Liverpool suffered a 2-1 defeat, at the hands of Manchester United.
Virgil van Dijk's questionable defending for the first
Manchester United goal has been widely mocked on social media.
In modern football, the switch from hero to villain, and back again, can be shorter that 90 minutes.
Take Lisandro Martinez and Raphaël Varane, for example. Last weekend, both were being written off or mocked after either under-performing in a 4-0 loss to Brentford or riding the pine for the worst of it.
Then, nine days later,
United beat Liverpool and both men are being lauded, along with young left-back Tyrrell Malacia:
https://twitter.com/ESPNFC/status/1562016926708137986
Remember, this tweet has been insanely liked after the defenders failed to keep a clean sheet against a Liverpool team without Diogo Jota or the suspended Darwin Nunez. Imagine the reaction if they keep Southampton scoreless, this weekend.
At Old Trafford, on Monday night, Virgil van Dijk
received a grilling from captain James Milner after his side went behind to an early Jadon Sancho goal.
https://twitter.com/broos_selasi/status/1561798342551764995?s=20&t=m0m12dpB_eA0qrvrC3zhQg
United, after losing their opening two games of the Premier League season, were the sharper of the sides at Old Trafford, and deservedly took the lead after 15 minutes.
A nice passing interchange between new United signings Tyrrell Malacia and Christian Eriksen teed up Sancho in the centre of the Liverpool box. Alisson committed himself to an early dive, and Milner slid in to block a shot that never came.
In between both men was Van Dijk. The Dutch centre-back stood with his arms behind his back and failed to close down Sancho before he slotted home.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1561795009975828483?s=20&t=yN-rEy8VnArYcljItdVvcQ
Unfortunately for Van Dijk his unusual way of defending, in particular the stance he took, has been ridiculed and transformed into memes.
Some of which are pretty brutal!
https://twitter.com/TomLevins1/status/1561803003023220738?s=20&t=87O4NVbs_wsD5KltLV2auw
https://twitter.com/Grov_esy/status/1561812198430736385?s=20&t=KSWaYor_uD-7ViAOtoEjhA
https://twitter.com/ErlingRoIe/status/1561829848640880642?s=20&t=T7wNsi1cGd_QY0gtOifQ_g
https://twitter.com/CFCRaf2/status/1561802081727647754?s=20&t=HQuLAQmVfoW5di_31tsBVw
https://twitter.com/rxlfpacked/status/1561795172018655232?s=20&t=fwsL1ZTEsfciT23IHS_baA
The only crumb of comfort for van Dijk is knowing that one good performance later and he will have plenty of social media stans ready to go to work on his behalf.
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