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Virgil van Dijk is being called 'Van Disney' on social media after a poor performance in Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Fulham.
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The Reds came from behind twice at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon and van Dijk had a torrid time against Alexsandar Mitrovic.
The Serbia international scored a brace and was a thorn in the side of Liverpool's defence for the full 90 minutes.
During the second half Mitrovic managed to body Jordan Henderson and have a run at van Dijk, who failed to dispossess his opponent.
Van Dijk is regarded as one of the best one-on-one defenders in world football and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Mitrovic.
Henderson violated and Van Disney getting spun 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/FhmcVu6kEg
— 👨🏽💻 (@supremiIe) August 6, 2022
Unfortunately for him, Mitrovic was back for more in the 72nd minute and van Dijk brought the Serbia international down in the penalty area and referee Andy Madley pointed to the spot.
Liverpool players were furious with the decision but van Dijk knew he'd made a mistake.
It is the first time van Dijk had been dribbled past by an opponent and conceded a penalty in a single Premier League game since joining joining Liverpool back in 2018.
Aleksandar Mitrović is loving it out there! ⚽️⚽️
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) August 6, 2022
He tucks home the penalty he won to restore Fulham's advantage 👌
What a day for the newly promoted side so far! pic.twitter.com/4gZPTQu9B7
Mitrovic stepped up and put his spot kick past Alisson, giving Fulham the lead for a second time.
Cameras cut to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on the sidelines and he looked less than pleased.
Supporters online have reacted to van Dijk's performance and his new nickname of 'Van Disney' trended worldwide.
You can check out some of the tweets below.
Mitrovic to Van Disney
— Steve Arnott (@LaPiochey) August 6, 2022
pic.twitter.com/H9BuMcpAiW
Mitrovic has had Van Disney on strings all game 😭
— Mod (@CFCMod_) August 6, 2022
Nobody gonna talk about that Van Disney disasterclass? Mitrovic had him on strings all game 😭 pic.twitter.com/Uysq5acohp
— Dylan (@mcfcdylan_) August 6, 2022
Van Disney pic.twitter.com/cuwtDBvlz9
— King™️ (@UTDxKing) August 6, 2022
They tried to compare Van Disney to Maldini! You’ll pay for your sins!!
— JonnyUtd (@JonnyFX1) August 6, 2022
Van Disney tryna use his aura on Mitrovic pic.twitter.com/XAH3xjKIw1
— CFC_Fareed (@dinoyi_) August 6, 2022
Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah scored equalisers after each of Mitrovic's strikes to ensure the points were shared.
Liverpool looked off the pace compared to last weekend's Community Shield victory over Manchester City.
A number of players were missing through injury and Thiago went off with a suspected hamstring injury.
Klopp told BT Sport in his post-match interview: "The best thing about the game is the result, that we get a point from a really bad game from my side. The attitude was not right in the beginning, we wanted to fight back but we don't find it as easy any more.
"The result is fine, we don't deserve more than that but the performance is massively improvable."
Featured Image Credit: Premier League
Topics: Liverpool, Virgil Van Dijk, Fulham, Premier League