Good interview he did last night. He comes across a really intelligent guy. Nice to see someone interview with a sense of humour and not just throw out bog standard 1 sentence generic answers
Van Dijks ability on the ball, combined with his heading ability will be virtually impossible to replace unless you spend an absolute bucket load of cash, and even then I can’t think of a similar replacement tbh.
I've seen several pundits calling him the best CB in world football. Bit of an extravagant claim imo, but he's certainly up there amongst the best. We can't replace him in the short term so we have to reorganise. We won't be as solid, that's for sure - we'll concede a few, so we'll just have to score more.
I actually think Thiago is more than capable of making up the difference in both directions but normally when I am optimistic is ****s royally up
I think until Feb / March this year he likely was tbph. Who was better than him? Since then imo his form has waned a bit, and he’s looked human again.
We're not going to replace him, no other defender like him, certainly not one that we could afford or would be willing to join. We've got to look forward and do the best we can. Imo, an organiser is essential in the backline and none of our other defenders can do it.
Whether you try and bring someone in or not will likely depend on how you get on without him between now and the year end. You might be forced to, if you get any more injuries in that position or Matip in particular struggles to play 2 games a week, week in week out.
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Agree with Tobes - Coady is really good in 3 man defence but hopeless in a back 4. Need to steer clear of that one. VVD is the best CB in the world and it's not even close. He may not have been at the same level as 17-19 but his current level is still head and shoulders above anyone else. We simply cannot replace him so instead we will need to adapt - either we sack off the defence and we just go all out attack, we play a 4231 and provide more protection to the defence ... who knows.
With a fit Thiago, I agree that we can go 4-2-3-1. Without him, I don’t think we can as effectively....let’s hope he’s not out for too long or has any lasting damage.