Liverpool: Virgil van Dijk oozed confidence in his Liverpool debut

Virgil van Dijk capped off his Liverpool debut with a late winner against Everton in the FA Cup installment of the Merseyside derby to send the Reds into the fourth round of the competition.

His headed goal off of an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain corner kick in the 84th minute sent Anfield into an absolute delirium, instantaneously cementing himself into Liverpool folklore; you simply could not have written a better script for the Dutch international on his debut.

As news has just broke regarding Philippe Coutinho’s imminent transfer to Barcelona for a reported fee of around £142m after add-ons, Liverpool fans should take some solace in the fact that Van Dijk looked so confident in his debut, let alone the fact that the £75m deal for the center back was finally completed; a testament to Jurgen Klopp’s resiliency and resolve.

With the way Van Dijk performed just days after being officially announced as a Liverpool player, the future looks bright and suggests that Klopp and his staff have a very clear mindset with the players they want to bring in to their system and how they can best utlitzie them.

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Van Dijk’s contribution to the game:

On to the stats sheet, Van Dijk’s dominance in his aerial duels against Everton was perhaps one of the most glaring facets that stood out from his performance, having won all eight of his defensive aerial jousts; the most of any other player on the pitch, with the next best being Everton’s Phil Jagielka (six).

Van Dijk was constantly being harassed by the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Wayne Rooney, Yannick Bolasie, and/or Gylfi Sigurdsson when he would go up to win headers in Liverpool’s defensive third, but used his strength and clever body positioning to his advantage, sticking to his task well.  He arguably could’ve been given a handful of calls with the way Everton’s attacking players were trying to rattle him, but the referee was hesitant to whistle anything in favor of the 6′ 4″ center back.

You could see just how much the goal, and the win, meant to him:

In addition to his incredible aerial prowess, Van Dijk also recorded three interceptions, the most of any Liverpool player, and four clearances; second [on Liverpool] only to Joel Matip, who recorded six.  His anticipation an reading of the game always saw that he was in the right area to cut out Everton’s attacks, and at the very least, cut down the angles enough to prevent them from getting shots off – he was hardly at fault for Sigurdsson’s goal as the majority of Liverpool’s players were caught too far up field after Everton had won possession following a corner kick.

The defensive stability he provided, especially in his first match in Liverpool’s starting eleven, was quite an encouraging look into what the future holds for the Reds. Grabbing his late winner was a dream-come-true bonus, but also points to how much of a weapon he can be on set pieces, which should come as no surprise.