{"id":289722,"date":"2023-09-13T11:34:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T11:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=289722"},"modified":"2023-09-13T11:34:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T11:34:30","slug":"jordan-pickford-is-responsible-for-the-downfall-of-virgil-van-dijk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/jordan-pickford-is-responsible-for-the-downfall-of-virgil-van-dijk\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Pickford &apos;is responsible for the downfall of Virgil van Dijk&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Jordan Pickford is &#8216;responsible&#8217; for the &#8216;demise&#8217; of Virgil van Dijk, claims Dutch journalist&#8230; after Liverpool star suffered serious knee injury during Merseyside derby clash in 2020<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Liverpool star suffered a cruciate ligament rupture back in October 2020\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Everton goalkeeper came out and clattered Liverpool&#8217;s van Dijk in the game<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A Dutch journalist has claimed that Jordan Pickford is &#8216;responsible&#8217; for the &#8216;demise&#8217; of Liverpool and Netherlands star Virgil van Dijk.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The central defender played the full 90 minutes on Sunday night as his national side cruised to a 2-1 win over the Republic of Ireland in their Euro 2024 qualifiers.<\/p>\n<p>It was a solid display from the Liverpool defender, who has struggled to reproduce the same form that saw him come runner-up in the Ballon d&#8217;Or voting back in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One key factor for that would be the knee injury van Dijk suffered in October 2020, which one journalist believes has had a lasting impact on the defender&#8217;s career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0journalist Henk Spaan, the Liverpool defender has not been the same player since picking up that injury in the Merseyside derby three years ago.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/13\/10\/75374823-12512729-image-a-7_1694597059365.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A Dutch journalist has claimed to have pin-pointed the reason for Virgil van Dijk&#8217;s &#8216;demise&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/13\/10\/75374777-12512729-image-a-8_1694597063810.jpg\" height=\"439\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Liverpool star spent nearly a year on the sidelines after a horror tackle from Pickford<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>In that match, Everton&#8217;s Pickford came surging out of his goal and clattered into Liverpool defender Van Dijk in a scissors motion, crunching the outstretched knee of the Dutchman.<\/p>\n<p>Van Dijk immediately collapsed in a heap and needed extensive treatment in the area, before having no option but to leave the field.<\/p>\n<p>It was an injury that left the 32-year-old sidelined for 254 days and one that has continued to trouble him since.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the issue, Spann said: &#8216;There was a moment on the sidelines against Ireland when Van Dijk was walked passed by an opponent he would once have laughed at and taken the ball from without wasting a drop of sweat.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Pickford&#8217;s tackle on Van Dijk during Everton-Liverpool was called a leg breaker by Peter Crouch\u00a0on live TV.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tony Cascarino compared Pickford to\u00a0Roy Keane, who ended the career of Haaland (who went on to play after the injury), the Manchester City striker&#8217;s father.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I did not comment on Van Dijk&#8217;s play with compassion on Twitter. I maintain that he&#8217;s no longer the designated captain of the Dutch national team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But it is certain that Pickford, who did not even receive a card before his attack, is responsible for the demise of Virgil&#8217;s career.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/13\/10\/34506494-12512729-Van_Dijk_suffered_a_horrific_knee_injury_in_the_Merseyside_derby-a-9_1694597088468.jpg\" height=\"404\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pickford completely missed the ball and crunched the knee of Liverpool defender van Dijk<\/p>\n<p>Other stars at the time, such as midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, chimed in to show support for the defender and claimed that Pickford&#8217;s tackle was &#8216;stupid&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The way Pickford went into the challenge was completely, in my opinion, stupid,&#8217; Wijnaldum said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I believe that he didn&#8217;t want to injure Virgil the way he injured him but the way he took the tackle, he didn&#8217;t care about what happened after the tackle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I think we had it a lot with the games against Everton. In my opinion, they take it way too far in the games we play against them&#8217;.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12512729\/Jordan-Pickford-responsible-downfall-Virgil-van-Dijk.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jordan Pickford is &#8216;responsible&#8217; for the &#8216;demise&#8217; of Virgil van Dijk, claims Dutch journalist&#8230; after Liverpool star suffered serious knee injury during Merseyside derby clash in 2020 The Liverpool star suffered a cruciate ligament rupture back in October 2020\u00a0 The Everton goalkeeper came out and clattered Liverpool&#8217;s van Dijk in the game Listen to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jordan Pickford &amp;apos;is responsible for the downfall of Virgil van Dijk&amp;apos; 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