Virgil van Dijk was the only Liverpool player worthy of this award after a poor performance at Anfield against Stoke.
A performance to be expected. After the explosive performance in midweek, I feel Liverpool fans had a hunch that this sort of result was going to come against relegation-threatened Stoke.
Paul Lambert has a fantastic record at Anfield, but Jürgen Klopp’s side was almost sluggish on Saturday and gave Lambert a very vital point in Stoke’s race to stay in the Premier League.
There was no stand out performances by any player in red. Pieters and Zouma were good for the visitors, but lots of Liverpool players were average.
The stars, Firmino and Salah must have their minds in Rome as this was one f their worst performances this season.
Wijnaldum, Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold put in a decent shift in midfield but none of them broke between lines or had the creativity of Oxlade-Chamberlain who was a very big miss.
Gomez had a poor game at right back and made too many mistakes throughout the game. While Moreno is no Andy Robertson in the left back position and just doesn’t seem to impress.
The only player who was stable for Liverpool was Virgil van Dijk. The former Southampton defender has had a very solid start to his Liverpool career and has become a fan favourite at the heart of the Liverpool defence.
The big Dutchman has certainly had better games than this, don’t get me wrong. He even passed the ball wayward a couple of times. However, he dominated Peter Crouch well and was an assured head in the Liverpool defence.
He’s always a danger from set pieces and even a big team like Stoke were aware of his presence in their own box, such a shame the deliveries weren’t any good.
He’s got a very good footballing brain and reads the game so well, sniffing out opposition attacks and stepping out of defence well when he needs to, getting Liverpool forward on the attack.
No way was this a vintage Van Dijk performance, or even a Liverpool one. But let’s hope for better from every single player in Rome on Wednesday.
