Virgil van Dijk branded 'overrated' and 'rubbish' by former Chelsea player after Fulham win

Virgil van Dijk was branded overrated and rubbish after Liverpool’s win over Fulham.

The Reds welcomed Marco Silva’s men to Anfield for the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday night.

Liverpool fell behind in the 19th minute after a rare mistake from Van Dijk allowed Willian to score inside the penalty area.

In the second half, Jurgen Klopp’s team dug deep as goals from Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo secured a 2-1 victory ahead of the second leg.

After the match, former Chelsea player Jason Cundy was critical of Van Dijk’s performance during a scathing assessment.

He said on talkSPORT: “He can do this van Dijk. Sometimes he puts in displays where you go ‘that’s a bit rubbish’.

“Not only does he head the ball in a direction that you don’t want him to. Personally, I think he is overrated.”

Cundy added: “I don’t think he is anywhere near the levels, consistently, of the likes of Sol Campbell, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand. I don’t think he is anywhere near that, personally.

“He’s had two good seasons. I know people will go on about the injury he picked up against Everton during COVID. It was a terrible injury. There’s no doubt he is top-class. But I don’t think he’s in that all-time Premier League XI. He is nowhere near it.”

Van Dijk joined Liverpool from Southampton for a reported fee of £75 million back in 2018.

Since then, the Dutchman became an integral part of Liverpool’s side who won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and FA Community Shield.

During the season in which Liverpool were the defending champions, Van Dijk suffered a season-ending ACL injury after a horror challenge from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

In recent months, the 32-year-old has been playing much closer to his best as Liverpool currently sit top of the Premier League table.