Virgil van Dijk is the world’s best defender and perhaps even the reason Liverpool had the edge over Manchester City throughout 2019/20. Our professionals analyse why 👇
Van Dijk anticipates danger and makes interceptions far more often than tackles. He trusts his judgement and will move towards play to steal the ball ahead of an opponent whenever possible #LFC
He is by a distance Liverpool’s greatest asset from dead balls. They therefore set up to try and create a situation in which Van Dijk can thrive #LFC
Van Dijk is rarely dribbled past, so Liverpool can afford to be daring with their positioning. That can sometimes even be problematic, with Van Dijk so intent on holding a high line that he can be caught out taking a high-risk approach in stepping forwards #LFC
Van Dijk is a constant source of information, reassurance and encouragement to his defensive teammates – a quality that has been missing since the departures of Sami Hyypiä and Jamie Carragher, and which will also have helped Alisson to settle as well as he has at Anfield #LFC
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Spain used a 4-3-3 structure and built play patiently from the back, despite Germany pressing aggressively from their 4-2-3-1. They moved the ball around the back line to isolate Thomas Müller, before a centre-back stepped out with the ball into midfield... 🧐🧵
Olmo continued to move inside and Asensio dropped deep, in the process pulling Süle out of his position in Germany’s back line. This helped Spain to build out from the back and get around Germany’s increasingly effective high press... 🧐🧵
Traditionally, full-backs are the widest players in a back four, and as a result they attack and defend mostly in the wide areas. However, full-backs who move inside into central spaces are known as ‘inverted full-backs’. This movement adds an extra presence centrally... ↩️🧐
Although Pep Guardiola is the coach most associated with the inverted full-back, Johan Cruyff used them with Barcelona many years before. Then, he often converted the 4-3-3 into a 3-4-3 diamond, with one full-back inverting into central midfield... ↩️🧐
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Busquets dropped into defence to draw one of Madrid’s central midfielders up, and Pedri drifted wider to drag the other out. This often left De Jong as the free man to receive in the inside channel when Barcelona’s back line could access him... 🧐🧵
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