And with Van Dijk's high activity level, the
Liverpool (England)
The sweep at the back became so wide that the BOX from behind Fabinho until in front of goalie Alisoon was almost all wrapped up by Van Dijk. This also allowed the goalkeeper Alisson not to make too many saves, while the defenders Robertson and Arnold on both flanks were able to go up to the attack with confidence.
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Salah, the centerpiece of the offense this season, is in bad shape and is prone to dropping the ball, and if it's not for the wingbacks on both sides of the ball stepping up to support him.
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I'm afraid it's still hard to score so many goals, it's because Van Dijk is defending at the back and making long passes, so that the wingbacks can be free and don't even have to go back to the line, Van Dijk is not only excellent at defending, but also this season, he has been playing as the attacking point of the midfield to a large extent.
In Clearanses and Headed Clearance, two indicators of a defender's ability to make clearances and headers, Van Dijk led the team with 199 and 112, respectively.
England Premier Soccer League
But that's not the scariest thing about him, it's the fact that he has 244 Duels won and 78 Duels lost, a statistic that refers to two people running for the ball at the same time, i.e., chasing a live ball with an opposing attacker. Dijk only had 38 attempts, but had a 74% success rate, which represented
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The defense won't allow opposing offenses to succeed with the ball, so Tackles numbers are low. And for pass breakups and blocking jets, the
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Van Dijk has done a great job of breaking up or taking away the ball before the opponent receives it, which is a great thing to do in today's soccer, where passing is the main means of attack.
