Liverpool told most ridiculous way yet to fix losing streak

A prominent journalist has urged Liverpool to make perhaps the stupidest selection decision of all time and Arne Slot will do well to dismiss such nonsense.

Liverpool are in a rut right now having lost four on the bounce in the Premier League. The 5-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt did not help to arrest their slide on the domestic scene, with the Reds outplayed in all departments by Brentford on Saturday.

Slot looks out of ideas on how to affect positive change right now. And according to journalist Jeremy Cross – who is the chief football writer for The Daily Star and also published by The Mirror and Liverpool Echo – Slot should completely lose his mind and drop Virgil van Dijk.

Cross’ headline in his piece for the Echo read: ‘Arne Slot must swallow his pride – it’s time for Liverpool to drop Virgil van Dijk.’

Explaining the mind-boggling claim, Cross stated: ‘The person most guilty of letting Liverpool down at the back is someone who appears immune from criticism in the red half of Merseyside.

‘It wasn’t too long ago Virgil van Dijk was considered the best centre back in the world. But right now, he isn’t even the best one in his own team.

‘But in the weekend loss at Brentford, there was little he (their mistake, not ours) Frenchman could do to stop Van Dijk from being exposed. The Dutchman was at fault for conceding a penalty for a naive trip on Dango Outarra (their mistake, not ours – it’s Ouattara).

‘And was nowhere to be seen when Kevin Schade ran through to double Branford’s (their mistake, not ours) lead before half time.

‘In short, this is nowhere near the standards Van Dijk expects of himself, or Slot and Liverpool expect of the 34-year-old.

‘Is age catching up with him? Or is the weight of all that cash he trousered from club bosses last season, in the shape of a new contract, slowing his speed down?

‘Van Dijk has looked a pale imitation of his firmer (their mistake, not ours) self this season. Dragged down by the poor form of Konate in general, and the failure of new signing Milos Kerkez, who resembles a rabbit in the headlights when it comes to dealing with the frantic pace of English football.

‘Slot has made some big calls in recent weeks, including dropping the likes of Mo Salah and Florian Wirtz.

‘But does he have the courage to make the ultimate one – and leave out his captain foe (their mistake, not ours) the visit of Aston Villa this coming weekend?

‘The mere thought is almost unimaginable. But then again, so was the prospect of Liverpool losing four league games on the spin.

‘[Manchester] United are now above them in the table, which will feel humiliating to the English champions. So drastic times call for drastic measures.

‘Perhaps a break would do Van Dijk good. Give him the chance to re-evaluate his game and work out what is not working.

‘Like Salah, Van Dijk could be lacking motivation. But if Liverpool aren’t careful, they will lack something much more important. A realistic chance to overhaul Arsenal in the title race.’

Biggest load of rubbish we’ve seen in a long time

The fact the copy is overflowing with errors (Branford? Come on…) tells you all you need to know and a claim as mindless as this one almost doesn’t bear justifying with a response. Clearly, it’s been a slow week for clicks at the Echo.

Van Dijk is Liverpool’s true leader, both on and off the pitch. And while it’s fair to say he’s not been at his usual level this season, very few in a Red shirt have.

Slot has openly admitted the issues facing his side right now are an inability to win enough duels, failure to deal with long balls, failure to defend set pieces, and the attack’s inability to break down a low block.

Sticking solely to Van Dijk, he is in the top 10 percent of all Premier League centre-halves this season for both duels won per 90 and aerial duels won per 90.

His centre-back partner, Ibrahima Konate, isn’t in the top 10 percent for either and isn’t even in the top 20 percent for aerial duels won per 90.

We could list all the other metrics in which Van Dijk is outperforming Konate this season but our servers aren’t large enough to support that length of article.

Recency bias is clearly in play here for Cross, given it was just a few short weeks ago the consensus was Konate’s head was turned by links to Real Madrid amid shambolic form from the Frenchman.

In truth, NEITHER of Liverpool’s centre-backs needs to be relegated to the bench right now – such a decision would be counter-productive in the extreme. This is just mischief-making from a journalist who is capitalising on a time when emotions are running high at Anfield and there’s a desire to pile on.

It’s also not the only time in recent days a ludicrous claim about Liverpool has been made.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Jeff Stelling claimed the player Liverpool are missing most right now is 35-year-old Jordan Henderson…

Liverpool let Henderson go over two years ago and won the Premier League title without him last year.

It’s silly season with regards to writing about Liverpool right now and don’t be surprised if the next article you read suggests re-hiring Roy Hodgson or fielding Jeremie Frimpong in goal.

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